4" to 6.5" rear speaker upgrade

My understanding is the factory settings are to send low power highs only to the rear. Will have to enable the full sound via forscan or have the dealer “flash” it for the soundbar. I’m curious how you mounted the 6 1/2 in the rear would love to do that. I replaced all my speakers with kicker ks series and is much clearer but definitely still lacking bass.

@dover157 is correct.

There is a high-pass filter on the rear pod speakers from the head unit. You have to reconfigure the audio controller to get it to send the full frequency range. This can be done with FDRS or Forscan.

RagnarKon

@dover157 is correct

Yay I got one right!!! 😂

Bronco1973

1. 9
   1. Hello B-Nation,

If anyone can help me it's the Bronco Nation. I feel like I'm going in circles.
I upgraded my rear 4" speakers to 6.5" Rockford Fosgate coaxial It is a plug and play pod.
There is zero bass or mid-bass.
Is it wired to play highs only?
The stock kick panel 6.5" has more thump. Without putting an amp at this time what can I do?
Is there any options?
I'm not expecting 10" bass out of a 6.5 ".
Thank you advance

This video helps explain the Forscan thing pretty well, just fast forward to almost exactly 15 minutes in:

dover157

My understanding is the factory settings are to send low power highs only to the rear. Will have to enable the full sound via forscan or have the dealer “flash” it for the soundbar. I’m curious how you mounted the 6 1/2 in the rear would love to do that. I replaced all my speakers with kicker ks series and is much clearer but definitely still lacking bass.

The company that makes the 6.5" pods is SSV WORKS

1973 if you laid out $350 for those pods you may want some power to drive them. I installed kit 11 from Plug n play, included is the 200.4 amp which is an easy install with their harness. There is NO cutting or splicing of wires.
I installed upgraded 4" infinity 120w speaker in the back with 300 ohm bass blockers which was also an easy install, but since you have new 6.5", I recommend getting the amp. There are posts on how to do this, but I will post one with pictures if you want. I have not done the Forscan mod yet, but the Key software that comes with the amp (includes a microphone with instructions) will wake up your back speakers, it did mine. Hope that helps you decide. What is posted so far is all correct btw from my experience.

dover157

My understanding is the factory settings are to send low power highs only to the rear. Will have to enable the full sound via forscan or have the dealer “flash” it for the soundbar. I’m curious how you mounted the 6 1/2 in the rear would love to do that. I replaced all my speakers with kicker ks series and is much clearer but definitely still lacking bass.

The company that makes the 6.5" pods is SSV WORKS

Bronco1973

The company that makes the 6.5" pods is SSV WORKS

Will my Ford dealership do this Scan for me?
What does it cost?

RagnarKon

@dover157 is correct.

There is a high-pass filter on the rear pod speakers from the head unit. You have to reconfigure the audio controller to get it to send the full frequency range. This can be done with FDRS or Forscan.

Can dealership do this Forscan?
Will the dealership know what I'm talking about?

Bronco1973

Can dealership do this Forscan?
Will the dealership know what I'm talking about?

My guess is, you will NOT find a dealership to do the Forscan for you. And to be honest, it's scary, but not that hard.

I agree with what was said above, I myself did the audio changes in Forscan and it made things a lot louder. I also have the Kicker Key amp, which was installed, until my Plug & Play harness went on me. Had the harness repaired by Plug & Play and just never put it back in because the Forscan change was good enough for me.

Also, on another note, IF you can find a dealership to do the audio flash for the JBL soundbar (not sure how that goes for '22 & 23' models), that will give you better sound than what you can achieve in Forscan. I don't know why, but it does. Dealerships typically have done this flash for around $100, but they are few and far between. And most I talked to wouldn't do it unless you had the soundbar.

So to summarize, Forscan would run you about $50 (for ODBII) and $10 for software (Forscan), or get the 30 day trial on it. It's not as bad as you expect, and plenty of videos on this stuff.

Bronco1973

Can dealership do this Forscan?
Will the dealership know what I'm talking about?

The dealership would do it with FDRS.

Forscan is a tool written by a guy in Russia that was originally used to help fellow Russians repair their Ford vehicles that are sold there. (Or used to be sold there I guess, war sanctions stopped the sale of Ford vehicles.) Dealers have access to FDRS (Ford Diagnostic and Repair System), which is the official Ford tool. Although many Ford technicians are aware Forscan exists and they use it in their personal lives.

Anyway… I don’t know if dealerships would do that kind of work for you or not. Doesn’t hurt to ask I suppose. I imagine they would charge at least two hours for the work, so… $250-$300 probably? depending on their rates.

If you were local to me (southern New England) I could do it. I’ve programmed several in the past at various meetups.

Or there is a new service called PandaScan that was just launched by Panda Motorsports. Only costs $55 for the service itself, but you have to buy Forscan ($15), an OBD adapter ($25+, depends on the model), and a Windows laptop with internet access that reaches wherever the Bronco is parked. I never bought anything from Panda Motorsports, so zero personal experience with them, but seems like it could be a good service?

My brother used to do audio system installs while he was in college while working for a shop, and he definitely knows how to do it. So I would imagine any shop that specializes in automotive audio systems would know how to do it. If you have one local that may be your best option.

Those who have done the FORScan mod did you make the same change to 3800 as in the video or something else?

dover157

My understanding is the factory settings are to send low power highs only to the rear. Will have to enable the full sound via forscan or have the dealer “flash” it for the soundbar. I’m curious how you mounted the 6 1/2 in the rear would love to do that. I replaced all my speakers with kicker ks series and is much clearer but definitely still lacking bass.

Bronco1973

The company that makes the 6.5" pods is SSV WORKS

When the dealership does the FLASH , will they be doing all the steps of the Soundbar?
As if I was installing the Soundbar?

Bronco1973

When the dealership does the FLASH , will they be doing all the steps of the Soundbar?
As if I was installing the Soundbar?

If you can get them to make the changes they should. May have to ask them or see if you have anyone in your area with forscan thats willing to change it for you.

dover157

If you can get them to make the changes they should. May have to ask them or see if you have anyone in your area with forscan thats willing to change it for you.

FIngers crossed 🤞 it's at the Dealership. They are charging me $300 if it works or not. I hope they know what they are doing.

My understanding is that the forscan changes are NOT applicable to the B&O system, is that correct? My rear speakers are quite underwhelming, even after upgrading all the speakers.

Calgecko

My understanding is that the forscan changes are NOT applicable to the B&O system, is that correct? My rear speakers are quite underwhelming, even after upgrading all the speakers.

The Forscan changes only impact the ACM (Audio Control Module). The B&O system has its own external DSP, so any changes you make probably won't make much of an impact. But I dont really understand the signal flow with B&O, so I'll have to poke around the wiring diagrams.

That said, 4" speakers really dont produce much audio below the 150-300 Hz range, the diaphram just isnt large enough. So if you removed the high-pass filter but stuck with 4" speakers then you wont get an improvement. The Forscan changes really only are needed if you are installing larger speaker, or you want to control the frequecy with some other component like an external amp/DSP or an RC circuit to (aka: bass blocker).

Does the Forscan change improve the sound of the JBL soundbar?

adcam

Does the Forscan change improve the sound of the JBL soundbar?

The JBL sound bar has its own Ford-provided calibration that your dealer (should have) installed.