2015 EcoBoost Convertible “Cruiser” Build

[bigfoot21075]

THANKS for the posts! I owned the first Turbo Mustang, a 1979 Mustang Indy Pace Car Package with the factory 2.3 Turbo and sort of pre judged the Eco Boost by that - after hearing your clips - they are NIGHT AND DAY different! I will have to go at least drive one before I plunk down for a GT. My '79 was a blast, it had that turbo sound, but NO WHERE NEAR as pronounced as yours. I am in the same boat, I live in the maryland area and will really drive it on nice days, I will NEVER track it and you know how forgiving MSP is or the Park Police about high speed runs....

What made you decide to replace only the rear speakers out of curiosity? I love car sounds as well, but are also a closet audiophile.

THANKS!

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[jtmat]

THANKS for the posts! I owned the first Turbo Mustang, a 1979 Mustang Indy Pace Car Package with the factory 2.3 Turbo and sort of pre judged the Eco Boost by that - after hearing your clips - they are NIGHT AND DAY different! I will have to go at least drive one before I plunk down for a GT. My '79 was a blast, it had that turbo sound, but NO WHERE NEAR as pronounced as yours. I am in the same boat, I live in the maryland area and will really drive it on nice days, I will NEVER track it and you know how forgiving MSP is or the Park Police about high speed runs....

What made you decide to replace only the rear speakers out of curiosity? I love car sounds as well, but are also a closet audiophile.

THANKS!

[MENTION=26524]bigfoot21075[/MENTION]

Thank you for the comments... funny my old 4 had the turbo removed or it was not there. Did not have the car long, drunk lady hit me and that was that... luckily I walked away from it.

The rear speakers were terrible in my 2015. Ford should be ashamed they put such cheap speakers back there. Before I replaced them I only had highs in the front speakers.

I'm no audiophile... I mostly have $20 to $50 headphones around my house. My house speakers are nice but nothing to brag about (originally priced around $1000, I got the last (new) pair on sale for around $120 at bestbuy years ago - they were off in the corner collecting dust for years). They sound great though and everyone comments how nice they sound.

An audiophile more than likely would have replaced every speaker in that car!

I replaced the rear speakers and that caused the sound to even out... it sounds 100% times better with treble and more base coming from the rear of the car. Originally voice only came from the front of the car/dash, it did not sound right. With the sub in the back and all that treble in front, it sounded terrible.

I have no issue with the other speakers in the car or the woofer in the back. In the summer when I turn it up with the top down, I can always get the kids to dance on the street when I'm riding around slow (which is a lot of fun, joy of having a vert)... it is fairly loud and I have no other improvements on the system.

I might eventually get all the speakers replaced... if I were 20 years younger all of those speakers would be gone. For now, they sound good with only those two rear speakers replaced.

 

[Machelen]

It is a forum... quickly typed... PM me and I'll fix/clarify items that need correcting.

Index of sections:

1. URLs
2. Who is this for?
3. What is in the box (I have pictures on the first page of this build thread)
4. Warranty
5. Running with 87 octane
6. Install instructions
7. 1st Drive
8. More driving
9. Conclusion

Ford Performance Tune thoughts (installed Dec 2016) URLs:

https://performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-9603-M4
https://performanceparts.ford.com/login/
LevittownFordParts.com
ProCal3 Instructions

Who is this for?

This tune is for those who want their EcoBoost to go FASTER and have the following needs....
1. want to keep their warranty
2. people who want more power, not a race car
3. those who trust Ford Performance over another 3rd party tuner
4. those who are not heavily modded and do not have plans to mod with this tune
5. someone with $580 to $900 dollars for purchase and install of the tune

What is in the box?

1. CAI from the GT350 (honestly, it looks silly… but some people think it looks cool)
2. Two other plastic parts for assembly
3. The tuner (this tuner is only a laptop connection. It will not keep your stock tune on it! Read the “install instructions” for further info).
4. A bag with parts and a paper in it. The paper has your registration information included

Warranty

You keep your original 3/36 and 5/60, if issue not tune related.

Only time it becomes an issue if Ford/dealer determine issue is tune related. If tune related and within 3/36 then Ford Performance will handle; if outside of 3/36 but within 5/60 you are out of luck. The tune does not reset warranty....

All the arguments around the “warranty issue” is basically on wording... what does "void warranty" mean? To some, like what happened to me, means a dealer will not work on your car. My dealer next door "voided my warranty" by not working on my car.

Was my warranty actually voided? No. I took my car to another dealer and they fixed the issue, without batting an eye. Play on words... some people want to get in the weeds and make an argument out of every little darn thing they can.

Why does warranty matter? It might not to you, if you have $5500 to $8000 for an engine. You are better off with a FP tune since they have a warranty and will pay for the damage, if the issue is within 3/36. If outside 3/36 but within 5/60, hopefully your dealer/Ford will not determine it is “tune related”. With another tuner you are out of luck... they might offer you a discount on an engine or something.

Running with 87 octane

You can run this tune with 87 octane. I personally don’t recommend it, except in emergencies and even then, keep your foot out of boost. But, I’ll admit, I’m not an expert; I’m going on gut. Ford said we could run 87, bottom line.

https://performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-9603-M4

Install instructions

If you want the tune, there are a couple of things you need to know.

