Stolen Focus Headunits

[HeavySoul]

Some advice for a friend if you may;

Said friend had his Phase One Focus broken into last week and the fitted head unit stolen. Apparently this is quite a common occurance as there is a certain chip inside these units that when put inside a Sky box give the thief and his mates free Sky

Now obviously he wants it replaced but is a bit dubious about another standard Ford item as doesn't want to have to shell out for a new window again. As the original head unit is fitted and of a larger size than most standard ones, is it fairly easy to replace with something off the shelf and fit some kind of blanking plate to fill the gap or should he be looking at a double DIN unit to fit the dash?

Also the Ford units are fairly powerful as standard so would probably need something a bit more substantial to fill the void.

Any ideas on replacement options? Is this as common as the police have lead him to believe?

Cheers

[TPS]

The only advice i can give is there are blanking plates on the market that you can fit in place to convert it to a standard size unit and these are easy to fit.Also any decent sony kenwood unit etc would do the job as good if not better than the standard however you may loose the controls for the stereo that are on the steering wheel stalk if fitted.

[HeavySoul]

TPS said:

The only advice i can give is there are blanking plates on the market that you can fit in place to convert it to a standard size unit and these are easy to fit.Also any decent sony kenwood unit etc would do the job as good if not better than the standard however you may loose the controls for the stereo that are on the steering wheel stalk if fitted.

I hadn't thought of losing those controls actually so good point

[rico]

I've got a mk1 Focus and replaced the standard headunit with a 1din one and a spacer plate.

The sound is far superior to the standard unit. All you need is:

Spacer with storage - www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=4466&cadid=3c1d2ee1e4080d8641d0823d711ac2c9

or

Spacer without - www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=624&cadid=561addf19d3530458c50858869adff2d

Then the correct ISO connection leads for your headunit

Edited by rico on Wednesday 1st November 11:33

[rico]

HeavySoul said:

I hadn't thought of losing those controls actually so good point

You don't have to. A mate has an Alpine headunit in his Focus and spent £20ish on a cable that allows you to retain the stalk volume etc controls

[nighthawk]

standard ford (visteon) units are a bit poor really anyway.

The current generation are a mere 17w rms compared to the older series which were 10w.

Get an autoleads adaptor plate, ford to ISO wiring adaptor and an aerial adaptor and you'll be able to fit any aftermarket headunit.

Some will even allow the use of the steering column remote control.

[nighthawk]

HeavySoul said:

Said friend had his Phase One Focus broken into last week and the fitted head unit stolen. Apparently this is quite a common occurance as there is a certain chip inside these units that when put inside a Sky box give the thief and his mates free Sky

I spoke to a head engineer from Visteon today, apparently this is an urban myth which has been fully investigated by both Visteon (people who make the audio unit and ford's security engineers.
After getting washed away with what sounded more complex than rocket science, he concluded that there is nothing at inside the set that can be used for such a purpose.

Pitty the scum bags don't know it's a myth though.....people might be able to leave their cars without having the window smashed.

[HeavySoul]

nighthawk said:

HeavySoul said:

Said friend had his Phase One Focus broken into last week and the fitted head unit stolen. Apparently this is quite a common occurance as there is a certain chip inside these units that when put inside a Sky box give the thief and his mates free Sky

I spoke to a head engineer from Visteon today, apparently this is an urban myth which has been fully investigated by both Visteon (people who make the audio unit and ford's security engineers.
After getting washed away with what sounded more complex than rocket science, he concluded that there is nothing at inside the set that can be used for such a purpose.

Pitty the scum bags don't know it's a myth though.....people might be able to leave their cars without having the window smashed.

Nice one - good to clear that up, I will pass that information onto my friend. Sure that rumour gets passed round the pub tables and just enhances the chances of getting targeted.