jrm223

My 2015 TC XL base has an AUX port in it but no CD slot - maybe they finally made AUX a standard feature in the 2nd gen TC? The only dealer-spec'd extras on mine were power windows & locks - not even power mirrors! Goofy. Which reminds me of another thing - manual mirrors that you have to physically touch to adjust?! What is this, 1960 instead of a 2015 model?? lol. I added CC & large mirrors myself (they're power, but I haven't checked in the doors for wiring yet, so I'm still using them manually).

My vote is something more like a Focus Active AWD, not a TC specifically. Ford had cancelled the Active for US in 2018 over Trump tariff's (currently made in China), but fast forward a couple years and maybe new plans have been created with the Mexico changes? Both are built on the same basic platform (Ford has reduced global core platforms from 27 down to 9 and now to just 5 modular platforms - I shared an article yesterday in another thread), so maybe this is just a cross-breed test-bed that we're seeing, rather than a specific model. Certainly has the right overall shape for a Focus Active, 2019 model shown: Or, how about the Ford Stormtrak, speculated competitor to Subaru Outback? "Raised" AWD wagon is exactly what we're looking at in that article & pics... But, speculation also says it could be something like a Ford Ranger Stormtrak, competing against the Colorado ZR2 Bison and such. But, who knows, lol. I'm still thinking it's more of a generic test-bed, though.

Looking at pictures online, the Australian Transit Custom looks similar to the US Transit 150/250/350 low-roof 130", not our little Transit Connects. Radios should generally be the same or similar, since Ford (and others, of course) uses parts across models to reduce costs - and Ford has the "One Ford" plan which whittled 27 different platforms down to 9 platforms globally; wait, they've gone even further and reduced it to 5 modular vehicle platforms.

That's 0.8" diameter difference - only 0.4" radius or 'lift' below the hub. For my van, I went with the General Grabber AT/2 in 215/65R16 a little over 2 years ago ($116/ea back then, now $132/ea) and have around 48K miles on them now - I'll have to check the tread depths again and update my thread on them. When I checked a few months ago, three had 10/32's and one was 8/32's, I believe. Tire Rack shows 14/32's on them when new. I'm not sure how the rear spacers will install, but I do wish y'all good luck on them, lol. When I installed my hitch, I kind of looked at the springs & rear axle and the geometry did not really look like it would work well with spacers or even taller springs. They're already 'leaning' like the Tower of Pisa when the van is empty, going from low & forward to up & rearward when looking from the side. Going taller would swing the axle forward a bit more due to the short 'control arms' of the axle beam and larger tires will naturally be even closer to the body then, but I'll be interested to see how it actually works out when your spacers arrive & are installed. I doubt it will actually take two months, probably a month or so on the slow boat across the pond, haha.

Yes, it absolutely does have an effect on emissions, because the computer chooses the gear that will cause the least amount of emissions from the engine NOT the gear that keeps RPM's the lowest for the given load, what an amazing concept. I see it constantly on some of the hills around me - if the cruise control is set, the van will go down two gears & raise RPM's to 4K+ on some of the hills just to maintain speed; but, if I'm using my foot instead of the cruise control, I can raise the RPM's by maybe 200-300 (we're talking under 3K RPM, often closer to 2500) with the accelerator pedal and it holds the same gear and speed or I can hold RPM and lose maybe 1-2MPH by the top... Now why in the hell would CC drop two gears and raise RPM's 1500+ revs when I myself can add perhaps a couple hundred RPM to hold speed in the same gear? Hmm, maybe "emissions"?? Low revs with higher load is "dirtier" than higher revs with the same load (like a hill). Same as being in a higher gear in a manual, like starting from 3rd instead of 1st - on a diesel especially, you'll see lots of black smoke emissions aka "rolling coal", low revs with high load! Can't visually see the emissions with gasoline engine, though. As for "most fuel efficient" - tell that to Hyundai & EPA. I had a 2007 Elantra, our own EPA rated both auto & manual at 28 city, 36 highway. I was averaging 35-36 combined about 60C/40H with a ... wait for it ... manual! Fuelly website shows a total user average of 28.25 MPG for 2007 Elantra across 112 owners and the largest single group of vehicles average 28, as well. My own MPG data from back in the day is not included below because I've never had the desire to track mileage via Fuelly. MPG charts: I'm not even going to waste more of my time on the other stuff. Other than asking you to find the differences in the trans tunnel & floor of FWD versus AWD Focus, because there isn't any difference in the tunnel. Link below has pics of each dash and shifter, although no pics of the back seat area. Notice the exact same size & shape, though. Of course, the same area in ours are buried under about 2ft depth of dash, so you need to look from underneath the dash. And I was also talking factory OEM builds, not swaps/conversions by Joe Mechanic under his shadetree, re: does not mean a manual swap is easy peasy. But speaking of Joe Mechanic manual swaps, here's one of our own who just recently finished on a G1 project.

