You may be right in the regard to flash speed but the main contributing factor to slowness is likely the processor speed/RAM. Gen 1 APIMs are known to be quite slow in general, even gen 2. If you haven’t updated/reformatted to the latest 3.4 yet give that a shot. The new partition layout and updates seem to improve speed quite a bit (at least it did for me on my gen 2 APIM).
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Thanks. I am on the latest 3.4.21194 and is better than the old 3.0. Just looking for a way to speed this thing up. Possibly newer hardware. Any recommendations?
If you want to fork out the money for a new unit I’d go for a gen 3 unit. So late 2018-2019 MY. Avoid the latest units (2020MY+) as those can’t be reformatted. You’ll likely want a K series.
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The issue you are describing is a known fact for NAND SSD & TRIM.
I’m not sure that applies for Sync.
Even assuming it would be an issue, you are more likely to improve the overall responsiveness by upgrading your HW to a newer one than by just adding memory.
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Appreciate the info. Something that I also was thinking. Just needed the nudge from the experienced. Keep up the great work. Will update after upgrade…assuming I can find APIM at a reasonable price. Current ACM for Sony system should be fine.
There are a few differences in the APIM’s themselves over the years. In 2018, the daughter board was replaced with a significantly improved version, along with some other updates for chips, etc., throughout the rest of the APIM itself. Here is a image of the Gen 1/2 (2016-17) daughter board…
and the Gen 3/4 version (2018-2020).
Recently in the 3.4.21194 update, a qualifier was added to the AL2HMI Bridge, which required 90% of QML files to be updated. (about 2900+) This was done to speed up the display performance mostly, with a few other improvements. Taking into account that the older hardware of the Gen 1/2 units, this would have some affect on performance, but not like it would on the Gen3/4 APIM’s utilizing the hardware the changes were designed for. But at the end of the day, the ‘laggy’ Gen 1/2 units are just old and outdated. Replacing the daughter board on the older Gen 1/2 units with the Gen 3/4 board will yield much better results, the performance will not be on par with the Gen 3/4 units. This is not a straight forward replacement however, and the payoff in respect to cost and time is really not worth the effort.
The best value is a straight replacement APIM, either ‘J’ or ‘K’ series (also labelled as ‘3’ or ‘4’, which some people mistakenly associate with Gen 3 or 4). These designations are the part number (model) year designators. ‘J’ or ‘3’ = 2018, ‘K’ or ‘4’ = 2019, etc. Don’t bother with the 2020 units as they may or may not have incompatible screen drivers, etc., depending on the vehicle they came from. Those are the ‘L’ or ‘5’ units.
If you old screen is in good shape you can reuse it on the newer units.
You can find info on many APIM models here… Hardware Database - CyanLabs
Yes it will be fine…
Even more info than expected! Again, thanks to all. On a quick google search, came up with pretty much nothing for “K” series APIM. Will check with bone yards around here on Monday.
You can probably make this guy an offer…I found about a dozen on eBay.
SYNC 3 GEN 4 F150 Sync 3.4 APIM Module NAVIGATION VIN PROGRAMMING INCL | eBay
Up for auction is a Ford Sync 3.4 gen 4 navigation apim. Latest firmware and 2020 maps installed. VIN programming included only if buy it now is used. If best offer used, you would be on your own to get it programmed. Auction is just for the apim no screen included.
but you can’t do this as the connectors are purposely reversed
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Yep. I saw a cable someone made to do it. (for the large connector). I doubt this would work very well. It was a hack job…
MacGyvering something that is broken to work again is one thing to boast. To try to update parts of older hardware seems pointless to me given the time and potential hardware/software/driver issues. I find it more beneficial to purchase newer (made to work as a unit) hardware IMHO, since I use my vehicle everyday and not enough down time.
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Totally agree and that is what I did with my 2015 F150, replacing the Sync 2 unit with a KL3T-14G370-PCH APIM. Plug and play, mostly, and has worked perfectly for over 2 years. The above was just an observation…
Found a KL3T-PBH unit. It is a non-nav unit. Thats why it was free. Just my luck.
Did you make any progress on this?
Ordered used APIM (ID# 4U5T-14G371-CDC) from TEXAS of all places. Will see actual part number once it arrives. Boneyards around here useless.
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Well, a 3U5T-14G371-CDC has NAV, so this should also. Did you get it yet?
Not as yet. Delay in shipping. Not sure if that means a substitute. Should be here Tuesday(ish).
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APIM has arrived. L2GT-14G370-BCG. Physically verified it has 32GB on board. Since it is a 2020 unit, not 100% sure if it will be plug and play in a 2016 Focus w/Sync 3 and nav. Thought I read somewhere in this community that there are differences in 4 or 5 wires.
The wiring is probably for the newer ACM modules (radio) for the SDL (Satellite Data Link), which would need to be added if you were to add a new MY20 ACM. Otherwise, it will not matter. (I added a new ACM to my 2015 F150 and had to add the SDL wiring to support the new SiriusXM format (which is completely XM based now).
The concern I have is with the reformat tool and a MY20 APIM. A L2GT-14G370-BCG would have come out of a 2020 Ford Edge.