How to disable the Active Noise Control

Thanks for the info!

Dirtleg said:

One other benefit of doing this is reduced harmonic resonance inside the car from aftermarket parts which the factory didn't account for.

I have a catless downpipe installed and between 2700-3200 rpm there was a very pronounced harmonic humming/vibration that would keep getting louder if the revs were kept in that range. It was on my list of things to address.

I disconnected the mic under the headliner just to see what it sounded like without it and remarkably the harmonic noise/vibration is gone. I mean completely gone. It was apparently picked up by the Active Noise Control, which wasn't tuned for such things, and amplified for whatever reason.

Engine still sounds meh, but that's not why I bought this car anyway.

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I have an intermittent resonance, too, so I tried this last night. So far I haven't really noticed a difference.

This only disconnects the microphone. What does that have to do with the fake engine noise? I think this is for the Noise cancellation for making calls?

EDIT: My car sounds a little different after I unplugged it.

So glad I found this! I was ready to yank the Borla exhaust it sounded terrible. Yanked the Active Noise control, car sounds much better. Thank you OP!

Glad this helped. Considering what people report in this thread and other forums, I guess the effect of unplugging the active noise control mic depends on the setup of each individual car (exhaust system, downpipe, etc).

Has anyone gotten unplugged the convertible connector in the maplights? I can get in but for the life of me can't get it to unplug, no apparent clip to depress.

Can confirm that the car is quieter and drones less. I'm using mbrp race exhaust.

I disconnected the mic and the car sounds.much more refined using the stock exhaust. I am not sure why Ford wasted the resources on active noise control. The money would have been better spent on a steering wheel or center.console upgrade.

MakStang said:

On the convertible the Active Noise Control mic is located in the map light panel. If you gently pull down the 'map light box' (near the rear-view mirror); look about 2 inches left of center for a black plastic 'box'. Its about the size of a postage stamp and about 3/8" thick. It'll have a simple and tiny positive/negative harness plug that is separated from the other wiring harnesses. Simply unplug, slip in back into place, and put the map light box back.

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Can someone get a picture of this?

I do not have a convertible so I cannot help. Maybe someone who has disabled this on a convertible can help. Or, like I always do when I cannot get the answer on something ...ask uncle Google

:dohoooohhh The fact that you don't have a convertible is the reason this question is not directed at you personally. Wes and I are asking other convertible owners to respond. "...ask uncle Google" is a bit condescending. Personally, I did and even went to the F150 Forum to see if there were answers there.

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SterlingStangMan said:

:dohoooohhh The fact that you don't have a convertible is the reason this question is not directed at you personally. Wes and I are asking other convertible owners to respond. "...ask uncle Google" is a bit condescending. Personally, I did and even went to the F150 Forum to see if there were answers there.

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I would honestly go the software route instead of the hardware route. But that's just me. Forscan ftw!

does disabling the mic for the active noise control effect phone call quality? just thinking that it might help with canceling road noises for phone calls. I'm a noob.. so dont know better.

Active noise control is separate from the fake engine sound. So disabling the fake sound with forscan will only stop the fake sound and not disconnect the active noise cancellation. Pulling the rear mic keeps the active noise cancellation from Fighting the exhaust and aftermarket sub sounds from the rear of the car. The system still works fine with the rear mic disconnected and will not effect phone calls as there is still a front mic.

PewterCam said:

Active noise control is separate from the fake engine sound. So disabling the fake sound with forscan will only stop the fake sound and not disconnect the active noise cancellation. Pulling the rear mic keeps the active noise cancellation from Fighting the exhaust and aftermarket sub sounds from the rear of the car. The system still works fine with the rear mic disconnected and will not effect phone calls as there is still a front mic.

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You are correct on ANC and fake engine sounds being separate, but let me explain the operation a little better...

First, pulling the mic and changing the bits using FORScan both accomplish the exact same thing, they disable the active noise cancellation. Neither of these disable the fake sound symposer that appears to be part of the PCM programming.

Second, disabling noise cancellation will make a difference in your bluetooth calling abilities, which is why this feature exists in the first place.

With the stock ECU, the noise cancellation picks up any non-normal tone, and sends a countering tone through the speakers to balance out those sounds (thus why aftermarket exhausts and subwoofers make the speakers rumble). This comes in handy when you are making a phone call, so that the sound symposer noises don't bleed into your Sync microphone, causing the call quality to drop.

Although i'm not 100% sure of this, it appears that the Ford Performance tune disables the sound symposer, but leaves the ANC enabled, which would be a best of both worlds situation for a stock car that doesn't want the fake noise pumped in. It would be interesting to see someone with the Ford tune chime in that has an aftermarket sub and/or exhaust to see if these rumbling noises still exist.

So far, there have been no methods found to disable the sound symposer without changing the ACM output to speaker level, which causes the audio system to sound bad. Changing the bit in FORScan only disables the ANC, not the sound symposer.