That's only a 4-speed auto, but top gear is still 0.73:1 overdrive, compared to the 6-speed auto in Gen 2 vans but they appear to be about 0.746:1 in 6th gear (I can't find a definitive answer on the TC2 6F-35, so that ratio is from the Lincoln MKZ 6F-35, which should at least be close). Sounds to me like maybe your van isn't shifting into 4th gear overdrive.

Enter the Gen 2, lose like 7-8" on the roof height, but gain around a foot or so on the bed length. That and the better appearance are why I went with a G2 over a G1, lol. I don't mind a utilitarian "ugly" ride, but the G1 just isn't my thing - although, that extra roof height would be awesome. But if I could have afforded it, I would have went with a Transit 350 extended-length high-roof for real stand-up room instead of a teeny Transit Connect cargo.

Power options all run through the door modules, so he has them. Even the door position (closed/ajar) goes through it, which is why you had to cut a wire there rather than bypassing an old-school plunger switch in the door frame like back in the day. I suspect that even a super-base XL without any power locks/windows/mirrors would still have some module there because of the closed/ajar function going through it. Being a later 2018 model, it's possible that FoMoCo revised wiring or modules, perhaps changed the mounting location, etc, so referencing manuals & diagrams for the 2018 model may be required.

Here's the same procedure that I used - note that each seat needs to be done individually, if you wish to have the passenger seat disabled, too. I did the full procedure start-to-finish separately for each seat - come to think of it, I did them several months apart after I had a buddy riding with me a few times in a short time span and the incessant dinging was getting annoying, lol. I've also used the procedure on my old 2011 Ranger back when I had it, so it seems to be pretty universal across models the past decade or so.

When I was perusing Amazon the other day, I did see one or two ground tents that line up to the side of a minivan, rather than to the back like most truck/SUV tents, lol. You might look at them to see what they're using, but I'm pretty sure it's still just shockcords & magnet or suction cup mounts to the vehicle and some hooks to door handles or wheels. Opening & closing the slider door would be the most difficult part, unless you widened the tent to go from the driver door to the D-pillar of the van, by the taillights. If the door were just left open with the tent against it, there's still a sizable gap between the door & van body that would be wide open to flying pests & rain...

For the rear doors, you are better off replacing the barn doors with ones that have OEM glass - or, use universal RV/motorhome type windows. The barn doors are 100% steel with no window cut-outs, whereas the sliders have painted plastic panels glued on in place of the glass windows, so side doors could be changed to OEM glass (or universal windows) without replacing the doors. A few members have used RV windows in the barn doors & even the slider doors; SkiZo is one that comes to mind - link to his thread

My doors generally only auto-relock if I click the unlock button accidentally (such as a pocket click instead of pocket-dial on a phone), and then don't open the doors within 60 seconds or so. When I'm in & out, not touching any lock or unlock buttons, they'll stay unlocked until I either lock it or start driving. The procedure in this link is slightly different than what Don shared above, although it claims to be targeted for F150 & may apply equally to other Ford vehicles. Considering that I personally disabled the seatbelt chimes in my van using an F150 procedure (mostly just for ranch/offroad use), I'd give this method a try, if I were you. If nothing else, you'll only lose a minute or two of your day. At best, you disable the auto-relock, which seems to be linked to the auto-lock-when-driving - or at least the link makes it look that way.

