I bought a Sync 3 kit from someone on facebook marketplace. He was selling it cheap ($30) because he said it didn’t work with his car. It had a sticker with chinese letters with a 2015 Explorer VIN that it was supposedly programmed to. He pulled up in an old 2003 Expedition and since it was only $30 I figured I’d take a chance even if it didn’t work.
The APIM is screwed to the screen. APIM is 3U5T-14G371-DEE with a manufacture date of 6/12/2020. Looks to be a genuine Ford but this is almost certainly an ebay kit (comes with screen protector and the USB C / USB A hub).
I have Forscan with my own adapter. I plugged in this unit and got no display. I thought maybe I had to program it. I used Forscan and it did appear to at least read the APIM. I was connected to WiFi and used the “load default asbuild” to load up default values for my 2015 Navigator. It did say successful, but it did say something along the line of “more fields than the values being assigned” or something like that. I noticed there was about 5 extra lines but you cannot delete those. Not sure what that was about.
Anyway, still no display. I can plug in my old Sync 2 unit and it works. I’m not even sure if I’m asking in the right place with my issue but if anyone has any ideas to troubleshoot that would be great. Thanks
“Can you please upload pictures of the items? Also, the extra lines are for the MY20 APIM Forscan. It will autofill that data. Try to copy your as-built configuration line by line and get it as close as you can. Regarding the screen, you need an older screen to get it to work; it’s a driver issue. And since you have a MY20 APIM, if you reformat it, you will have no APIM.”
I took the APIM off the screen, it didn’t have any stickers on it. I thought all Sync 3 capacitive screens were all the same? What screen should I source and / or how can I load a driver to use this screen if possible?
The APIM and the USB hub are both Chinese garbage. One of the better APIM sticker I have seen but it’s a fake. Those fake USB hubs are all over Amazon and ebay.
It says it’s a 2020 APIM on the fake sticker. I would assume it is which explains the problems you’re having.
Yes I figured it was some sort of clone. The part # sticker does look genuine, but perhaps it has a clone electronics. But apparently they sell like hotcakes on ebay and sellers have decent feedback on it. The sellers that sell a good kit with actual Ford parts run $600 + tax with Nav. Hard to beat $30 I paid for this kit when the chinese kits are selling for about $400.
So it being a 2020 APIM, what’s the solution? I need a 2017-2019 APIM? What cars does a 2020 APIM work with?
So LKQ can be hit or miss since they list the SCREEN part number, not the APIM, so depending on the shipping yard some of them pull the APIM off before shipping.
To see if the APIM shows in ForScan you have to start up with no profile as it will be expecting the same hardware as what is saved in the profile.
The 2015 Navigator came with MFT so you can’t use the factory AB for your VIN.
You’ll need one for a 2016, here’s a VIN I found at random 5LMJJ2LT1GEL05340 you can pull the AB from here: https://www.motorcraftservice.com/Asbuilt/
So yes when I loaded Forscan, I used my existing car profile 2015 Navigator. I’ll probably try just for kicks, but maybe if I load a fresh profile, then program a 2016+ Navigator into the APIM, maybe that will kick it on? It’s possible it’s not turning the screen on because 2015 profile has MFT (non capactive touch?) and the screen is supposed to be capactive?
I have an LKQ near me and I can talk to the rep and there’s another wrecker that lets you go into their yard sometimes and I can do some digging there.
You have to start with no profile since what you’ve saved previously has a different series APIM in the hardware manifest.
In the log tab you should see the detected version of the APIM.
You shouldn’t be loading the AB that came with your car since the OS in that APIM was based on Windows CE 6.5, the OS in a Sync3 APIM is based on Blackberry QNX Auto so as the 2016 Navigator came with Sync3 it should be pretty close to what your car supports.
The 3rd party power adapter with the USB port may or may not be correct for your car, there are 3 variations of that and its based on model.
If you’re going yard shopping, the ONLY model/year/trim combinations that I know of which came factory standard with NAV are 2017/2018 Fusion Platinums & 2020 Fusion Titainiums. I sure someone else here may have other combinations which always came with NAV
