windguy

Hey Guys, I got a letter from Ford asking me to participate in an Automotive Testing Development Services (ATDS) engineering eval of my 2015 van. It's an emissions test done by a 3rd party service. I called ATDS to find out what's involved. With an appointment, they come to your home or office, connect a laptop to your OBD port and gather some data. Supposed to take only 10 minutes and they give you a $100 cash incentive to participate. Anyone else get this letter and/or has participated? Sounds legit but curious how it went with others before I commit. thanks

thanks Mustang. so much for that model year theory. I'll need to dream up a new one now I've got a great idea. You're a handy guy with some time on his hands, how about you being the first TC owner to take out that platform and create a nice storage solution. Yes? @EvilRobot - hopefully you're still checking in with the forum. Curious, does your cargo van have windows in the back and/or windows on the sliding doors? thanks

@15Dan15 - nice looking floor mats. good testimonial. thanks for sharing. When I ordered my van I added in the optional all weather floor mats at a cost of $52 ($60 list). They are identical in size to the standard carpet mats that come with the van. I would agree that coverage is pretty minimal and could be better. that was my first impression. Second, not sure how long the retention nobs will last if I keep taking the mat out to clean, but they are easy to hose off compared to a carpeted mat, which my last wagon had. checked out the weathertech website to see what the cost is. below is a link to the site. http://www.weathertech.com/ford/2015/transit-connect/floorliner-digitalfit/wheelbase/long-wheelbase/bodystyle/cargo-van/ $110 for the front pair plus $18 for shipping coming out of Illinois. Yeah, that's a bit pricey but it looks like a decent product that will earn it's keep thanks again!

@15Dan15 - thanks for the input. I checked out EvilRobot's pics again and just noticed that his platform is different than mine. I have torque bits in mine and he doesn't. His appears to be welded and he did mention he thought the platform was welded to the frame. Mine is a 2015 Van and his is a 2014 Van, so not sure if this is a model year change. See the attached pic for a comparison. The mystery continues

@15Dan15 - thanks for posting your "seat removed" pic on this thread. it's very helpful to me to see that compared to what the cargo van has going on. the difference between my van and EvilRobot is that I have the same dark carpet extending from the front seat area to the rear. It ends after it steps up to the cargo floor height and then a few inches back then it's all just painted metal. So now I'm wondering how Ford attached the deck to the floor since there is carpet there. Seems like there wouldn't be any welding going on. Maybe they use the same holes that the seats are attached to as anchor points. I hope to make this a next fall/winter project when I have some time. Now that EvilRobot gave us the tip that you can access this area by removing the side door step molding without having to remove the rear side panels, I'm more encouraged to dig into this project.

@15Dan15 - thanks for sharing pics of your van and seating changes. I really like seeing that. your van looks very nice. I like the options you have. seeing all that extra storage space reinforces my idea discussed in the "cargo mat" thread about creating a storage area. looking forward to seeing a pic of the dogs in their van. yes, it's their van and you are their driver

great pics - can see them just fine. thanks for sharing. not sure this would help you but I put a 1/2" sheet of plywood (primed and painted) inside the floor of my cargo van. I couldn't stand the spongy floor mat that came with the van. Covering the plywood with a low cost gray utility carpet from Home Depot that's sold by the foot in a 6ft width. gives the van a nice finished looked.

There doesn't appear to be too many changes for the 2016 model year so pretty much the same as 2014 and 2015. See the first page for "New for 2016 MY" I like this addition as a safety feature "Blind Spot Information System (BLIS®) with Cross-traffic Alert is now available for XLT Wagon and Titanium Wagon". Too bad it's not offered on the cargo version too. 2016 Transit Connect Order Guide.pdf

@cageb8 - the Frostking material looks like a good option. whatever works. anything added will help. keep us posted on that project. regarding uploading pics, creating your own gallery (MY GALLERY) is really easy and doesn't have the same size limitations as uploading an attachment. once a pic is in your gallery, you can attach it to your post by using the MY MEDIA option in the toolbar when you create a post. let us know if you have questions in setting that up.

brought the van in this morning to have it looked at by the dealer's transmission guy. They said the leak is very minor so we are going to take the strategy of watching this and not doing anything until Ford comes out with a Technical Bulletin on this issue. They would have replaced the seal if I wanted but based on everyone's experience so far I don't see any benefit to doing this at this point. I don't put a lot of mileage on the van so I'm hoping there will be a fix for this before it becomes a bigger problem.

is the glass clear like the front windows or does it have some tint to it? on my van, the added windows on the sliders and rear barn doors have a decent tint to them but you can certainly see inside if the lighting is just right or you get close enough. I'm assuming that's what privacy glass is like.