As far as Bluetooth-only goes, there are plenty of aftermarket amplifiers available now with built-in Bluetooth, so that would take care of getting the sound if the Ford OEM BT module requires the ACM to actually do anything beyond connecting with the BT device - which I would suspect it does. The speakers are powered by the ACM, so what good is a Bluetooth module without the headunit to play the music from the BT into the speakers? To remove the radio, you may find that you need something like this, if you have a 2-speaker XL. 4-channel models are available on Amazon, too. Multichannel subwoofer amps (2.1, 4.1, etc) are also available, if you wanted to add a little low-end at the same time. These amps basically turn your van into a big Bluetooth speaker, lol. I don't know about iPhone, but Android does have built-in FM radio, so you could use the Aux cord from the phone to the amp, which the phone then also uses as an antenna (thus why FM only works with wired headphones normally). I've never really tried the FM radio on any of my phones, so I don't know how well it actually works, but it could be an option for keeping FM radio. This could actually be tested now by using your phone with the current radio, plugged into the AUX port in the van and drive around normally to see how well the reception works out. Then you'd know if it would be worth a damn as a radio replacement when plugged into the BT/Aux amplifier above.

Any "SUV" tent like Sportz or other brands will work just fine, they just wrap around the back of the vehicle. Ozark Trail SUV tent is pretty inexpensive with decent reviews. I suspect they would all work better with a liftgate than barn doors, but you could always put a wood board or something across the top of the barn doors to hold the tent material up from drooping.

What difference does Mercedes options make? Our van is based on the same core platform as the Focus, and the Focus ST has AWD, so it would be very easy for Ford to offer on the TC as an option. For that matter, they could easily offer manual trans (also available in certain Focus - Focii? And international TC's, obviously - add diesel options there, even), but that is essentially dead in the US because of ridiculous EPA & overbearing emissions junk; the computer needs the automatic to maintain maximum control of the engine & emissions. Ralph, most used vehicle websites don't have specific color names in their search because there are literally thousands of color names, so they just use generic "red" "blue" black" etc. So about the only real way to search is using Google itself (ala "race red Transit Connect Titanium for sale") - but then, you're also assuming that the selling ad specifically says "Race Red" instead of just "Red", again with the point about classified sites not having manufacturer-specific color names so then you're hoping for the sellers description to say it. The only way to know for sure if a particular red TC is "race red" is by looking at the pics yourself, so I predict you'll look at a lot of "red" TC's (not that there's all that many to begin with) before you finally find your unicorn. As other members have said in other threads about your search, why not just get a different TC Titanium for probably 1/4-1/3 of what you would be paying for a R.R. TCT, and get it repainted by a quality shop?? No three-year search, no waiting, no shipping a van across country, no paying insane premium prices because the dealer saw you coming from ten miles away, etc. But, hey, you do you.

Trust me, nothing special happens if you leave the wipers in the up position, I've done it several times when I still lived in the snowy north (and even occasionally here in the South, ice storms come through sometimes in winter). There's a threshold procedure that runs every time you start the van, y'all may have noticed the wipers move slightly when you start - that's part of the procedure, finding 'bottom'. The procedure will move the passenger side wiper down first, then the driver side. So, if/when you need to remove the wiper arms like below, you need to reinstall them relatively close to the position you pulled them off in, although it doesn't need to be perfectly exact. I will say that next time I need to remove them, I'm going to start with them in the 'up' position where they're easier to work with. BTW, as shown in the pic, our vans use two separate wiper motors, rather than linkages like in the days of old, lol. This pic is actually the stuff you have to remove from underhood to change out the damn struts, but you can see the two wiper motors on the left side.

