Don't get your wires crossed!

[pdilecce]

Always verify aftermarket purchases.

So, I received my Wild Track Bronco on Monday. I ordered all my new speakers months ago. Yes, B&O paper speakers were out the next day.

(Ford should offer a prewire speakerless option)

Here is the problem. I purchased the SSV BR-B65

So you would expect the red to be positive and the black to be negative, right? Nope.

Thanks to the post by Ksjrb03 where I found the wiring diagrams for the B&O speaker wiring. This is an awesome forum!

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/b-o-sound-system-complete-upgrade-done-✅.41031/

Here, you can see that the connector wired to red on the SSV will connect to the negative terminal on the Ford connector.

If the speaker polarity is incorrect, your sound will be as if you are backstage at a concert. I experienced this with connectors I purchased years ago on Amazon for my F150.

Picture of Left Rear connectors (same problem on the Right Rear)

This is my quick fix. I opened up the spear and reversed the connections.

I went with the Infinity Speakers, and I am so happy with them. No DSP amps for now.

Hope this helps someone attempting a speaker swap.

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[Lcubed]

if you're replacing all the speakers, and you've wired the blacks and reds consistently, it won't matter since they'll all have consistent phase relative to each other.

on the other hand, if they're not all wired the same, some of the speakers will be out of phase and it will sound strange.

so, be consistent!

 

[pdilecce]

if you're replacing all the speakers, and you've wired the blacks and reds consistently, it won't matter since they'll all have consistent phase relative to each other.

on the other hand, if they're not all wired the same, some of the speakers will be out of phase and it will sound strange.

so, be consistent!
[/QUOTE

I'm not a professional car audio installer, but this is what I experienced in the past. I do have a degree is Electronics.

I replaced all the speakers on my F150 in 2016, and all had them all reverse polarity. I researched and purchased a product below to test for incorrect polarity. It came with a listening device and a CD to play test sounds. Found that the adapters purchased on Amazon were all reversed.

To lazy to find a cd player to convert to a jump drive, so I made sure to follow the Ford wiring diagram this tme on the Bronco.

Polarity Matters.

 

[Felix808]

Yep, people make mistakes, always verify wiring before going live.
I had a similar issue with some aftermarket run /turn signal lights on one of the Harleys. They had split the grounds between the lights so it was not working as it should.

 

[Squatch]

Just to clarify: Ford made no mistake here; the aftermarket pods you bought are deceptively colored? (or coloured for some people)

 

[Lcubed]

i'm just a retired test engineer who works with very large speaker arrays

from https://audiouniversityonline.com/speaker-polarity/
Reversed Polarity with Multiple Speakers
Reversing polarity with multiple speakers can cause more noticeable effects. If both speakers are wired the same, whether in the correct polarity or reversed polarity, there will be virtually no effect. However, what if one speaker is wired in the correct polarity and the other is reversed? This will cause a significant effect.

so, it doesn't matter as long as you're consistent

 

[pdilecce]

Just to clarify: Ford made no mistake here; the aftermarket pods you bought are deceptively colored? (or coloured for some people)

You are correct. Ford did not make a mistake. The aftermarket product did.

 

[iambigd]

Reading this thread got me thinking, so I went out and tested the polarity with the SSV Works pods. As you can clearly see from the pictures, the polarity is reversed. Thanks for posting this. I alerted SSV so they can figure it out. Great catch!

Red to red and Black to Black. It may be hard to see; next to the first zero is a - (reversed) for negative.

Red to Black and Black to Red. No "-" showing the correct polarity.

Thanks again for posting the wiring diagrams. Super helpful!

 

[Brian_B]

I fall prey to this more times than I care to admit.

 

[box986]

Just rec'd unloaded SSV pods for a 2dr (07/2025) & they are wired backwards. I called the company and they said they never heard that before and asked for pics. A few hours later they did get back to me and confirmed the polarity is backwards! Wonder how many Bronco folks are out of phase with their pod speakers???

 

[Brian_B]

Just rec'd unloaded SSV pods for a 2dr (07/2025) & they are wired backwards. I called the company and they said they never heard that before and asked for pics. A few hours later they did get back to me and confirmed the polarity is backwards! Wonder how many Bronco folks are out of phase with their pod speakers???

Known issue with Metra adapters for factory 4” speakers - many of them came wired backwards

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