Power running board upgrade?

[Gregg Eshelman]

Since the power folding running boards only came with the fancy entertainment etc package, has anyone managed to install them as an upgrade on a Expedition without sync etc?

 

[Adieu]

Since the power folding running boards only came with the fancy entertainment etc package, has anyone managed to install them as an upgrade on a Expedition without sync etc?

They suck.

My gator has em and I haaaaate the things


PS and another consideration: they would cost ~$4 - 5k plus labor

 

[Gregg Eshelman]

My labor for projects for myself is free. Looking on car-part.com I find them as low as $300, but no indication if they're the standard or long length.

 

[Adieu]

My labor for projects for myself is free. Looking on car-part.com I find them as low as $300, but no indication if they're the standard or long length.

That....is highly unlikely to be functioning.

See, the motors are capricious, and fixes of $1-2k per side are the norm

 

[Gary Waugh]

I am surprised to hear of all the problems, I but my Expy new in 2007 with the retracting running boards, the car has spent 4 years in wet Seattle weather (parked outside) and the rest of the time in Texas (also parked outside) and I have never had any problems, they still work as well today as they did when I first bought the car, i have never done anything to them, I like the tidy appearance that they give the car, Not sure I would spend money to get them fitted after market, but really like that they came with the car.. Car has done just over 140K miles..

Gary

 

[star-art]

I'd also like to know if anyone has installed these aftermarket. Apparently Ford uses AMP power running boards for OEM equipment (or, at least they used to as the threads I were reading on the subject dated back to 2011).

 

[Gary Waugh]

I would be concerned by the amount of additional wiring that needs to be added. Having said in 10 years I have never had a problem, this weekend the drivers side packed up. I purchased a replacement motor unit form eBay ($70) and installed it, very easy to do and $70 seemed a good price to me, but I noticed there are 5 wires going to each motor unit, so you need to run 10 additional wires (5 to each side of the car) if you fit aftermarket units!! I assume the ford wiring is not present if you didn't have the retracting running boards from new. The eBay motor unit is a lot lighter than the original ford motor unit, but my Expedition is a 2008 model, so Ford may have made the units much lighter in the last 10 years, but the new units are so much quieter than my old units!! I am thinking about changing the passenger side motor unit just because the motors are so much quieter (The passenger side has seen far less use than the drivers side and works perfectly, just the motor unit is mechanically noisy!) but I hate to change something when it still works fine.

Gary

 

[star-art]

Yes, wiring won't be fun but it's not terrible, either, as evidenced by some installation videos that are available on YouTube. Assuming you install the same quality parts, the only difference between an aftermarket retrofit and getting a truck with OEM units would be the integration of the controls into the vehicle computer network. You would lose things like settings in the instrument cluster (auto vs off). The AMP units come with a module to control them that taps into the Body Control Module (SJB) behind the right kick panel.

 

[Gregg Eshelman]

There must be some end stop switches and obstruction sense feedback in the motor units. Some cheap little microcontroller board like an Arduino ought to be adaptable to interfacing with everything. Use the light switches for the doors as the open/close trigger. Add a disable switch too.

 

[star-art]

Don't tap the lights circuit as you would not get independent control per side. Each door has its own "door ajar" switch. Wiring in parallel with both driver's side door ajar switches (using diodes for isolation) would trigger the left running board. Wiring in parallel with both passenger door ajar switches would trigger the right running board.