Like I said, that's a programmable option in Forscan. The original commercial buyer of your van clearly wanted the barn doors to not unlock with the regular unlock button, so that's how Ford programmed it for them - personally, I'm kind of surprised they still have the sliders programmed to work on the regular button since the barn doors don't, but maybe their drivers normally only use the sliders to access cargo, who knows. I haven't hooked up my laptop/Forscan to my van since some time last summer, so I don't recall exactly which module, but I believe the door/unlock programming is in the As-Built module. I remember it's the same spot as cruise control & global windows (and sadly I couldn't get G.W. working since my passenger door doesn't have the "express down" option... I may need to find the correct express power window switches to enable it all).

Door open = unlatched door latch mechanism = closed contact (or open contact, depending on how Ford designed it - although I can't imagine an open contact for open door would be it, since that would then use power when the doors are shut). Shoot, I just spoiled the treasure hunt. This is a CAN-BUS system, so I don't think we'll ever come up with some redneck, hillbilly or ghetto "workaround" to disable the P.L., it just has to be done right. "Anything worth doing, is worth doing right." - Hunter S. Thompson CAN-BUS is also the very thing that allows us to add factory accessories so easily that didn't come with the vehicle originally, no splicing or rewiring required. Every switch has a specific resistance and the computer knows what to control via the ohms of the switch. At the same time, that will also drive us insane, eventually. A buddy of mine is a school bus mechanic and was troubleshooting a non-op marker light. Checked the wire with a multimeter, found the ohms was different than expected, but it wasn't open, so he continued troubleshooting elsewhere. Eventually, he found out that the ohms of even the wire matters, and it had a partial break internally, which caused the odd ohm reading. Fixed up the wire to spec and now the marker light works, again. Keep that in your gray matter for the future when y'all have some crazy & hair-pulling problem, lol.

Come to think of it, I remember seeing programming options for exactly which doors the normal unlock button on remote will actually unlock. Sounds like maybe Skizo's van is programmed to not unlock the barn doors from the regular unlock button, must be something to do with how the original purchaser spec'd the van. Considering that I bought mine new off the lot and it's always unlocked all doors from a double-press of the unlock button on the key-remote. @sKiZo, I bet your van had a partition/bulkhead when you bought it, yea?

Indeed. Good luck taping or gluing a switch when it's built-in to the door latch and then runs through a computer module. Let's play "find the door switch that isn't there"?

@nuke, that's because they want you to keep buying from a dealer, so they give it an oddball label that only exists in FoMoCo system.

First I've heard for that one, but I also have a gen 2, 2015. My doors only auto-lock after about 10-20 feet of driving, but that's all of 'em, or if I accidentally bump the unlock button on the remote and then don't open a door, it will auto-relock after 60 seconds or so. When I park, shut off & get out, whatever doors were unlocked before I started driving will be unlocked after I stop driving; conversely, whatever doors were still locked before I started driving (ex. pushing the unlock button on remote only once for driver door instead of twice for all doors) will still be locked after I stop driving, park it & take the key out. On my remote, the regular unlock button will unlock ALL doors when pushed twice (I also have barn doors, like you), or I can use the cargo unlock button to only unlock the barn doors, I think - I've never tested to see if the sliders will unlock with the cargo unlock button, mainly because I don't lock the damn thing, anyway! As for a separate dash switch button?? Does the door lock/unlock button on the front doors not work for your barn doors, also? That sounds like a problem with your specific van, in that case. All of my doors will lock or unlock using the buttons on the doors or clicking the 'normal' unlock button twice on my key-remote. That said, I do remember seeing some various auto-lock/unlock options in Forscan, but I didn't really play with them. @desert_connect, when I still had active perimeter lights, I found that the turn-stalk method would work for me until I manually locked the doors (auto-lock when driving did not seem to affect things, AFAIK). I could open and close doors for days or weeks on end, but once I manually hit lock sometime, I would then have to tap the stalk twice, again. Obviously, most people won't leave their vehicles unlocked for long periods (like glass is really going to stop a determined thief in the first place?? But, I digress), but when camping & awake by the van, there's not really any reason to lock it up, IMHO. So, you should be able to open & close to your hearts content, until you lock the doors for bedtime.

