2001 Lincoln LS, stereo system

Yes, I have a lot of experience with this car.  Which model do you have, the standard or sport?  Do you have the Alpine or the CD6 head unit?  Trouble areas include there is no ignition trigger power as this vehicle uses CAN databus for amplifier activation, so plan a low-voltage relay off the HU speaker outputs to turn your sub amp on and off.  The door panels have several hidden screws including under a cup inside the armrest handles and under the black plastic inside the door handles.  The factory speaker size is 6X8 and the mounting area is plastic, so it is difficult to modify.  No special tools required.  Yes, you can run wires down the center tunnel (the console pulls off with no screws holding it) and under the rear seat (the seat cushion removes with two locks on the front underside.  If you need a wiring diagram, do a search on this forum for Lincoln LS as I've posted it before.

If you have the Alpine "audiophile" system there are several other things you will need to know.

This car can be a great SQ platform, by the way.

I'll check after work today and get back to you.  Funny, it bottoms out below casual listening levels on just about any kind of music.  It's not the autostick.

I'll post back tonight.

OK.  If you plan to place a sub in the trunk, I recommend you remove the factory sub system.  The whole under-shelf assembly comes out as one piece that includes the amp and the two factory subwoofers.  It unplugs from a connector located on the driver's side upper corner.  This connector can be used for signal to your aftermarket amplifier, although you'll have to cut it off and solder in your own RCA cables, etc.  You can also get a switched hot here to use as the remote trigger on your amp, although the output is only 7 volts.  If you do not want to tackle this, I recommend you simply unplug it and leave it alone. 

The trunk connector (on the drivers side) is number C465 and the sub audio uses these pins:

As far as the center channel, if you are leaving the factory head in place, leave them alone.  If you want to upgrade to better speakers, you'll want to use 3" mids or tweeters, although it is really difficult to find something that will fit in the very shallow mounting location.  These speakers are part of the HU's DSP functions.  If the DSP is off, these speakers are deactivated.

The four door speakers are powered off the head unit amplifier rated at 20 watts per channel RMS.  If you leave it intact the only thing you'll need to make the speaker swap easier is the Ford speaker adapters that you can buy from places like Crutchfield.  I recommend if you install a component set to mount the tweeter in a custom baffle along side the woofer in the OEM door locations.

The LS is designed so that the rear speakers cannot be heard from the front seat locations (or at least not heard well enough to compete with the front sound stage.)  If you replace these, I suggest 6X8 coaxials.

If you are planning to power the main speakers from an aftermarket amplifier, I recomend the Metra into car PLUS the Metra into-radio harness adapters, as this will enable you easy access to the factory speaker wiring.  If yu want to run new speaker wires to all four doors, this is very tough indeed and should only be attenpted by a seasoned pro. 

Adding amplifiers is fairly easy since the battery in in the trunk.  I used a piece of plywood cut to fit over the spare tire and mounted amps, crossovers, etc. to this.  Then you power cables can be 10" long and connect directly to the battery positive and ground.  The OEM alternator on the V8 model produces 135 amps, with a normal service load on the vehicle of about 65-70 amps.  This leave plenty of juice for small to mid-level amps.  The V6 model has a much smaller standard Ford alternator of about 85 amps capacity, so if your car is a V6 you may need to upgrade the alt no matter what size are your amps..

Upgrading this car can be a real pain in the neck, but it is a very fine performing SQ vehicle if you take your time and spend some money.  The 2001-2003 models are fairly well sound-proofed.  One weak spot is the front door panels can develop rattles related to the switches and electronics that are mounted in them.  You may have to secure them from the back side using silicone cement.

Cheers.

Mine is the V8 model, so that helps in the electrical dept.  What I had planned to do was add some 5.25 components in the front, and just some coax (5x7 or 6x8) in the rear doors.  Sounds like I may not even need that though....seems like rear fill is not as highly regarded as it once was.  I do plan on running a single 12" in the trunk.  Looking at the 4ch Alpine MRV-F345 to run everything.  Should I just forego the rears altogether?  What kind of SQ will this give me?  Thinking JL or MBQ for the comps with a Alpine Type S in the trunk.  What do you think?

As far as the remote trigger only being 7 volts, what kind of problems will this create?

As far as installing the amp, I can pull the signal for the amp from the connector in the driver's side trunk (just have to turn the wires into RCA to feed the amp, correct?).  Is this only for the sub, or is it a full range signal?  If it's not full range, I guess I'll have to put in a LOC up near the HU and run RCA to the amp in the rear and then speaker cable up to the fronts and tie in to the factory wiring.  I do not want to attempt to run new speaker wires for this car.  It looks mighty ugly...

Use whatever front component set you like the sound of the most.  If you are leaving the rear speakers connected to head unit power, don't bother upgrading them unless you want to (they are Alpine 2-way component plate speakers and are decent sounding for rear fill.)  Powering the front components and the sub from the same 4-channel amp is generally not a problem, as long as you use an efficient subwoofer that will perform well on the available power.  The audio signal in the trunk connector is crossed over for just the subwoofers and yes, you can solder RCA connectors onto the factory wiring if you want to.  Yes, you will have to use an LOC to get a line-level signal from the front speaker outputs on the HU to send a full-range signal to your amp.  The Metra adapters you will need are 70-1771 and 71-1771.  I highly recommend you remove the rear deck sub system if you add an aftermarket subwoofer (these sell on eBay for up to $200.)

There are several non-audio related issues with your car (I used to own one) that you should be aware of.  Send me a PM if you're interested in hearing about them.