About the electrical system

[Jermy Campbell]

I have a 2013 Ford fusion hybrid. I will try to keep this short. I am a big car audio fanatic. I am putting in an system. I need to know how the 12 V battery is charged by the car. I do not see an alternator underneath the hood. I need to know how many amps I can pull off of the 12 V system in the car. My amplifier is a 900.5 JL audio amplifier. It pulls about 60 A of current. I understand that this is a hybrid and the idea behind it is the fuel economy. That is why I bought the amplifier that I have because it doesn't pull very much power from the vehicle.

[FrankQC]

My amplifier is a 900.5 JL audio amplifier. It pulls about 60 A of current.

Hi Jermy, first of all, welcome to the forum. I am also a new member / owner / audio junkie. I also have the JL HD900/5 amp. It is a very nice (and expensive) box. Here are a couple things that may be of interest for you combining that thing to the '13 FFH:

 

1- The HD900/5 is protected with a 60A fuse but doesn't pull anything close to that (at least with my own setup). I was able to read a max of 38A driving two 4 ohm 10" on the subwoofer channel.

 

2- You're right, the FFH doesn't have an alternator. The small 12V battery is charged with a DC/DC converter from the HVB as soon as you are in accessory mode. Cannot tell you the "real life" charging rate, sorry. For my own setup, I installed a 2nd 12V battery with a 200A isolator (a big diode) that allow the 2nd battery to be charged by the car but does not allow it to draw power from that battery. The JL amp is connected to that 2nd battery. I also use a small charger connected to the front charging posts to top-off both batteries when the car sits at home for several days.

 

3- The '13 FFH uses ANC (Active Noise Cancelling) technology. If you add an aftermarker amp (and subs), the ANC calibration will be messed up big time, so you will need to disable that system by disconnecting all three microphones. If you keep it active, you will hear a very loud rumble from your subwoofer as soon as the ICE kicks in.

 

4- On my FFH, the factory amp is a 6 channel. The front doors tweeters are connected on seperate channels. If yours is like mine, you will have to add a small two channel passive crossover (or a capacitor if on a budget) to feed the front tweeters using the same amp channels as the front speakers.

 

Hope that helps. Other members will probably add to this with very good info as well. (IE charge rate ;))

Edited June 30, 2014 by FrankQC

[Easy Rider]

It pulls about 60 A of current.

I think you probably are in a bind.

 

I SERIOUSLY doubt that the system will handle an extra 60 amps of load; half that, maybe.

 

I think you are going to have to scale back the wattage of your system.

You do realize that loudness does NOT equal quality.......right ??

[hybridbear]

I'm moving this topic to the audio section.

[Ryan Goodlett]

Frank QC....that may be the best response to a question that I have seen in a long time. Thanks for taking the time to tell about your experience. That's what forums are all about!!!!

[Jermy Campbell]

Thank you frankQC,

 

IAM taking out all of the factory audio equipment and replacing it with aftermarket audio equipment. What I am putting in there is the JL Audio HD900/5 and a JL Audio W7 8"with JL Audio C-5 6 1/2" component sets for the front and rear doors with a Rockford Fosgate 360.3 audio processor. This system is more for SQL than SPL. I will be using a RTA and a laptop to set up Rockford Fosgate 360.3

[FrankQC]

hybridbear: Thanks, that's a good move.

Ryan: Thank you for the good comment. I am a heavy forum user (mostly electronics, audio and motorcycles) and unlike many users, I only post in a thread when I really have something interesting to say regarding the OP, something that can benifit to other users.

Jermy: That will be a nice setup for sure. I went not that far with my FFH... And haven't got that kind of money to upgrade the audio in that car. I only opened up the factory head unit to tap into the line level I found with a scope inside the radio and ran RCA cables outside the head unit to the JL HD900/5 amp in the rear. I use the HD900/5 integrated crossover for the rest. I also removed the "unused" factory amp, located in the trunk, between the carpet and the right fender.

Unlike others, I fully understand that your system will be "quality oriented". The JL HD900/5 amplifier is not meant to be loud, but clean and crips. With a "real" < 0.03 THD, a good damping and over 108dB of S/N ratio on all channels, that is really a good choice.

The Fusion is really nice for an audio upgrade. It is quiet and the imaging / soundstage is nice with a proper setup. If you take your time to set it up with a RTA (and you ears ;)) you will get a very goot result. You will be surprised at the frequency response you will get from the front doors. they are very good in the 200-500Hz range, so you can set your Q-factor pretty wide on those C5-650 speakers in that range.

You said you're taking out all of the factory audio equipment, are you replacing the head unit as well ?? If you are keeping the head unit (which I think you will do), then I guess you will use the high level inputs of your 360.3 processor. Just let me know if you need the wiring pinout. As you probably already discovered, the "link" between the head unit and the rear OEM amp is already high-level, so it needs to be connected to the high-level input of your 360.3 processor and configure it that way (OEM) in the setup wizard.

BTW, you will jump 3 feet high when you will run the "Normalize Unit Response" within the processor wizard if you use the high-level inputs... It's all over the place !

That is YOUR thread, keep us informed of your progress.

[Jermy Campbell]

I actually have put a Alpine CDE-HD149BT Head unit in down below the climate controls. I fiber glassed it in there because they haven't made an install kit for the that year of fusion yet. Iater on I will get the steering wheel controls modulator. I used the 12 V outlet and ran a separate wire to the battery along with my 3 sets of RCA's to the trunk. I will also run all new wire to the doors for the C-5 650. I know that it is a lot of extra work to run the wire, but I always run new wires when I do anything aftermarket. I plan on making 5 different bandpass boxes ported through the rear deck. The reason for that is to determine which box sounds the best in the car. I know what I am doing is a lot of work but I do this as a hobby.

Edited July 1, 2014 by Jermy Campbell

[FrankQC]

Ok, now I understand when you said "I am taking out all of the factory audio equipment" ! BTW, thanks for the pics. Your head unit seems pretty tight in there ! I wasn't aware that < '13 FFH were available without the 8" My Ford Touch screen. Looking at your pictures, it seems that your car doesn't have it right ? I wanted to keep and modify my factory radio because mine looks like this :

[corncobs]

Titanium trim vs. SE with MFT that's the difference you are seeing in the audio layout.

[FrankQC]

Titanium trim vs. SE with MFT that's the difference you are seeing in the audio layout.

Ok, that makes sense, but is the FFH SE available without MFT in the USA market ? It is mandatory in Canada I think. Looking at Jermy's pics with the rotary climate controls, it looks like he has this setup:

[corncobs]

Correction:

 

Yes you are correct that's the standard audio system. It's hard to see in his pic but the button layout for Max A/C gives it away I believe.

 

There are 3 versions

 

Standard: 4" center screen with button all around (pic above)

Technology pkg: 8" MFT with the two control knobs for volume and station

Titanium: 8" MFT and Sony audio system with only one big center volume knob.

Edited July 4, 2014 by corncobs