VSS wire in the dash?

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5TA1NER

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I am thinking of installing a kd-nx5000. I know its old but the fact that its single din makes for no mods. Anyway, I found before somewhere that there is a VSS wire in the dash. Does anyone know which it is?
 
What year is your LS?

All 2nd gen LS should have a VSS signal on a connector in the driver's kick panel. I've posted the pin number and wire color before. Otherwise, you should be able to find it at the ABS module itself.
 
Its an 02. I know i could hook it up to a WSS but i was hoping for something more in the dash. Less routing. What about the gray/black wire for the speed sensitive radio or possibly something in the wipers?
 
AFAIK, there is no VSS wire in the interior of the gen I LS. The speed sensitive volume control on the radio is accomplished by the speed data being sent on the Ford proprietary bus along with lots of other data.

(Disclaimer: I don't have the gen I wiring diagrams to verify this.)
 
Well unless I can hook it up to the data wire, which i doubt, to the ABS module it is.
 
5TA1NER said:
Well unless I can hook it up to the data wire, which i doubt, to the ABS module it is.
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No, you can't connect to the data wires (it's a pair of them, not a single wire). The data bus carries digital data at high speed. Your head unit is looking for a pulse signal, where the frequency of the pulses is proportional to the car's speed.
 
Frogman said:
All of the FORDs I've owned with the cheesy auto volume thing, used a VSS wire. If your factory radio had that feature, there's a good chance the wire is there in the harness.
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Like I said, I can't speak with certainty about the Gen I wiring. However, I can provide a counter point to your experiences. The Gen II LS has speed sensitive volume on all headunits. However, on the non nav units, there is no VSS wire going to the radio. The radio gets speed information only from the CAN bus. This bus also carries the retained accessory power info. Many cars now also use the CAN bus to carry power on and off signals, instead of having switched power at the radio.
 
Frogman said:
All of the FORDs I've owned with the cheesy auto volume thing, used a VSS wire. If your factory radio had that feature, there's a good chance the wire is there in the harness.
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this is true with all of the old OBDII cars, but is usually (with most of the exceptions being the inbetween years ) not true for CAN cars.

with most cars that use a CAN system, all of the different modules are basically talking to each other through the bus, as joe mentioned, this is how the radio gets a lot of its info, they do make integration wire harness that do tap into the cars CAN system and reads all of the info such as P-brake,VSS, reverse,and off and on including RAP. but i dont think that i have seen one that works with the LS. all of the radios that i have seen it work for dont have an ACC wire at the radio.
 
1LoudLS said:
this is true with all of the old OBDII cars, but is usually (with most of the exceptions being the inbetween years ) not true for CAN cars.

with most cars that use a CAN system, all of the different modules are basically talking to each other through the bus, as joe mentioned, this is how the radio gets a lot of its info, they do make integration wire harness that do tap into the cars CAN system and reads all of the info such as P-brake,VSS, reverse,and off and on including RAP. but i dont think that i have seen one that works with the LS. all of the radios that i have seen it work for dont have an ACC wire at the radio.
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~Shrug~

My 03 F250 was CANBus and had the VSS wire. My 08 F450 is CANBus and I could have sworn I've seen a VSS wire in a radio wiring diagram. I can't quite confirm that till later on in the spring when I replace the factory head unit, though.

Either way... It's not something that concerns me greatly at this moment. But it's good to know that FORD vehicles with CANBus don't have a VSS wire going to the radio, in general.
 
the 03 is for sure using the old style radio, the system in the car was up dated but they haven't updated the radio's yet and are still using the same radios that came out in 98. this definitely qualifies as a "inbetween" model, does the F450 have one of the easy pull radio's or a radio that can be used in a completely different style ford, or it it more like the new f150's, escapes, fusions... where the radio was only designed to be used in that specific model and doesn't fit any other car or truck and is integrated into the dash?

Ford does seem to have the most vehicle's where they upgraded the system in the car but didn't update the radio at all, for sure any of the radio's that can be removed with radio keys will have a vss wire if the radio has speed sensitive volume.
 
yea, i've never been impressed with any factory system especially for the price, but it seems that most people here (at least on our side) really like their factory systems and believe that they are much better than most aftermarket systems.

It does seem to be getting harder to change out some of these factory systems, my dad just bought a 2011 charger with then nice big screen, but no navigation. the sales man at the dealer said that its not that big of a deal because it can just be replaced with a nicer aftermarket system for much less. so he brings it to me a i see that the only controls for the heated seats (along with a few other things) are all controlled through the radio's screen, well how the hell am i supposed to replace that!

i'm not 100% sure but i think that some of the new ford's with the "my ford" system are going toward the same way, damn i miss the good ole days of just taking the radio out and putting a new one in.
 
Thats what i noticed.

All these newer vehicles are moving over to proprietary systems that control everything through it so you cant just take it out and put aftermarket. I like the stock thx system...it sounds great but its just a dated design.

Eventually i will get something aftermarket but im putting it to use for a while since i have other priorities.
 
Eh... Make a better mouse, someone always makes a better mousetrap.

As you know, aftermarket audio companies have to stay competitive, so they're generally on top of the newest factory audio trends.

I do the the factory head unit in my 450 is made by Pioneer by FORD. Same damned map data (I know, so are others manufacturers' that NavTeq supplies), same color scheme screen, and... there's Pinoeer sticker on the back of the unit. Probably the biggest giveaway.

The 450 radio is a good ol' plugs in the rear of the radio with plenty of wires. As such, I'm not overly concerned with being able to slap an aftermarket unit in there when the time comes.
 
In the gen 1, there is one wire? but I do know it goes directly from the clockspring to the radio.. I believe it sends different frequencies and the radio interpret them.. If none of this is correct, what are you asking?
 
This is all helpful enough to make me just take the extra time and wire it to the VSS wire in the abs harness. I think it is just used to get the most precise reading but I have always used a garmin on my windshield and that seemed to be fine with the directions. Do you think I would have any complications if I didn't hook up the wire?
 
Shouldn't.. Ok, I understand this more that I read it.. IIRC, the VSS goes to the ABS module, then the PCM, then to the cluster which interprets the signal the PCM gives.. Again IIRC, the PCM sends a sine wave which wouldn't work for the normal person to 'get a reading' off of..
 
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FASTLLS said:
but I do know it goes directly from the clockspring to the radio.. I believe it sends different frequencies and the radio interpret them.. If none of this is correct, what are you asking?
Click to expand...
what does the steering wheel resestance wire have to do with the VSS wire?

5TA1NER said:
Do you think I would have any complications if I didn't hook up the wire?
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nope, the unit will function just fine with out it, accuracy might be affected slightly, but it will still function fine.
 
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