I've been really pleased with the Zune integration in the Mustang so far. The sound quality is great and it's really reliable (being able to sync wirelessly when the car is on the drive is a bonus as well) but I wanted to see how hard it would be to do a full head unit integration...

Well, SoundGate, the folks who made the original ZuneCORE module I was using have just released their head unit integration for a long list of manufacturers - and my Mustang just happened to be on the list! So I had a small challenge of getting the FDZN4 unit installed in my Pony over the weekend.

Installation was remarkably straight-forward. I'm not the most technical of folks but managed it with no more tools than a cross head screwdriver, one socket and some electrical tape to hold things in place. In less than an hour I was able to use the controls on the factory original stereo to control the Zune as though it was an integral part of the car.

They say a picture tells a thousand words, so here's some pictures of my little installation:

If you're not a Zune user yet you should check it one out. If you have a Zune and wonder how you can integrate it with your car or boat check out SoundGate or the Zune Accessories site for other ways to enhance your listening and viewing experience. I'm wondering if I can feed the video out to a rear seat monitor now for Rhiannon...

While I really like the look of my 2007 Mustang I’ve always been a fan of the “classic” late ‘60s models.

In an ideal world this would mean one thing – a 1967 Convertible in the garage alongside the contemporary model.

Sadly at my pay-grade (and the need to have something more practical to ferry the family and dogs around in) I have to be a little more realistic… so thanks to the folks at AutoFX in Tacoma I’ve now got a “Pony Package” grill with fog lights and the corralled Pony emblem that harks back to the original GTs.

As we were adding more light to the front of the car I took the opportunity to get them to fit a daytime running kit as well, so the car lights up now whenever the ignition is on (given the dark mornings we’re having here at the moment I think that’s a good idea!).

While they were behind the dash, and because they know their way around the wiring loom a lot better than I do, I also got them to properly hardware the ZuneCORE so it’s now only powered when the radio is (saves me having to remember to unplug it!).

Now I have to negotiate with Rhiannon for some other small changes I want to make (I know, she’s 9 but already decided that when she passes Drivers Ed that the Mustang will be hers – I’ve agreed, for now, on the condition her grades are good…. if she uses this post in evidence against me in 7 years time I guess I asked for it!)

AutoFX did an excellent job and I’ll be going back there! Strongly recommended, and well worth the drive from Redmond even in rush hour :)

(okay, so the headline was a stretch but I’ve not used alliteration on a regular basis since Big Brother so cut me some slack!)

So, it’s been a fun couple of weeks with the Mustang. Apart from the weather not really being ideal for the open top lifestyle there is something nice about rugging up warm and having the wind in your hair (must be something about living in QLD and moving to the PNW that makes the Mustang attractive!)

Mats (and Wheel bling!)

The first little things the ‘stang is now sporting are new mats (gotta try and keep the dog hair under control) and Pony logos on the wheels (to match the dust cap covers).

Both the mats and the center caps came from a great eBay seller Bullitt03722 – it’s great to find someone who’s selling because they understand the emotion behind personalizing your ride (was the only place I could find the right color mats, and one of the only places that list a price for the center caps as a 4 pack rather than make you order individually). If you’re in the market for Mustang parts give him a go.

MPG (and more)

I knew when I got it that the ‘stang didn’t have the usual collection to gauges and computers that modern car owners have come to expect. Even the Jeep tells me the miles per gallon and has a bunch of other gauges I don’t ever look at… but with the current economic environment and gas prices it’s certainly been more topical.

Something I didn’t know is that pretty much every car since 1996 in North America (and Europe and Australia) has a connector for On Board Diagnostics (ODB-II)… while the usual use for this is to let a mechanic find out what’s wrong when the “check” light comes on it also provides a whole lot of real-time data about that’s going on in the car – from oil pressure to water temperature, selected gear and accelerator position, speed and quantity of fuel consumed.

There are a bunch of options including the very sophisticated DashDaq and Trinity (which allows you to tune your engine parameters) but I went for a simple but flexible ScanGaugeII which has a great set of features out of the box and also allows you to select vehicle specific gauges to display as well (the Mustang, for instance, reports Fuel Tank Level via ODB-II. Sadly I can’t find pressures from the Tire Pressure Monitoring System – that would be very neat).

As expected I’ve discovered that top down motoring costs a little more in fuel (though windows up and top down is better) – it’s not been very scientific but it’s shown me some things that have worked…

MAFS (and zMax)

In the quest to try and improve MPG and low end pickup and general smoothness (it’s a V6 not the more muscle-bound 4.6 V8 GT after all) a couple of folks suggested I replace the Mass Air Flow Sensor with an aftermarket option… and as the job was well within my mechanical capabilities (two screws, 10 minutes including time to read the instructions!) I thought I’d give it a go. While it’s probably going to take a long time to pay for itself in gas savings it does seem to have had a difference around the 1-2mpg mark and it’s certainly happier at low revs on these cold mornings.

