Ordered 12" Sync 4 upgraded radio from Panda Motorworks and still waiting.

[umpkey]

Has anyone ordered the Sync 4 12" upgrade from Panda Motorworks and actually received it? I ordered and paid for it on June 30th and still waiting. Every time I email for status update I get there is a parts delay, the ones that came in wouldn't program right. When I first called and asked I was told that orders were running 3 weeks behind which would have been nice to know before making my order. Here I wait wondering if it is ever going to arrive or if I paid a lot of money for nothing. Just very frustrating.

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[Jtitzer56]

I ordered mine on June 10th and got it last Friday. Theres another thread talking about the issue and someone from panda said they are going to give more frequent updates.

https://www.mavericktruckclub.com/f...nversion-available-at-panda-motorworks.68367/

 

[Red Eyes - Wide Shut]

I ordered mine on June 10th and got it last Friday. Theres another thread talking about the issue and someone from panda said they are going to give more frequent updates.

https://www.mavericktruckclub.com/f...nversion-available-at-panda-motorworks.68367/

Can you keep us in the loop on the install and dealing with Panda. I heard some bad comments on them. Maybe better now.

 

[RONR11]

Can you keep us in the loop on the install and dealing with Panda. I heard some bad comments on them. Maybe better now.

Go to the site “OEMPLUS” Sam is a Great guy to deal with.
If you want ( like I did)
Go to Car parts.com you need a harness from Sam and a monitor of your liking, I got an escape 13.2 more horizontal then find a ACM and APIM then send to Sam to program, less than a thousand total

 

[Jtitzer56]

Can you keep us in the loop on the install and dealing with Panda. I heard some bad comments on them. Maybe better now.

The install only took about 45 minutes but I've had everything apart to swap in a sync 4 apim and then swapped back to sync 3 before. The hardest part on the install is getting the connectors on the apim unplugged. I folded in the legs on the apim bracket to give me some more room to unplug them and then you can pull it out to unplug the apim from the bracket.

The kit itself was pretty good, for the current price though I'd probably look into seeing if itd be cheaper to buy the screen and apim on your own and just get the wire harness and screen adapter from OEMPlus. The cable that goes from the apim to the screen has 2 clips to secure it to the dash but one was the wrong type, so I'm just using 1 of them but they're just a couple inches apart so it's probably ok.

It looks like they do the programming for an XL/XLT. I have a Lariat so I had to use forscan to change a few things, like the screen to change the door keypad code was missing, it didnt show the passenger side temperature, and the HD radio tuner wasn't enabled(still not sure that it's working even after enabling it). I'm still working on the programming to try and get the cards that show fuel mileage and stuff to work but as far as I can tell everything is working like stock now.

As for Panda, I've seen lots of complaints on their Facebook ads from people about taking a long time to get stuff and it took over 2 months for me to get what I ordered. In that thread I linked he said they had sent out automated ETA update emails and personally reached out to most, I never got either of those. I reached out to them twice and got the same copy/paste answer everyone else got. It doesn't seem like it would be very difficult or cause any issues for them to say something like there's 7 orders ahead of you and were expecting to be able ship 5 this week and 5 more in two weeks. I lost a lot of money to Fast Mavericks so it was making me a little nervous not getting any update or the same vague answers he'd give.

 

[RONR11]

The install only took about 45 minutes but I've had everything apart to swap in a sync 4 apim and then swapped back to sync 3 before. The hardest part on the install is getting the connectors on the apim unplugged. I folded in the legs on the apim bracket to give me some more room to unplug them and then you can pull it out to unplug the apim from the bracket.

The kit itself was pretty good, for the current price though I'd probably look into seeing if itd be cheaper to buy the screen and apim on your own and just get the wire harness and screen adapter from OEMPlus. The cable that goes from the apim to the screen has 2 clips to secure it to the dash but one was the wrong type, so I'm just using 1 of them but they're just a couple inches apart so it's probably ok.

It looks like they do the programming for an XL/XLT. I have a Lariat so I had to use forscan to change a few things, like the screen to change the door keypad code was missing, it didnt show the passenger side temperature, and the HD radio tuner wasn't enabled(still not sure that it's working even after enabling it). I'm still working on the programming to try and get the cards that show fuel mileage and stuff to work but as far as I can tell everything is working like stock now.

As for Panda, I've seen lots of complaints on their Facebook ads from people about taking a long time to get stuff and it took over 2 months for me to get what I ordered. In that thread I linked he said they had sent out automated ETA update emails and personally reached out to most, I never got either of those. I reached out to them twice and got the same copy/paste answer everyone else got. It doesn't seem like it would be very difficult or cause any issues for them to say something like there's 7 orders ahead of you and were expecting to be able ship 5 this week and 5 more in two weeks. I lost a lot of money to Fast Mavericks so it was making me a little nervous not getting any update or the same vague answers he'd give.
It took Sam 2 weeks to reprogram my APIM /ACM but it took weeks to modify my 13.2 and leave the dash intact

The install only took about 45 minutes but I've had everything apart to swap in a sync 4 apim and then swapped back to sync 3 before. The hardest part on the install is getting the connectors on the apim unplugged. I folded in the legs on the apim bracket to give me some more room to unplug them and then you can pull it out to unplug the apim from the bracket.

