Ford Sync Guide

Ford SYNC 1 vehicles as shown below are not compatible with this product:

Ford SYNC 2

In 2010 Ford Released SYNC 2, which uses a touchscreen and a Microsoft operating system, on some vehicles starting with the Focus and the C-Max in Europe. It is easily distinguishable by the 8” colour display which was split into 4 distinct sections for phone, entertainment, navigation and climate control. This harness will connect a reverse camera to an original SYNC 2 head unit which then needs coding to recognise the input of a reverse camera. 

Ford SYNC 3

SYNC3 was released in 2016, initially on the Fiesta on Zetec level trim and above. SYNC 3 runs on either a 6.5” or 8” touch screen and is quickly distinguishable by having 5 icons at the lower edge of the screen as can be seen below. Like SYNC 2, this harness is used to connect a reverse camera and requires coding to recognise the camera.

SYNC 3 is now found on a range of vehicles, some have it all built into the screen, while others have a separate module behind the glove box and the screen on the dashboard is only a peripheral input device. If your vehicle is built from 2018 onwards, take great care in deciding if it is equipped with SYNC 3 or SYNC 2.5 before deciding on the products you need. The two look very similar but do not use the same connections for any of the radio functions. A SYNC 3 will use a large latched connection as can be seen in the product photos.

Ford SYNC 2.5

In late 2018, coinciding with the facelift of the Transit and Transit Custom, Ford released a very similar system to SYNC 3 which has since been dubbed SYNC 2.5. This is difficult to spot as even in marketing material Ford has not differentiated between the two systems, yet behind the screen they have completely different connections. Unlike the SYNC 3 units with its latched connection (either on the screen or on a separate module) SYNC 2.5 uses two square connections directly to the back of the screen without a latch.

The first way to tell if you have SYNC 2.5 if you haven’t yet removed the screen is to check the number of icons at the bottom of the screen. If it has five then it is SYNC 3, if it has four then next view the ‘About SYNC’ screen in system settings. Here if it shows ‘SYNC 3’ then you have SYNC 3 even if you only have 4 icons, if it shows ‘SYNC’ then you have SYNC 2.5.