jrm223

Nuke, did you bother removing the spacer that is in the battery box, before trying to put the group 48 in? Like Beta Don said, read the forum and you would know to remove that spacer to fit a slightly taller battery like the group 48. There's at least a few people in here that have already done it, so are they all wrong?? As far as Sams Club is concerned, they aren't the only place selling Duralast batteries, although prices will likely vary. I bet that you have an Autozone around, yea? Duracell Group 48/H6

Safety (FoMoCo reason for perimeter lights) is "an overlook", that's hilarious. Far more people drive these vans in city & commercial use than for camping. Ford's target market was/is not "people that want a DIY mini-camper" or "amateur astronomers driving out to the countryside". Most of their TC purchasers are commercial use or family haulers, carting either cargo or kids around town/city, etc. The rest of us are a specialized niche group.

First I've heard about the hemorrhoids part, but I wonder if people are actually comparing different trim packages and not even knowing or understanding that. As in, it's not "van vs wagon", it's more like "XL vs XLT vs Titanium". Fleet vehicles are typically XL's with minimal, if any, options/upgrades and would have the seats that slide forward/back, recline up/down & have an armrest, that's it (known as 2-way adjustable, same as my personal cargo XL, lol). I would think that XLT's probably have seats that add power to those movements, plus probably have adjustable lumbar support, then Titanium's would likely have "leather" (ha!) and probably some more power movements, like adjustable incline of the seat base, etc. Seats available, as far as I recall, are 2-way adjustable, 4-way, 6-way & 8-way adjustable, depending on trim level and options. I have just a foam pad that I've had for many years, probably from Walmart or something like that. Perfect size to fit on the seat bottom and gives me some extra cushion, lol. Used to not use a cushion, but after my first 1000 mile drive (2K round-trip) in the van, I looked through my bins of stuff after returning home to find it and it's been in there ever since!

That would be far too easy for him; same for repainting any other Titanium wagon, lol. Much better to undergo a national search for a near-unicorn and pay twice as much overall for it.

Then enjoy your lights coming on, because that is the only way to fix it, period. How to fix it, again - "Turn off or shorten duration lights are on" thread from FTCF, read the quote in my post on Monday 1/13/2020 at 8:08AM CST For a temporary "fix", you can push/pull the turn signal stalk back or forth twice (or once each way, I don't care) to turn off the perimeter lights, temporarily. But next time you lock the doors, perimeter lights reactivate.

My whole van is rarely clean, who do I need to talk to for a new replacement van? ? Yet some people think I'm crazy or weird for not wanting all these ridiculous doodads and whatzits on/in my vehicles! More computers and superfluous junk, more problems!! As shown by this very thread, lol. If my "parking sensor" is broken, that means I need a new mirror! I'll stick to my 2015 XL, the only dealer-ordered options it got was power locks & windows. I added the large mirrors (no power to run them, though) & cruise control myself (I will say that computers did make that stupid easy, took 15 minutes and no splicing wires, damn near plug & play), that's all the extras that I needed. Oh yea, and a Sirius XM add-on radio using the AUX port because 2000 mile roadtrips 3-4 times a year get annoying if you have to find a new FM station every fifty or so miles - and can usually only find garbage, anyway. Good luck to y'all 2019+ owners, hopefully they actually get it fixed this week.

Looking at pics of the 2019/2020, I can spot a few cosmetic differences compared to 2014-18, mainly on the front bumper/grill. But the overall body structure still looks exactly the same for 19+, there may be some differences underneath because of the new rear suspension design (did they also redesign the front suspension? I don't recall now), and that certainly won't affect roof rails, anyhow. Maybe keep an eye out in parking lots for a slightly older TC Gen 2 so y'all can park next to it and see if anything looks different? I don't believe you'll find anything different up top, though. I'm in rural podunk Texas and I know of at least 4 TC2's when I go "into town" not counting mine (roughly 8K population makes it the "big town" with a Walmart, haha), so y'all should have no trouble finding one to park next to wherever y'all live. Offhand, I can tell you that my rails are spaced something like 48-50" apart on-center and they're 1.25-1.5" wide (I measured 3+ years ago, so memory is foggy). I just looked through the BBLB (Body Builders Layout Book, aka "Upfitters Guide" to most), but it doesn't show the hole spacing in the roof for the factory rails - just limit 220lbs van, 165lbs wagon & 132lbs panoramic roof. If you have a LWB instead of the SWB, I can take the tape measure to mine, if you need numbers to compare to. If you did get the SWB, there's a couple of them in here, although I don't recall usernames.

