Ford Transit Mk7 : Rear Speakers

[Robinhood]

Having booked my new Transit-based Hobby in for the recall on the intercooler hose for today, I also asked them to look at the fader on the Ford radio, which was disabled. (balance functioned, but fader had no effect)

 

The Mk7 'Camper' chassis is (logically) fitted with only two (door) speakers at the factory, and apparently leaving the fader functioning throws up a fault code (the new Canbus systems have a lot to answer for) so it is deliberately disabled at the factory.

 

(the above info came from the 'converters manual', which is downloadable from the Ford Etis site, and it also says that if extra speakers are subsequently fitted, the fader can be enabled by a dealer).

 

Dealer hadn't heard of this, but I left a print of the page with them, and lo and behold, when I returned, the recall had been done, the engine software had been updated, AND, the fader was working.

 

Even better, they didn't charge me (though I potentially expected a charge for the fader - it isn't a warranty item). I suspect that it was done whilst attached to ther computer for the software upgrade - but it was still nice to be told "we should probably have charged you, but it's been put through free".

 

Other Mk7 users with a non-functioning fader may wish to know it can be fixed. Ideally on mine, whilst travelling the rear speakers need fading down a bit, or it's a bit loud in the back for passengers.

[chris]

Our new van is coming (hopefully) on Saturday and I made a special request the all upgrades are done at the PDI. Hope all this gets done.

Chris

[Robinhood]

Might be worth asking specifically if speakers have been installed in the rear.

 

The Ford BEMM (converters) manual is specific about it being disabled at the factory, and my Ford dealer (who I find pretty good - I have a Ford car) just expected it to work with 4 speakers, until I showed them the excerpt.

 

Don't know what they did - simply had a comment on the returned job sheet with "Fader now works!!!!" (their exclamation marks) - so they obviously learnt something.

 

Of course, it may already have been done, you may have no rear speakers, or you may not have the standard Ford radio. (Mine looks like it was PDI'd in Germany on leaving the factory, so it wasn't done then).

 

It may also be that it has been done on other vans similar to mine, but mine missed out - I don't have any contacts to compare with.

 

It never ceases to amaze me what doesn't get done, however. On this year's Hobby vans a Blaupunkt Travelpilot Satnav was provided as standard, with a permanent docking station on the dash which allows it to be also used as the monitor for a Reversing Camera.

 

It's actually quite a good unit now I've got to grips with it, (the manual is abysmal) and it will play MP3 (the Ford radio won't - but it does have an Aux in which would take the output from the Satnav but for the fact that when it is in the docking station, that output is obscured, and you can't put the jack in) >:-( .

 

I was most annoyed, until I worked out that the docking station was not only wired for power and the camera, but also for sound output (but the wires for sound had simply been taped up somewhere below the dash).

 

Working without the installation manual wasn't easy, but investing in a pre-wired jack and a connector block (a couple of £s) now has the output from the docked Satnav plugged into the Aux-in for the radio (which is in the glovebox - so neat). Plays MP3 whilst also navigating, and the navigation instructions are played through the radio as the MP3 mutes.

 

So easy to do, I just don't see why it didn't come from Hobby like that (and this is where I find that everyone else's did).

 

It wouldn't be such a fun pastime (deliberately avoided the word 'hobby') if there wasn't always something to play with though. B-)