The kit itself was pretty good, for the current price though I'd probably look into seeing if itd be cheaper to buy the screen and apim on your own and just get the wire harness and screen adapter from OEMPlus. The cable that goes from the apim to the screen has 2 clips to secure it to the dash but one was the wrong type, so I'm just using 1 of them but they're just a couple inches apart so it's probably ok.

It looks like they do the programming for an XL/XLT. I have a Lariat so I had to use forscan to change a few things, like the screen to change the door keypad code was missing, it didnt show the passenger side temperature, and the HD radio tuner wasn't enabled(still not sure that it's working even after enabling it). I'm still working on the programming to try and get the cards that show fuel mileage and stuff to work but as far as I can tell everything is working like stock now.

As for Panda, I've seen lots of complaints on their Facebook ads from people about taking a long time to get stuff and it took over 2 months for me to get what I ordered. In that thread I linked he said they had sent out automated ETA update emails and personally reached out to most, I never got either of those. I reached out to them twice and got the same copy/paste answer everyone else got. It doesn't seem like it would be very difficult or cause any issues for them to say something like there's 7 orders ahead of you and were expecting to be able ship 5 this week and 5 more in two weeks. I lost a lot of money to Fast Mavericks so it was making me a little nervous not getting any update or the same vague answers he'd give.

I dealt with Sam with my ACM /APIM programming in 2 weeks before he got all the orders

 

[Linux]

Just to give an update I also bought mine from panda before I knew where they sources the kit from. I bought on June 13th and still waiting for it to ship and like others lack of communication. Before ordering I do know there was a 3 week delay but that has obviously come and gone.

 

[icegradner]

Likely a low volume item they order from suppliers as orders come in. Wouldn't be surprised if the parts are scraped from junk yards.

 

[TomT62]

Ordered mine June 15th nothing,no emails. Not happy.

 

[Red Eyes - Wide Shut]

Ordered mine June 15th nothing,no emails. Not happy.

That is because they get the parts from junk yards and or possibly dealers. Sourcing of the Ford parts is and will be the delay.

 

[Red Eyes - Wide Shut]

Did you use PayPal. You could've filed a claim. Bad thing is, they know you want it and you won't push for a refund. It might be time to do that. I've thought about going your route, but not now.

 

[umpkey]

Well update time. Ordered June30th, 2025. Arrived October 24th, 2025. Installed it the morning of October 25th, What a good bit of work removing the old stuff especially the old APIM and installed all the new stuff and......Nothing worked. Just a blank dead screen. So frustrating to wait all this time, spend hours putting it in and to just have to take it all back out again because none of it worked. Looked forward to it for so long made me sick to my stomach. I guess I will have to ship it back and wait who knows how many more months again to get a working unit. Just wanted to let you all know that was following this.

 

[TomT62]

Well update time. Ordered June30th, 2025. Arrived October 24th, 2025. Installed it the morning of October 25th, What a good bit of work removing the old stuff especially the old APIM and installed all the new stuff and......Nothing worked. Just a blank dead screen. So frustrating to wait all this time, spend hours putting it in and to just have to take it all back out again because none of it worked. Looked forward to it for so long made me sick to my stomach. I guess I will have to ship it back and wait who knows how many more months again to get a working unit. Just wanted to let you all know that was following this.

The same thing happened to me took it apart again and re pluged in power cord the plug that has the little lever on it and that worked for me it must have not been pushed down all the way.After that worked great sync 4 is worth the upgrade.Good luck with it but i think youll find thats the issue.

 

[TomT62]

I had that same sick feeling and it was quite a job but way faster the second time yoj can test it before putting it all back together.I was sure i did it right the first time but the plug just was not pushed down all the way. The biggest plug on the APIM.

 

[umpkey]

Wanted to give everyone an update. My kit finally arrived on 10-24-25. Had several things not working which I previously mentioned. Panda concluded it was possibly a bad APIM and sent me a replacement. I installed the screen and new APIM this morning and all previous problems fixed. Everything is working as it should and I am very happy. Panda made good and getting things fixed and getting it worked very pleased to do business with them.

Side not I don't have the passenger side climate temp displaying, there is a box where it should be but no number. Has anyone else had this issue and now to fix/enable that. I feel it is probably a simple FORSCAN fix and I thought I ready someone post they had this minor issue and fixed it with FORSCAN.

Thank you all

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