The sway bar is about the only thing on a 2014+ rear suspension that could make similar noise to what you're hearing in your Gen 1. TC G1 obviously has leaf spring rear, but the G2 (2014-2018, 19+ is a bit different) has coil rear suspension with an ancient swinging beam axle (I know they're a cheap and relatively sturdy & simple design for weight carrying, but still).

The solution to the perimeter lighting has been posted and shared in this forum many times, but you have to actually read through threads and use the search in this forum (instead of Google) to find the helpful info. Did you think you're really the only one that has a problem with it, none of us do - so none of us already talked many times about how to fix it? Instead, you posted in several threads that already tell you what is needed to fix the "problem", if you had read them.

If you had clicked on the link right below the procedure, which takes you right to this forum in another post, you'd see that the procedure you're posting was actually from Ford Fusion & Lincoln MKZ, so it probably won't do anything for your TC. Quote is from this thread "Disable Perimeter Lighting" by Daedalus1

I have a 2015 and only the "city lights" (tiny 194-style bulb) NOT the headlight bulbs came on with the perimeter lights, I don't think the back-up lights turned on, either - thus not "all" lights turn on with perimeter lighting feature. And, the solution has been posted dozens of times in this forum, your screenshot even shows this website in the results. Look up SSM 46321 - wouldn't you know it, I found that in this very thread on page 4. It's unlikely that you'll have the newer BCM programming (which came out circa late-2016), so Ford will need to update it per the SSM 46321, which will also guide them in disabling the perimeter lighting feature. Here's a helpful post from page 4 of this thread that tells you everything:

Factory rails are going to cost you big $$$, so go universal/aftermarket, instead. As I recall, the pair of factory rails with the mounting hardware - no crossbars, no installation labor - is somewhere around $600! But, if you had ordered a van (as opposed to buying one off the dealer lot) and ticked the checkbox for roof rails, it's something like a $55 option upcharge, lol. Aftermarket rack companies like Thule have rails available. I think I've seen prices around $200-$300 from other members that have gone that method.

Already running 100% LED in back. But, it's the same wattage or at least lumens as the upper running/tail lights. May be something for me to at least look into, though. Not high-priority since dense fog for my area is typically only a handful of times per year. Odd, looking through my emails for the Amazon or even Ebay receipt, I am only finding one pair of red LED's and one pair of amber LED's for the rear upgrade, so I don't recall what brand bulbs I'm running in the lowers. Apparently I'll have to pull a taillight off soon so I can see what's actually in there, lol. I could have sworn I converted all the bulbs in back, but I wonder if I forgot to do the bottoms (I would have been double-checking what type they are before ordering) - but at least they aren't burnt-out, I walked behind the van just this morning with the lights on.

That's not "snuck through", lol. I believe all or most US TC1's have rear fog lights, I've heard of it on quite a few. TC2's only have a single filament bulb in that position AND the wiring/socket only supports a single filament, so we don't have rear fog lights. That said, I have thought about finding the right dual-filament socket and adding rear fog lights with my own wiring & switch. I'm in rural Texas and the fog can be pretty dense at times, but it doesn't slow down most drivers - they're still doing 70+ MPH posted speed limit, haha. Fortunately, I'm so rural that I only see a handful of vehicles in my 11.5-mile commute, anyway, and most are heading east towards DFW while I head west.

Looks like Rustoleum brand of PlastiDip, lol. Except for the part where this will apparently cure hard after a couple months. But that makes me wonder about the people actually using it on bumpers like the can shows - constantly respraying rock chips & such for the first couple months while it slowly hardens??