1. Who can install? Self-install, ASE or Dealer. There are reports of self-installs where people are claiming to keep their warranty. I don’t know… be careful. There are also reports of people hiring an ASE... some even suggested an ASE simply signing off on the work you did to save money. If you can make that work, go for it. Personally, I'm trying to build a relationship with my dealer since I'm new to Ford.
2. Call or email your dealer and ask if they will they allow you to purchase 3rd party and only charge for install or must you purchase from them…
3. If you can purchase 3rd party, search the form or internet for best price. I purchased from LevittownFordParts.com for $535 (that includes shipping). Some people are reporting prices low as $480 while some are reporting they must purchase from the dealer for $600 or more. Dealer claims they will only work on car for X months if the product is not purchased from them. Be prepared...
4. Install prices vary as well. Some are reporting “free” (by having an ASE sign off on the paperwork) to $300 and above. I was charged $220 (with taxes) at my local dealer.
5. Before going to the dealer for install, I recommended:

a. creating the FP account https://performanceparts.ford.com/login/ and providing the username and password to the dealer (change the password later). Far as downloading the tune, I'd probably ask the dealer on that one.
b. taking a flash drive with you to retrieve your “stock” tune. They should return the flash to you with a pc3 file that has your vin number included. It is very small, between 7000 to 8000 KB.
c. You will also want to ensure you ask for the paper that has the tune info and your stock CAI.

6. My install took around one hour to install the tune. Some people are reporting 30 minutes some several hours (and in one case, a couple of days due to issues).
7. To clear up what you are leaving out the dealer with:

a. Your flash drive, with stock tune
b. The paper with your registration number on it
c. Your CAI in the trunk
d. The extra parts that were in the bag (they don’t use all of them)
e. And heck, maybe the original box (I did not go that far)
f. Don’t leave the dealer without speaking with the service manager or even dealer owner about how great the service they provided


1st Drive

The first things you will notice are:
1. How different the car sounds. The sound symposer is turned off!
2. How sluggish the car feels. Okay, the tune does not “kick in” right away. I did not feel it for maybe 25 miles or so. Others have reported 30 miles. One person reported 200 miles, but I don’t believe that. Understand that it takes a while, your car is not broken.
3. How smooth the car drives. If you have an auto, this tune includes an auto calibration. It is SO smooth… I can’t say enough. You are going to love it.

More driving

After the tune has settled in, things start to pickup. Here are some rambling thoughts as I drove the car over the last couple thousand miles (this is actually several of my posts that I copy and pasted here… that is why they have some of the same info in them. I left them as is since they reflect different times/driving scenarios:

IN GENERAL:

- Auto transmission calibration... I can tell the difference. Car feels much smoother.

- Can now drive in "D". Car pulls and pulls...

- Chirped in second a couple of times now. I have all season tires.

- Driving is so much better now! The power is very predictable.

- Car does not sound like it is dying when you give it gas... like it did on the base tune.

- Much better driving on the highway and in the city.

- I don't like how the CAI looks. It looks silly. Oh, cool, I have a Mustang GT90000 CAI in my car.. how cool am I? Uh, no. I won't remove it though...

- Car is louder when you get on it. When you give it a ton of gas, it sounds like a turbo! when you are driving normal, it sounds stock.

.....

Is this for 0-60 warriors? No… it will make your car fast enough to get you a huge ticket, very quickly. It will put your head in the seat from 0 to 100 easily; it pulls so smoothly.

Such a fine write up, thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jtmat]

Such a fine write up, thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I pretended like I was thelion.... :lol:

Thank you... actually was not all that hard.... funny thing is that I wrote a lot of that already in different threads... lot of it was copy and paste for me.

I don't think we realize how much we type on here sometimes...

It made sense to put it all in one place... some of those threads are useless now.... information is lost forever.

 

[justme97]

Hey, great thread! Nice to see another member who’s more about cruising while still wanting it to be a nice sounding and performing car.
Had a question about your speaker upgrade. I have a vert and was too cheap to spring for shaker pro so now installing a simple sub over the next week. Front mid/highs are ok with a good source, but with the 9 speaker setup the rears are rediculous full range speakers so I’m thinking your idea is great and I should yank Em when tying into them for the sub.
Just curious though, jbl gto is a nice speaker...does the sound feel imbalanced because the rears are likely putting out much better quality than stock fronts?
Also where did you mount the rear tweeters?

 

[jtmat]

[MENTION=31778]justme97[/MENTION]

I only installed the two jbl speakers... they include tweeters. They definitely don't drown out the front speakers. They make the highs and mids sound so much better, along with the base coming out the rear. The rear speakers were an enhancement - should be one of the first things a person fixes on the 2015 vert (not sure if fixed on later models).

I did not like all the highs in the front and base in the rear... that sounded unbalanced to me. That was how the stock setup sounded. It was bad.

I'll admit, I'm not one who gets very picky with music.... matter of fact, my first "great" system is a sonos (and I'm not saying it is all that great, better out there, sure -- great to me).... when I listen to music on sonos, I hear stuff in songs I've never freaking heard before. I get in the car, and I don't miss it... in other words, car music does not need to sound perfect.

I only wish all the rattles would go away... makes the music sound bad. If I don't sell the car, I'm thinking of attempting to fix the rattles so the music sounds better. So much cheap plastic all over the place.

If I were a real stickler for music, I'd probably drop the car off to professionals, replace all speakers, have the installer kill the rattles, etc.

 

[jtmat]

The end... the Mustang is GONE.

The fit and finish finally got to me.. the interior rattles drove me crazy! Nice looking car but Ford dropped the ball on the interior and general fit and finish. The tire situation was also suspect... never had tires "cup" with only 10,000 miles on a car.

The transmission started to jerk a bit causing the drive to be not so pleasant. Not to mention the oil I found around an engine pulley (not sure what it is called).

I should have purchased the V8... doubt if I ever will purchased another Mustang (due to my age and the list of cars I want to own before I die), but if I did buy a Mustang it MUST be a V8.

To be fair, I had two tunes on the car... Unleashed and Ford Performance. Unleashed was hard on the car due to my driving.

I went with another vert turbo (2015 BMW 435 with 18,000 miles... CPO):

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