Customer Reviews

Metra 99-5720 Dash Kit For Escort/Tracer 97-04 Kitwith Harness

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just finished installing this a few days ago, expecting a simple plug & play. I was wrong. Still, the product was intelligently designed and included (almost) everything necessary to convert the dash to accept a standard 1-DIN head unit. Here some things you might like to know when considering this kit:

First off, MAKE SURE YOU TURN THE TEMPERATURE CONTROL ALL THE WAY TO ITS COLDEST SETTING BEFORE REMOVING ANYTHING. I had to figure this out the hard way. The reason is, once you unplug the temperature control cable from the back of the faceplate, the knob spins freely and it's possible to misalign the knob position to the actual temperature position when reconnecting. The nice thing about spinning it to max cold first is there's a little notch that will hold it in that position when it's time to reconnect everything, making sure hot lines up with hot so it's aligned perfectly.

Anyway, that said, I can't tell you how relieved I was when I opened the kit and saw the 2-piece factory wiring harness adaptor in the bag. Nothing I could find would truly confirm it was included. Feel free to quote me, "the 2-piece factory wiring harness is included." Not only did the two parts plug perfectly into the existing factory wired radio harnesses (Grey and black plugs), they saved hours during installation, helped make the install reversible (if you ever decide to take it out or replace it), and even came correctly color-coded, eliminating the need to tediously match up wire-for-wire connections.

As for the installation, Saspus is also correct in that the one-folded-sheet for a manual isn't that helpful, but fortunately the faceplate was manufactured with simplicity in mind. The environmental controls were a snap (literally in come cases) to transplant from one faceplate to the other, and everything fit perfectly.

Well, almost perfectly.
The manual mentions that you'll need to cut away a small amount of plastic that blocks the new faceplate from inserting properly. It might be because work was done on this particular FORD dash beforehand, but there was no corresponding plastic to cut from the opening. Instead, I had to cut small recesses above and below the sides of the opening where the clips spring outward to hold it into the dash. The clips needed little tabs about ¾ an inch high and recesses above and below to allow the release mechanism to extend into. It's difficult to describe, and I'm doubtful you'll have to deal with it. Just be mindful that you may need to make a couple more logical cuts into the opening (covered by the faceplate of course) to get it to clip in.

When I finished the preparations and got the faceplate to clip into the dash, there were a few millimeters of play/looseness, allowing the whole thing to slide forward and backward in the dash. I suspect this was because of the undocumented cuts I had to make in the sides of the opening. Fortunately, once we slid the Head unit in, it wedged up against the insides and locked everything in place. It's plenty firm now.


Unfortunately, the kit does NOT come with the DIN removal tools necessary to remove the factory faceplate. You can either buy them for $10 on Amazon here [ASIN:B00063ZANS Assenmacher Ford Radio Removal Tool Set - 2040], or make them yourself out of a wire coat hangar. For instructions, search google for "Coat Hangar Ford DIN Radio Removal Tool."

The hardest part was getting the temperature cable reconnected. It's simply too short to reattach outside of the opening. You literally have to plug it in from behind once the new faceplate is installed. The only way I could do it was by removing the center console, removing the accessory / cigarette lighter bucket, and reaching up through the hole it was in while looking in from behind with my head basically on the gas petal. It's doable though, and certainly no fault of the Kit. The temperature cable in the FORD is just too damn short. Oh well.

The only other thing I was a little confused about was the labeling on the Red and Yellow wires on the Grey "power" harness adapter. Since the wording they used was unclear ("+12v memory" and "+12v power") and the instructions warn you that the colors MAY not necessarily match with your head unit, I was afraid that they might be reversed from the industry standard. I went over to Crutchfield and found in their hands-on-research that the colors are in fact correct - the yellow wire is "+12v always on" and the red wire is for ACC (on when the car is on). Just ignore the funky labels and you're good to go. Like I said, every color matched perfectly to my new head unit.


Overall,
Others might be right to say it LOOKS of poor quality and of cheap plastic out of the bag. But when all was said and done, I have to admit it looks pretty darn factory, fitting the interior well, doing a great job of replacing the environmental controls, and certainly free of any visible "hacks." Certainly not bad for the low comparative price.

Good luck!

Received product promptly.
I installed the stereo by myself and this kit was a "No Brainer"! I've installed other stereos with kits, but this one was very straight-forward.
The only problem I ran into was the heater button electrical plug kept hitting a notch on the car's stereo area opening. So I had to trim that down a little, but then it slid in just right.

I would recommend this product for sure.

The Metra install Escort install kit suffers from two problems.

First up is the terrible instructions that they give you. There really is no way for someone to follow them all the way through and successfully install the radio without using a good bit of trial and error. For example, some of the cables in the included wiring kit are label, and some are not because the printing didn't hit "just right". The manual doesn't tell you what they are for, so your left to hope that they followed convention (they did, kind of). If you've never installed a car stereo before, you probably don't know what convention is (in this case, yellow is constant power (battery), red is ignition, black is ground, orange illumination and blue is antenna power). Also, they don't go into nearly enough detail on removing the factory climate controls and the instructions they do give are wrong (Micheal is right, turn the temp all the way to cold).

