Car audio - any advice appreciated

solmend

I've got a 10 year old Ford Focus which had bluetooth but it doesn't currently work. At the same time the USB input and the aux input (both of these are situated seperately from the main radio and CD player) have stopped working too. I'm thinking that this can't just be a bluetooth issue for the AUX and USB to not work as well.The local garage have told me it'll cost about £70 to do a diagnostic on this but can't promise anything. Has anyone come across anything like this - I'd rather have some understanding of the issue before I end up paying for a diagnostic which tells me the system's shot and I need to get a new one! Thanks.

Carrot007

I'm sure you could get a direct replacement on ebay for very cheap. Probably around 6 for £70!

Remember to get some release tools if you have none (also very cheap).

solmend

As I said, the USB socket and AUX socket are separate from the main unit. The main unit also works fine for radio and CD's. I'm looking for soneone with car audio experience who can tell me more than just "buy a new one." If I did so, and the aux and bluetooth still didn't work then I would have wasted the money. So I'm looking for advice first - perhaps someone has come across the same thing and can explain what they did.

iainscomputer

The easiest way is to just change the head unit, this could be a 2nd hand unit which is the same or an aftermarket upgrade. I changed my factory head unit for a double din Alpine with touch screen sat nav, it is fantastic.
Just route the USB cable into the glove box or centre console arm rest & the previous USB will be redundant.
When you sell the car this can be removed & used in another car or sold.
They are all plug & play, but you might need a SOT cab,e to convert the Ford wiring into the generic ISO connectors, it is very easy.

AdrianC

solmend said:

I'm looking for soneone with car audio experience who can tell me more than just "buy a new one." If I did so, and the aux and bluetooth still didn't work then I would have wasted the money.

There's two choices for "buy a new one".

1. Replace the standard head unit with an identical replacement. The USB and AUX sockets are probably just effectively extension cables, rather than different modules, so if the issue is the head unit, all is good.

2. Replace the standard head unit with an aftermarket replacement. The USB and AUX sockets would be within the new head unit itself, so the standard ones would simply become redundant.

B'sides, if Bluetooth is working. are those sockets actually required? USB to charge, perhaps, but a cheap adaptor in the ciggy socket will almost certainly deliver more power enabling faster charging anyway.

peter3hg

Fords of that era have a separate bluetooth module that the USB and AUX plug in to. It is a common fault for all three to fail at once if the module fails or crashes.
Replacing the head unit is unlikely to fix the problem.

The easiest thing to try is to disconnect the negative terminal of your battery and leave it disconnected for half an hour. This will cause a total reset of the module which may fix it.
If it doesn't you will probably need a new module.
It will be similar to this https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/1409809116 and usually located behind the glovebox, but you will need to match the exact model number for your vehicle.