windguy

Great thread as I have the same question. Looking at the pics that Strobz posted and Desert_connect's pics of the fastener and description of how to remove is very helpful. I think I get it. I hate breaking parts and creating collateral damage. I bought a small panel tool remover kit with some plastic tools and the metal claw one that's pictured so I'm ready to give this a try. Many thanks!

Okay, maybe I've been living in a cave too long, so if you already have one of these, then move along. There's nothing new to read here. My old digital tire gauge was getting really flaky, not engaging the valve very well. Model shown in picture below. Time for a new one. Rather than replace with something similar, I find out you can get a digital gauge and inflator all in one tool. My old inflator had some manual pop up reader but never used it. Picked out the AstroAi 250 (about $30) based on decent reviews and it's the cat's meow. It's so fast to inflate, check pressure, bleed some air out if necessary. There are a few more expensive models but didn't think it was warranted for my monthly pressure checks on two cars. I need to get out of the cave more often. There's a new world out there. https://www.amazon.com/AstroAI-Inflator-Compressor-Accessories-Resolution/dp/B07528LFCT OLD GAUGE NEW GAUGE/INFLATOR

I finally got around to changing the backup light to LEDs. Seems like there is more light now so I think it's a worthwhile mod. Getting the rear lens out was easy on the passenger side but the driver side was caught up and a pain to back out. There's not a whole lot of wiggle room to getting these out. Tight fit. In case someone is wondering, the lens does not have to be removed, just opened enough to get to the rear of the housing to remove the bulb socket. See pic below. Put the new LEDs in, button it up and then grab my wife to help me test it out. Neither light is on. What? Really? Both don't work. Crap! I knew I should have tested it before putting it all back. I recall reading either on this forum or reviews for the bulbs that sometimes the LEDs have to be reversed. Did that and they both fired up just fine. There are an assortment of LED options available but I decided to avoid the lower cost ones and go with Phillips based on quality in the reviews. $20 for the pair. P/N: 12789LPB2 921-WHITE LED. Original bulb is a W16W.

@Alvin - What a great thread. Thanks for sharing great write-ups, pics and awesome videos. You're work in most appreciated. WELL DONE! Your attention to detail shows in the final product. First rate work all around. You've inspired me to get off my butt and make some mods to my cargo van. Looking forward to reading about more mods and videos! Can you please share how to remove the rear side panels in the back? Another forum member asked that same question in another thread somewhere, but I'm not seeing it. My van is cargo, yours is wagon, but I'm sure the panels are installed the same way. Thanks!

I missed seeing this thread originally. Glad two forumites floated it to the top. You made some great mods to your van. Extra points for getting your significant other to help. Hope to see more in the future.

Nice job on your camper van. Thanks for sharing. Great to see you customize the van for your particular needs. Hope to see more in the future.

Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear of your woes. It's entirely possible they are waiting for parts but the story sounds very sketchy at best. Because it's a Titanium I would guess it arrives without any need for adjustments compared to a cargo model that needs to be converted from a wagon model. Seems like it would be early to have recall issues on a 2018 but I have no idea. For business I dealt with a Hyundai processing center for new vehicles coming off the ships and I was appalled at the patch up fixes they did to cars that got damaged either on the ship or getting to the storage lot, especially the body work and painting process. I don't consider that factory paint and a consumer should be notified as such, but that's another subject for another thread. If you're going shopping, I would highly suggest you start by using one of the many car buying services available to get yourself a baseline price. If you're in a major city you should have dealerships that participate in these types of services. I used Costco's car buying service, which was excellent. They connected me with a dealer within 20 miles, but not my closest dealers. Pricing to me was slightly below dealer invoice on a special ordered van. There are other services through AAA, Truecar, etc. They will tell you over the phone or email your cost without even going to the dealer. You can take that pricing to another dealer that's not in the program and see if they will accept it. Best of luck. Please keep us updated.

I think GBL answered your question as it relates to a wagon model. My TC is a cargo model = no rear heating.

The link below just popped up on MSN. Similar article to what MRTN posted above. https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/autos-vans/new-ford-transit-connect-focuses-on-safety-versatility-tech/ar-BBGdmBw?li=BBnb4R5#image=BBGdmBw_1|6 To me the front end looks the same as the current Gen 2. Added safety features sound useful. One of the pics shows a dash that looks different, with an automatic trans shifter. Interesting layout. ADD-ON - That dash is for a full size Transit, not the TC. Per the article, this is all for the Euro market but most likely will follow to the US after with questions on the diesel engine option. BTW - The 2018 TC is now up on the Ford website https://www.ford.com/trucks/transit-connect-passenger-van-wagon/?gnav=header-all-vehicles

Thanks Cynar. When I select the History Tab, nothing shows up. See screen shot below

Cool find - thanks for sharing

Thanks DonS - those are some great tips you shared.

thanks, I'll take a look at that.

@swps - Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new van(s) Both look very sharp. Thanks for sharing pics. Your custom pvc racks looks great. Those planes are very cool looking. Surely not my old man's RC planes from the 70's.

@JoeMan - Thanks for sharing your thoughts and empathy. You are spot on in your thinking.This dealer handled this whole repair or lack of very poorly. Funny how I didn't get a repair survey afterwards. Coincidence? I still may pursue this with another dealer with a different angle this time. If I do decide to pay for it I won't be having the work done at the local dealer. They don't deserve any compensation after jerking me around. Good Will works both ways. YES, you owe us your own build thread. Please share with lots of pics.

