'98 Taurus wagon antenna cable routing

[K-Man]

All right, gang, just got a replacement aftermarket radio/cassette/CD player and the complete adapter kit including antenna cable for my "new" 1998 Taurus wagon. I have the factory shop and electrical manuals and the Haynes manual for this car. Now I need some advice.

It's getting warmer and I want to install the new head unit. Did this on my old Escort with few problems, even though like the Taurus it required an adapter to carry the ventilation controls. That part isn't my worry.

Unlike the Escort, which had a conventional antenna cable going to the factory radio that simply plugged into the new unit when the time came, the Taurus is different. Its factory radio has a rear chassis unit by the spare tire that the antenna plugs into, so I must run the replacement antenna cable to the new radio in the dashboard all the way from the spare tire well.

It appears that this is going to be a real pain and involve removing the left doors' scuff covers to run the cable and then snaking it under the dash. I'm seriously thinking of simply running the cable out in the open beside the center tunnel after it leaves the cargo area by routing it under the rear seat cushion.

Any thoughts or advice on this "little" operation?

 

[shoz123]

The door sill plates are easy to take off and will hold the cable.

 

[The_Jeff]

Be wary of running the antenna cable by other wiring-- in particular the fuel pump wire. Could pick up miscellaneous interference.

Might want to lose the door sill covers on BOTH sides, pull the carpet back a little, and choose a route with minimal other wiring.

 

[oilboy123]

Run it down the drivers side. I have done two stereo installs, mine had a CD changer till it went out.

My car is a 98 Taurus, and my daughters a 96 around Christmas 06. Both sedans. I ran the harness, CD changer and antenna on my 98 plenty of room.

I owned a 96 Sable wagon but did not do a stereo install on it.

It’s the best way to go. Just remove the sills. I am not sure on where the tuner is in the rear of the wagons. I used wire convoluted cover under the dash to run the stereo wiring. It works very well.

 

[K-Man]

Got the stereo installed. The replacement harness and antenna cable extension both had to run from the left rear corner of the car to the dashboard. After wrapping both together in the plastic wiring loom protector the whole length, it was actually fairly easy to hide the new wiring, since there was actually enough space under the plastic sill guards to tuck it in.

The only glitch was just behind and under the rear seatback, and a very small segment is exposed in the corner of the cargo area just behind the seat back. No one would normally notice it, though. If I had been willing to get a little crazier with the installation, I suppose I could have rerouted that small segment, but I'm happy with the end result.

Still trying to figure out Ford's thinking. The dash controls were a slave unit and the rear-mounted chassis unit the master unit, but the slave portion was as large as a conventional radio would have been by itself. And for having two different components of fairly good size for the radio/cassette electronics, the factory unit sure sounded muddy. (The factory unit in my old Escort, which also came packaged with the climate controls, also was muddy.) To have been as complex as it was, it should have sounded better.

The only reason I can think of for having a rear chassis unit was to avoid having to run the antenna cable to the dash area, but this explanation wouldn't seem to make much sense when you look at the wiring complications resulting from having the radio effectively split in two.

With the existing factory speakers, the new head unit sounds a whole lot better and gives better bass. Had pondered changing at least the front speakers but think I'll just leave them alone.

If you're wondering, the new unit is a Sanyo FXCD-550, which has AM/FM, CD, and cassette all in a DIN-sized unit. It also has provisions to hook up an amp and a CD changer if I get adventureous down the road. I'm one of these Neanderthals who wants to keep playing his cassettes and his newer CDs. (A previous version, the FXCD-500, usually worked well in the Escort, but had some occasional electronic glitches with the CD.) So far, so good with this new one. Also used an American International adapter kit for the Taurus, which had everything needed. Had problems with the Scosche adapter kit used in the old Escort, including having to cut and splice the actual car wiring, and the AI kit is engineered far better.

 

[brianl703]

They could probably use different master units for "better" sound, plus, this makes it easier to add a CD changer since it only needs to be wired to the master unit, not all the way to the front of the car.

 

[K-Man]

That's probably it, BrianL703. Ford had at least two different stereo options in the Taurus, with one being a premium unit with an optional CD changer. The CD changer would also have been mounted in the rear next to the master unit, according to the factory shop manual.

All of this still poses the question of why all the electronics except for the bulky CD changer couldn't have been in one place (dashboard)—and sounded better on top of that. The difference in sound with the new head unit, still using the factory speakers, is night and day.

 

[JMK]

I have done tons of this body style ford, straight up the drivers side of the car, if you just lift up the bottom of the seat cushion you can hide that last little bit. I know what your talking about. I never use the AI pieces, I use Metra and the wiring harness and antenna extention cable are already bonded together making it easier. One bad spot on these dash kits for these cars is the rear defroster switch in the new dash bezel. If yours works as it should consider yourself lucky.

 

[K-Man]

The exposed section is in the very front corner of the cargo area. The part of the wiring harness that runs through the passenger section is totally hidden, as I had the back seat bottom cushion completely removed to be able to tuck it under the sash panels. Hiding the exposed couple of inches would have required removing the rear seat back, which I really didn't wanna do because of the PITA factor.

Thanks for the tip on Metra. I had heard that it was a "cheap" kit like Scosche, but perhaps my info was bad. My only gripe on the AI kit was that it used the same cheap little defroster switch as the Scosche kit for the Escort. Had related electrical problems requiring troubleshooting after installing the Taurus kit and finally got the switch to work properly, but with a blown bulb. The problems were (1) the wires coming off the switch when stuffing everything in the dashboard and (2) a bad connection at one of the connectors caused by a wire pushing out when the connector halves were mated. All of this is the result of a tight installation with all the harnesses in the dash up against the replacement head unit.

A little jerry-rigging went a long way to get everything working. I removed the right side clip to be able to remove the adapter from the dash quickly if there is any problem, since the clips made the installation too tight before. Everything is staying in place just fine with no movement, since the adapter has a tongue on top helping to hold it in place.

Have to say that when I ran into a small snag, AI returned my call immediately. When I had a snag installing the Scosche kit in the Escort years ago, Scosche never returned the call, but I was able to figure out the problem without its help.

 

[JMK]

Good to hear you got it all going good. haha I know what you mean about the "tucking" in the dash. Now for your next task go find a older body style "S" truck and put in a DIN unit with a 1/2 DIN eq, with 3 pairs of RCA's, din cable for a CD changer, antenna adapter. After that one you would do your car for fun. LOL

I think Metra is still supplier to about most of the stereo shops. But the choice people have on their hardware parts is like peoples choice on oil or vehicle makes, if there was one 'best' one there would be no other choices. I use alot of things from different manufactures, I am loyal to no one, I use what is best for that application.