I pulled the front headliner (only headliner) in my 2nd gen by reaching my hand in behind/above the headliner and carefully pulling down, the Christmas tree deals just pulled straight down without issue. After first removing the plastic shelf, of course. Leaking antenna - sounds like maybe coming up with a new sealant method? Remove it, run a thin bead of maybe silicone or some other sealant, on the bottom mating surface, and then reinstall. Keep the headliner off for a couple rain storms to make sure the leak is fixed. Are you able to see exactly where it's leaking in from on the antenna? The hole where the bolt & wires go through, or perhaps the inside of the wire pass-through bolt itself? The latter would probably require a replacement antenna, rather than trying to fix leaks in the seams of the antenna body - or, coat the whole thing in that PlastiDip rubber coating and then reinstall when cured.

I think you'll need to somehow control the humidity better in that area after treating/removing the rust. They sell desiccant "dehumidifiers" on Amazon, you could hang a couple in back there to help absorb the moisture in the air. You also might put something a lot thicker along there, like bedliner or rubber undercoating?

Now that's the perfect alleyway tooter, haha. I was even thinking an OOGAH horn for laughs, but that'd still be pretty loud behind pedestrians ears.

That kind of seems odd to even have a stiffening rib in that spot on the barn doors, lol. Gen 2 doesn't have it, Ford engineers must have figured out it wasn't needed for such a small panel. We do have a vertical rib on the C/D panel "window" area, though. BTW, these aluminum covers are drilled now & held on with the original plastic push pin things with Roxul insulation inside the door, lol. Looks way better than the factory cards, although my homemade "Lizard Skin" detracts from the nice appearance...

I reckon I'm just part of a dying breed, lol. I can drive just fine with only the side mirrors and specifically bought a windowless van; no cameras, bumper sensors or other fancy doodads, either. If anything, I wouldn't mind adding some roughly 6x15" (I think that's the size I was looking at) rectangular portholes high on the C/D pillar of my Gen 2, but for air circulation rather than view. Make that 7-7/8" x 15-3/4" portholes - if you look at the customer images, there's a Chevy Express that has them roughly where I'd put them, too. When you look at the inner door structure versus the "reveal" on the outside, I don't think you're really losing that much usable glass overall with those sliders - and opening them for fresh air would be more than worth any assumed loss. Swapping to barn doors with factory glass would probably only give a 10-15% gain in usable glass, which I mean as the area you actually look through, rather than the giant border that's glued over steel with factory glass.

As Beta Don said, your OLM was not reset during at least one of the most recent oil changes, likely two. Mine typically comes on somewhere around 10K miles, although I've never paid close enough attention to know exactly. I had an oil change right before a road trip for Thanksgiving - but before the OLM said "Change Oil Soon" - and less than 700 miles into my drive, the dash was saying "Oil Change Required", because the place didn't reset the OLM. Which tells me that the OLM is strictly looking at a few certain parameters, like miles & maybe even a couple operating parameters like engine load, idle, etc. But us peons don't typically get to know the nitty-gritty of what's actually used. After an oil change: Turn the key to On position, engine off, press & hold brake and accelerator pedal simultaneously until the dash says the reset is complete. I think it took like 30-60 seconds for me.

I know the whole profile of your van is different than G2 models, but that window looks a good bit smaller than 15x24" like this thread has? Height alone will make a big difference when it comes to a curved vertical profile.

Double post due to WiFi router problem

Yep, those are known as blind rivets. It used to have a shank sticking out before it was installed (see pic), then the shank snaps off when the rivet expands/mushrooms to the correct position during installation. Drill out the shank with a similar sized drill bit (or even just the top 1/4" of the shank, slightly deeper than the head is thick), then go up maybe 2-3 sizes to drill out the center of the rivet so the head will fall off - you don't need a bit as wide as the rivet head, only a few sizes larger than the shank.

I haven't seen any up close in a TC, but the ones I've always seen in the past are usually just mounted with some self-tapping screws. Any pictures you could share of how it's mounted to the door? If it's somehow riveted instead of screwed down, you'd need to drill out the rivet heads.