@cynar - thanks for posting that about FordEtis. I created a login and checked my VIN. See the below screen grab regarding Software Updates. Those dates were the original mfg dates. Not sure how to interpret that. I didn't see any other service info on my van as well but did see that I haven't had the sliding door latch recall done yet, so that part is correct.

See the post above from Mickster (found on page 1 of this thread) regarding interior lights, that aren't affected by this update. Only changes the exterior lights.

@JackGrimshaw - Thanks for sharing what you did. You made a better mousetrap! Definitely a more refined version of mine. The eyebolt worked out really nice as a latch interface compared to the u-bolt. Crap, now I might have to redo mine to look good like yours. The door insert shim you made looks neat. So you open the door 180deg, slip this shim on and then close the door to 90deg and it won't shut any more? And the shim won't work it way down the arm?

Chapter 4 - Service Advisor (SA) called me back a week later and put the big kibash on making this change as a 'free' in warranty service. Instead of consulting with Ford to find out why they were unable to get dark mode enabled, where they last left off, SA told me Ford told them that there's no way the battery is going to depleted when continually opening the door. Ford says you have to do this more than 200 times before that's an issue. Hard to believe someone even tested doing that. The bottom line is that they will not do this change unless I pay for it and the estimate was $130. I asked if they figured out what's wrong with their programming tool. SA said they tried the dark mode programming on one of their vans and it worked okay. I told them that's because those are current vans that already have the BCM updated, which most likely means that the tech never updated the BCM correctly on my van, even though he said he did. This makes total sense and what poster JoeMan surmised to be the problem. I asked the SA if they could at least verify that the BCM has been updated correctly. Answer - NO. They basically don't want to touch the van unless they can make some money even though they first offered to do the service as a warranty fix and didn't complete the job after saying they did. They claim Ford told them they won't pay them to make this change. Am I disappointed? BIG TIME, but I don't want to make waves with my local service center over a non critical service issue. I thought of taking the van to another dealer, I have the option of three within a 20 mile radius, but I also wonder if my van (by VIN#) has been flagged in the Ford service database against making this change as a warranty fix. I don't think it's worth spending upwards of $130 to make the change since I can use the high beam lever to turn the ext lights off when I leave the side door open and I always leave the windows down as well when parked in the garage. If I shut all doors the ext lights will go out right away, no delay.

Spot on - I would agree. Pretty sure there's a thread or two on this forum that details installing your own backup camera. Good starting point. With no rear windows you're going to like having this feature.

@photoal - Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new TC. Looks great. Cool pic too with the moon rise in the background over a nice mountain range. Sounds like you had a fun intro road trip to get acquainted with the van. Enjoy!

I'm sure rivet nuts can also be used. Another poster on another thread used them as a replacement fastener for his door panels on a cargo van. It was a nice install. The rivet nuts you referenced appear to be for plastic surface. There are ones for metal. But so are the plusnuts and that's what Yakima recommends using them for track installs, so that would be my preference. Keep in mind that if you get a new track you're going to get a bag of plusnuts with the track. But, as I said above, you might be able to use the existing mounting holes if they already have plusnuts or equivalent installed. First taking the old tracks off will answer that question. And drilling new holes in a track so they line up with the existing mounting holes is a very easy step to do. I did that for my install.

There's a good chance you can use the existing holes provided they did a good job in installing something like a plusnut to bolt to. I'm assuming they did. With new tracks you can easily drill holes in the tracks to line up with the existing mounting holes. Then you can have a nice water tight track that sits flush in your gutter. I'd want to get those old tracks off ASAP. No telling what damage they are doing to the edge of the paint on the gutter and any water damage you're getting inside the van. Putting gorilla tape in the exposed hole is as you say a temporary fix at best. Please keep us posted.

A quick search on Whispbar shows me it's a discontinued product for Yakima but still available in Australia and NZ. Because those tracks are mounted on an angle, I question how the rest of the rack properly aligns since it's used to mounting on a flat tracks. That inward pitch is funky. Because you have a roof leak problem, if it were my van, I'd remove those tracks and replace them with regular Yakima tracks that fit in your gutter properly. Not sure what else you can harvest off your racking. You will probably need new landing pads and then the towers have to mate to the landing pads. You'll have to dissect all those parts. Taking the old tracks off will reveal what's going on underneath and to help explain where the leaks are coming from. I'm sure the leak is close to where the mounting holes are located. You'll also be able to see what type of mounting holes you have, the standard on production vans like in my pics or something pre-production. Since you have the headliner inside, the plusnuts that Yakima offers might a solution for you. I have a feeling that is what was used with the existing tracks. You'd have to do more research, but I'm guessing the plusnuts are like a molly bolt that you use for mounting to walls when you can't access the inside and have to work only from the outside. The plusnut will expand inside the van and create a brace. You may be able to use the existing mounting holes if that threaded insert exists. When you remount you can use an ample amount of auto/marine sealant to waterproof your mounting holes and use some type of gasket like the neoprene washers I used if necessary. ADD-ON - found two videos on Youtube on installing plusnuts in general. This might be the ticket for a wagon van owner without having to remove the inside headliner

Thanks Fifty150 and jrm223. It's crazy how many different LED's are available and all with mixed reviews. I guess it's application specific depending on the bulb and reflector in the housing. Your experiences go a long way in helping me. @jrm223 - your van is so shiny clean you got a selfie going on with the reflection. With no extra windows and I don't see rear parking sensors, I hope you have a backup camera.