Because I didn’t know how the car had been treated before I got it I’ve added zMax to both oil and fuel to give it a clean out and smooth over. The results in both the Jeep and the Pony have been noticable – they’re both quieter and feel smoother accelerating. We’ll see over the next couple of weeks as we watch MPG in both cars if it actually makes a difference.

and that leads me to Environmental iMpact

Over the years I’ve been concerned about the carbon footprint of some of the cars I’ve driven so have tried to find ways to offset where I can’t reduce. I try to reduce by taking public transport or telecommuting as often as I can, but here in the US we now subscribe to TerraPass to offset both cars and some of our household emissions. TerraPass offer both carbon balancing credit schemes but also have an online retail store where you can purchase cool power saving, monitoring and generating gadgets (including the ScanGauge)

In Australia we subscribed to Greenfleet and in the UK CarbonZero. We are also saving for a tree in the Carbon Grove thanks to the Internet Explorer team :)

I’ve got some more things planned in the next couple of weeks (not least working out how to fix the ScanGauge to the dash in a more user friendly way!)

One area that my Mustang is rather lacking is in-car audio. It comes with a pretty basic radio and a single slot(mp3 capable) CD player. That causes some issues when we use the car for the family as we have fairly varied music tastes.

In the Jeep the answer is fairly simple – we have a 6 CD in-dash changer so swapping CDs and having some variety is easy. Back in Australia we had an old iPod and an FM transmitter, but here there is so much contention on the FM waveband that it wasn’t really a usable solution.

The Mustang does have a 3.5mm audio input jack (mini-jack) but to use that from either an iPod or the Zune requires you to push the volume up to maximum to get a decent signal and by that point the quality is pretty compromised.

Luckily it turns out that there is a solution. SoundGate have a product called ZuneCore which provides a simple solution for my Mustang but also pretty much any other vehicle on the market. They provide solutions which allow full integration with your existing head unit and steering wheel mounted audio controls through to a generic solution (which can even integrate with a fairly common Sony wired remote control).

As my solution is one step in a longer plan (and I don’t have steering wheel mounted controls!) I went for the Universal Zune solution which comprises of a Zune Sync cable which connects to their breakout box. That then has connectors for audio out (3.5mm and RCA audio and video), power in (either from a cigarette lighter/auxiliary socket via the supplied adapter or a supplied fused direct splice) and remote control input (for a Sony wired remote).

The ZuneCore breakout box is so small that mounting it in the floor console under the cup holders was all of about 10 minutes work. The Zune Sync cable then comes out in the passenger footwell while the power and audio cables go under the console to emerge in the storage compartment where there is a handy Line In and auxiliary power jack (given time I’d have spliced power and connected to the back of the radio directly but this was quick and easy!)

That just left the mounting solution itself. Luckily that turned out to be just as easy. ProClip USA supply a series of universal mounts (3 different choices of location for the Mustang, only one location for the Jeep Liberty but it’s perfect to mount the GPS). Once you’ve selected the mount position you then pair it with the accessory mount (which means it’s easy to change the device in the future without having to replace the bracket).

To mount the Zune in the Mustang was pretty simple… the mount sticks to the sidewall in the passenger footwell (one friction clip and two sticky pads) and the Zune swivel mount connects to the front with a single screw. The Jeep mount was a little harder as there were two parts to align and clip into creases in the dash but not much harder.

Now for about 20 minutes work all told I have my Zune mounted securely in the car. It charges, I control the volume through the built in head unit and quality is as good as a CD with no FM transmitter or line level audio interference. The best thing about the solution is when I park in my drive I can even sync my recent plays back to my PC and grab new music via WiFi and never remove it from the car.

It must be a mid-life crisis, or the summer air, but I got a Mustang. I know it’s a gas guzzler and something that I shouldn’t do both for the planet and my wallet but it’s not going to be an every day driver (I’ll continue to ride and bus to work unless the weather is great!)

It’s a really nice car, but pretty low tech. No GPS, no leather, no electrically adjusted seats etc… but that’s all to the good as I intend to experiment over time and upgrade and update bits to make it more comfortable and environmentally friendly (maybe one day there will be a practical Hybrid conversion!)

So far the only changed have been the addition of LoJack, Sequential tail lights and a ZuneCORE adapter for music while I’m rollin’ … other minor electronic and cosmetic tweaks to come…