williaty

I'd actually like to put that on my tractor.

You will almost certainly be unhappy with any sort of license plate light bar mount. They ALL vibrate and bounce because the license plate mounting points are not sufficiently rigid. The result is that the light flickers and vibrates sickeningly on the road.

Damn, that's too bad. I'm waiting on your results before I start this myself.

Someone posted a link to the install instructions for the OEM trailer hitch hosted on fordservicecontent.com. Unfortunately, that's not a website you can browse; you have to have the link to the specific document you want to download. Does anyone know how to ransack it to get the install instructions for the OEM block heater for a 2014 Connect wagon XLT? I've finally found the part number for it, but I want to read the instructions to find out where it's supposed to fit into the block so I can figure out if it's an engine-out job or not. Thanks!

AVguy, did the trailer lights work when you tested them at your daughter's over the weekend?

I re-looked at this thread to consider my racking options and I realized I have an answer about the dimples shown in the black roof: they're normal and caused at the factory. I look out a 2nd story window and see the top of my van a lot. My van has a dozen or more of those dimples down each trench at the sides of the van. They're small distortions caused when something on the inside of the body was spot welded to the roof skin.

I looked into a VCM2 box last week or the week before. The knock-off version of the hardware are affordable but they aren't capable of doing anything by themselves. To get the laptop to authenticate the connection to the modules in the car, you have to have an IDS software subscription. The subscription is obscenely expensive. As far as I could find from googling, you can't reprogram any of the in-car modules without an IDS subscription because each module is individually cryptographically signed and can only be authenticated through the Ford mothership. It's one of the many, many consumer-hostile things Ford loves doing. The US needs to get off its butt and pass a national Right to Repair law to stop this stupidity.

Yep, I entered my VIN, no it doesn't have any information, yes, that's the same function many other US Ford owners report as being wildly inaccurate.

Nope, doesn't list any info at all. Googling it, there's threads in other Ford owners forums about how ETIS is euro-only and, on the rare occasions when it does list info about USDM cars, much of it is wrong.

OK, found ETIS. Seems to have little to no data about my van. It looks like it's a UK thing as all the outgoing links are to ford.uk domains.

What is ETIS?

Which awning is that?

Damn, I thought if you had SYNC, you had bluetooth. Ford's ordering options are just stupid!

What kit/parts did you use to add the heated seats?

I thought this was an easy question but I'm no longer sure that it is. I thought that because my van has the AM/FM/CD radio with the full keypad including the PHONE button, that meant that it had SYNC. This is the radio unit I'm talking about: However, when I push the PHONE button to attempt to arrange pairing, I get a display that says "AUDIO MUTED" and no option to pair, reset, or anything else. Does this mean my van doesn't actually have SYNC?

What was your total cost on the parts?

I am very interested to see how this turns out for you. It's a much more elegant solution than a lot of splicing.

I've been doing some googling tonight. The tool looks useful and does many of the things I'd like it to do. However, the software licensing for IDS is absolutely criminal. The VCM2 hardware starts as low as $100 for a clone. However, the box is useless without the IDS software. Going to Ford's service site, the licensing for the IDS software is $150 for 48 hours access, $300 for 30 days access, or an absurd $850 for a year's access. We need to pass Right to Repair federally and then hit Ford with a massive fine to get them to stop this stuff. As I said before, I've been a professional mechanic and shop owner for a decade specializing in Subarus with occasional work on the other Asian brands. I can't believe how badly Ford treats customers and independent repair shops in comparison to Subaru and the other Asian makes.

So, back to the tool... Is this the kind of thing I'd need to reprogram the car to keep the damned outside lights off when a door opens (as discussed heavily here)?

Lack of a physical lock button/switch on the inside of the doors is a REALLY stupid decision on Ford's part but there's a real pain in the ass work-around for it. Every door, on the edge of the door where it shuts into the jamb opposite the hinges, has a lock cylinder that fits the key. So you have to open each door, manually rotate the lock cylinder with the key, then shut each door. However, there may be a decently large gotcha. The wording in the manual where it talks about this sucks. I think the manual is saying that, if you restore electrical power, the power actuators are now disconnected from the mechanical portion of the lock. That means you'll have to open the driver's side door with the key (since it's the only one with a lock cylinder on the outside), then crawl through the car opening each door from the inside (remember that the sliding doors and rear barn doors will require TWO pulls before they open), then flip the lock cylinder in the door edge back the other way to "reconnect" the mechanical portion of the lock to the electrical portion of the lock. I'm not sure that's what the manual is trying to say though. I need to go test this on my van before the day I have to do it, come to think of it.

The van is at 3 years, 30,300mi so I think the original warranty is gone. I bought it as a Certified Pre Owned a month ago and the CPO warranty extension has a $100 deductible per visit. EDIT: Well... I may need to explore this. The 2014 basic warranty was 3 years/36,000mi. Looking at the title history, even though it's a 2104, it didn't actually move off the lot to the first owner until June 25, 2015. That means it would still be covered under both terms of the basic warranty. Does the original warranty transfer to the 2nd owner even if the van is bought as a CPO?

Any idea how you're going to mount it?

I took this info to the closest dealer to me. They weren't even willing to look at the paper I handed them until I had paid them $120. If they didn't understand what was written or they couldn't find it in my van, they kept the money. Christ, I wish I could get away with ripping my customers off like that! Well, no, actually I don't because I'm not a sleezeball.

Ford just pisses me off. After 15 years of owning, racing, and professionally race modifying Subarus, Ford is unbelievably customer hostile in comparison. I like my van but I'm growing to dislike the company it came from more and more.

Can you PLEASE contact your dealer service and get any additional information you can so that the rest of us can go to our dealers armed with as much info as possible?