Willie

Yes, the regular manual method has worked perfectly for me twice now. That being the case, I haven't bothered to fool with the magnet routine. I can maybe understand the tire jockeys at the tire retailer not knowing the correct procedure. They service lots of different cars and aren't "master mechanics" to begin with. But I agree that it is absolutely inexcusable for the the Ford dealership mechanics not to know how to reset this system. The problem may be that even the dealership does not use their actual mechanics for things like tire changes or oil changes. These easy chores they delegate to the lesser trainee types. KInda' scary and a good reason to use a reliable independent mechanic or else do these things for yourself.

My guess is that many of us may be doing this in a few years! The euro version light probably would cost a lot to obtain in the states and may present problems with state safety inspections. Better idea for Ford: How about a simple screw on the top of the ridiculous thing!! Don't they employ engineers any more?

Mine look to be about half way worn out at a bit over 20,000 miles. I didn't measure the tread depth, but I expect about 40,000 miles of life. Just for curiosity I checked at my favorite tire outlet to find that the original equipment Continentals were the only tires they currently recommend for the TC. There must be others who have worn out the original tires by now.

Welcome Chris. Most of us here love our T.C.s. Perfect for the cribs, playpens and like that? In a few years will work for bicycles too!

Good question and I know what you are after. That hard plastic gets annoying on a long trip. My answer has been a chunk of memory foam covered by upholstery fabric. It is designed to go on a shoulder belt, I guess for people who find a shoulder belt uncomfortable. (?) I picked it up for a dollar at the local bargain outlet store. It is the right size and works okay, but I have not attached it permanently.

Nice work Mike, and thanks for sharing.

But plenty of room for the loot!

Kmart has some black ones in the same price range. They look good on my silver Connect.

Just a wild guess since you haven't had any other answers. Could be an alignment issue which has the tire rubbing on the fender liner at full steering extension.

Please let us (me) know how your new guards fit. I agree that there is always a lot of road crud behind both front and rear wheels.

Me three. Lots of stones stuck in the tread. My Continentals seem about half gone at 20,000 miles. Not bad, but not great either. I have zero air pressure loss, and do not notice any of the excessive noise mentioned by others. (Of course, I suspect that may depend a lot on expectation levels too.) My brakes don't seem to be wearing as fast as some others are. I normally do not haul heavy loads though, so that may be the difference. I do get a lot of brake dust, but wear is moderate.

Be careful what you store in the overhead bin. I wouldn't want to see you get clobbered on the noggin! "Stuff" does fall out of mine on occasion.

Yeah, the one on the passenger side is a big wide goofy thing. The blades I bought did not have the proper J hook adapter either, so I just used the adapter from the original blade. Question: why is it necessary to have fourteen different wiper attachment styles when they all do the same thing? Just another mystery of the universe, I suppose.

Actually, Christian already posted some pictures here: and mine looks just like his. (I know it can be hard to find posts on this forum because of too many categories.) I feel for you, pal. I have a cousin with MS and its a very bad deal! Good luck with the cots.

A sulfuric smell in the cab is a classic symptom of catalytic converter malfunction. Maybe it is something else but I would have it checked out.

Thanks for the suggestion. I also wound up buying four new plastic hubcaps from amazon. Mine are black with chrome trim, but I haven't received them yet.

The wipers that came on my TC were very hard and worked very poorly. I could have gone back to the dealer but it seemed so much easier to buy a set of blades at Walmart. Nothing exotic, just wiper blades. Less than ten bucks and now they are fine. I suspect the originals were just old stock. My washer seemed to have a sort of vapor lock or something. After I opened the reservoir cap once , they began to work normally.

I was thinking of the Edsel. I do remember the Corvair selector too. That was a strange one!.

Yeah, and I just bought two Coleman cots at the Walmart yesterday. They are not exactly the same as the ones suggested from Academy, but they work perfectly. I prefer not to use the thin pads that come with the cots, but rather a foam mattress from an old sleeper sofa. It covers both cots and is more comfortable that way. Be careful, not just any cot will fit right. The wheel wells will interfere with the legs on some. By the way, I can drive with the cots set up, and if I lower just the front legs on each cot, I can also push the seat all the way back for maximum leg room. A medium sized suitcase will slide under the cots from the back doors (or the side doors if you don't drop the front legs). Terrific solution if you want a minimalist approach, as opposed to the classic built-in style. Thanks Christian! The only thing is that without opening back windows it can get a little stuffy in there on a warm night, and condensation can be a bit of a mess. I mounted a 12 volt fan on the overhead shelf that works very well to correct that drawback. I am afraid of draining the battery by running it all night though. (I know I should test it out in the garage but I have been too lazy to do that so far.) I plan on buying one of those rechargeable jump starter gizmos to power the fan. Of course, that can also be put to a lot of other uses.

I just remembered one car that had the push buttons in the steering wheel hub. It will take an old-timer to guess which one.

Of course it could be. Chrysler built all their automatics like that for several years. They did have some problems with them but probably no more than with a gear selector lever. I don't think a column mounted lever would cause any difficulty in reaching the other controls either. Some cars have even had two levers on one side of the wheel, but its a moot point anyhow. They built it with the floor lever.

As you can see here, Bill, some of us love the thing while others loathe it. I agree with you though- great utility, reasonable gas mileage, adequate performance. Sure is not a hot rod, nor or a luxury limo, certainly far from gorgeous, but it suits me too.

Are you perhaps planning a mobile brewery? Could be a hit at tailgates!

Great! Most of us here do seem to like our vans, but a couple are dissatisfied.

Its absolutely asinine that the original, in-the-door location was not acceptable to the U.S. regulators. I mean really, how much difference could it make? The rooftop location is a leak waiting to happen.