The second problem, and this is unforgivable, is that the clips that they use to secure the kit into the dash do not work. I know this because that's how my first car's stereo was stolen. Instead of taking the stereo, they probably just used their fingers to easily pull the whole kit off of the dashboard. The problem is that the spring steal clips on either side of the radio weren't designed like the factory's . They don't have a sharp edge touching the inside edge of the dash. Instead, it's a rounded bump, which results in merely "suggesting" that the radio counsel might stay in place if it so chooses. It's a terrible design and I have no idea why they made it this way. It would have probably been easier to provide screw holes to put the factory clips in place, which work so well that you actually need a tool to remove the kit, instead of just your fingers or a harsh bump.

Finally, the look of the kit isn't perfect, but you kind of expect that. It's not factory and designing something that doesn't look like it came from Radio Shack parts and a week in shop class would have priced this kit beyond the reach of people that drive Escorts.

But, it would have taken no extra expense to make use of the factory clips and minimal effort to flesh out the manual. So they get 1 star. Unfortunately, if you want an after market stereo in your beloved Escort, I think this is your only choice.

Tabs would not hold and snapped off when I tried to spread them out. The defrost button has never worked. Poor fit required trimming of the dash.

my name is Steven. im 17, and just bought a 1998 ford escort. it had the factory radio in it and i had a bunch of stereo stuff i bought but couldnt install because i needed an adapting faceplate. so i found this, i ordered it and it came when it was suppose to. and for any of you that are going to attempt to install their stereo head themselves expect ALOT of work. the worst part was taking the hot/cold knob/wire off the factory faceplate. since the faceplate doesnt come out alot you have very little room to work in. mi hands and arms were all scratched up by the time i finished the install.
anyways when i finnaly got the factory faceplate off i had to figure where the adapting wire harness went because there is 2 different places to put them. one is the power wires and the other is the speaker wires. the harness that comes with the kit goes on the power wires and your stereo head should come with its own wire harness that goes on the speaker ones.
after that i connected the climate control knobs back, which was pretty easy(the factory screws that went anywhere on the old faceplate did not fit on the new one)but thats ok i installed my kit w/o them and its working just fine.

then i tried to put the faceplate in but it wouldnt go in all the way. i had to trim the plastic in the opening. which wasnt really a problem, it looks really bad but u dont see it after its all done.(it is annoying tho that i had to do that though)It popped in there fine after i gave it a couple good pushes. after i connected all the wires i tried to put the stereo head in. it would only go half way in. i finnaly figured out that one of the big bundle of wires that went to the climate control knobs was barely in the way. so make sure all your wires are out of the way. after that i was done!

it works but its very cheap. its flat, it could b alittle more round like the factory faceplate is. and where the hot/cold colors are its just basicly a punched out sticker thats inlayed in the faceplate. very easy for it to come/fall off.

other than the cheap quality and having to trim plastic for it to fit its ok. but theres not many options for the ford escort.

(and if your escort is manual like mine it'll be even more uncomfortable putting this kit in).

I have heard many things about this product, an aftermarket adaptation to allow the installation of an aftermarket radio.
I understand in the world of aftermarket that you want to deliver a product that is functionally sufficient for the need. It serves its purpose, this kit...and the addition of the harness was a big bonus.
But I would have molded the shell a bit more rounded to conform with the OEM product, had a flat surface matte rather than the type they used and used the same style of A/C control labelling....maybe a more expensive item, but one people like me would be willing to pay for.
All in all, from receipt of the kit to installation in my vehicle....a satisfactory product that looks alright in my vehicle.

Everything is fine about this product except that the latching mechanism is not the same as the stock version. This means you have to make your own modifications so that it will fit properly. This means cutting parts out of the dash.

This product was definitely a bit more difficult to install than I had anticipated mainly due to the rough time I had trying to disconnect the temperature control cable on the factory dash. I ended up just taking the dash out as much as I could and disconnecting it that way instead of trying to reach under the dash.

After installed, my Sony GT410U fits in there quite nicely but it does feel, as someone else pointed out, that the entire dash could be easily removed if someone really wanted to. Make no mistake though, it won't fall out on you while you're driving but is liable to be easily ripped out if someone had the intention of doing so.

All in all, it gets the job done. The texture and LED lights that light up the air vent controls are a bit different from stock but that doesn't really bother me. This product could be a bit better but it's pretty much the only option you've got if you want to install an after market radio into your Escort.

quite a poor quality, cheap plastic, but I guess this is the only product of its kind for ford escort- so there is no much choise.
Manual is not very helpful. Hovewer it is very easy to mount/dismout controls to/from the adapter.