I think I may have asked you before, but whereabouts are you? If it was you that I asked before, instead of someone else here, then I think it's Kansas? Or I'm thinking of a different member completely, lol. In any case, maybe another member is close by to help look at it, hopefully one that has been successful already? I'm in north-central rural Texas, myself, about halfway between Fort Worth & Abilene and I'd help out a relatively close member within a couple hours drive. Also, do you happen to know the build date on your van? I recall seeing a date in the forum saying around 12/18/2016 or something like that for the BCM update requirement (meaning all vehicles built before that date would require BCM update in order to disable the perimeter lights).

You come up with the most ridiculous situations - are you related to ToasterVan? But you probably won't know him - other 'oldtimers' here will remember, lol. Again, the headlights, as in the 55W low headlight bulbs and separate 55W highbeam headlight bulbs, DO NOT come on with the doors, period. Even if you wanted to, you could not manually turn them on with the engine off! Go try it - parking lights don't count, we're talking headlights. "Commercial drivers have their doors open more." As desert_connect already said, the perimeter lights don't turn on with the engine running, so there goes another failed imaginary circumstance - and they certainly DON'T leave their doors open while away from the vehicle. As for my own van, I actually took it into Ford, had them do the BCM update in SM46321 and turn off the perimeter lights for me - instead of coming up with asinine garbage on a forum, in threads where the fix has already been posted several times. Rather than complaining, I took action to get it resolved - after a resolution was finally available. Since I bought my van new in June 2015, I first tried to disable it myself via Forscan (as many others here had also unsuccessfully tried - until after the BCM update), but ultimately I had to wait a couple years for them to even come up with the update required to disable the perimeter lights, and still I didn't moan & groan like a child. Here you are, long after the update is available for public, but refuse to do what's required; instead posting garbage incessantly. You're a millennial, aren't you? If you have such a problem with the perimeter lights, but refuse to get it fixed, as has been provided for you many times now, then get LED bulbs to replace all the halogen/incandescent bulbs. Here's even a bulb guide, for that. Copied straight out of the 2015 TC owners manual. I have my van swapped to about 80-90% LED, just need to do high beam headlights and the tiny city lights, still.

Regular tint instead of ceramic - no, just no. That's like saying a Yugo is better than a Lambo; cheaper for sure, but not at all better. Video comparing the two types of film with real testing of UV rays The euro console had actually fit right on top of the US console, after the guy (I can't think of his username offhand) cut-off his armrest from the seat. LizaJane, the side curtain airbags aren't something to mess with, so I'd recommend leaving the overhead shelf as-is. I mean, you can decorate or paint it (Krylon Fusion, BTW, since it sticks well to plastic) if you'd like, but extending it without leaving enough clearance for the air bags can cause issues in an accident when you need them the most. As windguy said, come up with a solution for accessing the hidden well behind the front seats for your additional small storage needs. I have mine completely open by removing the vinyl floor and all the metal that was used to cover the well, but those hatches like in the link he provided would be much nicer looking overall. I included a pic of what you'll see (except obviously yours is white, instead of black like mine) when you open that area up - note that this pic is with all the pieces removed, except the vinyl floor cover that you can see the foam bottom-side in the pic and I cut that off after the pic. My van is really a Swiss Army knife functionally, so I can't build a dedicated camper out of it. But if I was, I'd use the storage well for a couple batteries on one side (I'd put batteries on driver side, because you can pop out the rubber drain plugs in the floor for ventilation) and the electronics on the passenger side (fuse panels, inverter, solar charge controller, etc; this side doesn't have any OEM drain plugs that I can remember).