@CAGEB8 - welcome to the forum. nice first post. looking forward to reading about your van customizations. just so happens I was looking at insulation materials while at Home Depot this past weekend. I was looking at the R-Tech 4x8 sheet insulation with foil on both sides. I like that it's moisture resistant and has some flexibility to it. comes in different thicknesses and is inexpensive. R value isn't too high though. I think another poster used this material for his work van. Could have been KeyWestLes. Applied with a spray adhesive. Dynamat Dynaliner looks like a really nice option but it's very expensive.

@GBL - good input. thanks. in the other transmission thread, someone reported this issue back at the end of November, so this has been going on for at least five months, if not longer. You would think that Ford would have a fix for this by now. hopefully soon

crap, my axle is leaking trans fluid too :( brought the van in for its first oil change on Friday after roughly 1,100 miles (over four months). yeah, I don't drive too much. per other posters' suggestions, figured it would be a good idea to do an early first oil change and get that axle checked for leaks. I have an appointment in a week to have the local dealer's transmission person replace the seal. Service advisor said she only saw one other case of this fluid leaking. I would have thought they'd seen more by now. I knew going in this might be a problem but I was hoping the 2015 model would have fixed that problem known on the 2014's. Now I'm hoping that replacing the seal will solve the problem and I'll be done with it. Perhaps I'm sticking my head in the sand a second time. I plan to have the axle checked after another 1,000 or so miles to make sure it's not leaking again.

There was a side discussion in the thread linked below regarding tow hooks, on pages 2&3. http://fordtransitconnectforum.com/topic/3450-lost-in-transit-a-toaster-van-build/page-2 As GBL stated above and also in the above mentioned thread, the Gen 2 TC doesn't come with a tow hook. Part No: 6M2Z-17A954-A - List Price $31.81 As silly as it seems, you need to buy one from Ford as a spare part. There is a convenient tow hook holder located next to the jack in the rear left compartment. I picked one up yesterday and took some pics as shown below. Since my TC has a factory installed hitch, the rear bumper doesn't have a tow hook receptacle. There is a bumper cover port for it but nothing behind that. I did take a look at a van yesterday on a dealer lot and can see the difference now. The regular van has a metal bumper behind the bumper cover that is bolted to the frame, four bolts on connects to the same four bolts on each side. So you get one or the other. Looks like I'm stuck leaving that hitch on permanently even though it's a shin grabber.

thanks for the info. understand about not having the time to take this task on. I'm in the same position. if you get back to it sometime please update us. interesting about the rubber liner vs carpet and where it ends. it would be really useful to have two large storage compartments. hopefully one day.

BTW - The other day I opened the rear compartment for the jack to check out the location of the tow hook holder, and I looked around with a flashlight to see how the sidewall area was constructed. there's a lot of space on each side that's unused. there's an extra inner layer of metal extended up from the wheel well dividing the area into two parts. Seems like it's mostly designed to support the side panel for aesthetics and not functionality. The van could really use more storage areas so it's a shame the van designers didn't maximize this feature.

@evilrobot - great pics, thanks for posting. very cool for me to see this cause I didn't explore that far. almost hard to get oriented when looking at them. It looks cavernous with all that open space. what did you remove to get these views? in my exploration, I thought you'd need to remove the rear black panels on the side in order to remove the step molding and lift the cargo mat. Did you do this? the step molding I can see is gone. was there another panel on the side of the platform that was removed or was it open like this? there seems to be a center hub running front to back that's permanent. my 2015 van has carpeting that extends from the cab area, below the seats, and all the way back to rear of the platform where it goes up to the level of the cargo area. I don't see that in yours, just raw white body, so that's once difference. so what's your next step? you're my hero for doing this and sharing your discovery.

sorry to hear that. I guess it's important to know what was "fixed" for each service. Another forum member, Jimmyboost, had many similar problems as documented in his post on this other transmission thread http://fordtransitconnectforum.com/topic/2972-2014-transit-connect-lt-lwb-transmission-shifting-issue-any-one/ I think he gave up and went the Lemon Law route. Hope you can resolve this problem quickly and peacefully. please keep us posted.