clb3092

The mice thing really isn't just a TC problem. Yeah, I had it happen to my 2017 TC this previous fall. Mice crawled up in the vent and wrecked havoc. But! It also happened to my 2008 Toyota Highlander, my 2021 Toyota RAV 4 and to my sister's new VW crossover. The worst was actually the RAV 4. A family of mice had crawled into the RAV 4 and died. It smelled really bad. All this happened just this last fall after the first frost of the year. I guess the mice all decided that it was time to move inside. By the time I was aware of the problem it had happened to all four cars. My cat is fired...

I'm using an ancient cheap o netbook and VXDIAG VCX NANO for V112 Ford/V112 Mazda that I ordered directly from the manufacture's website vxdiagshop.com At about $87 it works flawlessly with Forscan and does both HS-CAN and MS-CAN automatically. Just select j2534 for the connection type. I should note that I do not use the VXDIAG VCX with Ford IDS or any other program besides Forscan. Most people buy the vxdiag for IDS but from what I understand Ford periodically tries to block j2534 adapters except for the official one that costs a lot of money. I originally purchased an earlier version on vxdiag when I was in California and my main concern was making sure their were no surprises when it came time for the dreaded SMOG inspection. If you don't mind spring for the extra $ I recommend the vxdiag. J2534 connection is the superior connection tech for Forscan. It's faster, comprehensive functioning and as far as my experience just works. I should note that I haven't tried anything dicey or fancy with it like hacking the ....

At the very least Forscan makes a great obdII reader. If you use a laptop your only cost is really the cable which can run anywhere from $30 for a ELM327 type cable to about $100 and up for a vcm2 clone. Not bad!

I purchased the factory service manual from the official source, https://www.helminc.com As far as a product it's pretty good and filled with lots of info. However the "official" source has one major super pain in the ass. The disk that came in the mail has a system called Securom which is a DRM protections system that is normally found only in video games. Because of this I can't use the product on the Mac(It would normally run on mac using wine). I was forced to put together an ancient pc out of various spare parts I had laying around and install win 7 to view the service manual. Yuck, what a pain in the ass.

I have an alternate suggestion. Why not start with Forscan? If you want to performance tweak your Transit Connect you can do A LOT with just good ole Forscan, at least so I am told. I use Forscan but no tweaking! Besides it's free! At least with Forscan you won't suffer from buyer's regret like you would if the chip you bought turned out to be snake oil.

From what I understand because of environmental regulations all vehicles are tuned to burn on the lean side by default. Ergo, all vehicles have potential of more power and efficiency by not burning lean. Of course it would make emissions worse and probably shorten the life of the catalytic converter....

"Systems like voice activation and Bluetooth work so much better with a lower noise floor. Very good investment. I also drive a TC as a work truck, so I can compare the difference between them, the personal van is so much nicer to ride in." You are correct zalienz. Background noise is a huge problem for all voice recognition systems. Basically it's because of two problems. The first is that single point (ie using one microphone) sound capturing does a bad job with background noise. Have you ever spoken to someone while they were driving(and you were not in a car) who was using those tiny single ear blue tooth headsets that fit into one ear and you couldn't understand a damn thing they said? That's what I'm talking about. The only solution is to use one of those headsets which have a mic that extends over to your mouth(like they use in call centers). Those work very well in environments with lots of background noise. This is just the laws of physics in action. The second reason is because all computers, especially those in cars, are stupid, literally. Not many realize it but the number one driver behind artificial intelligence development is in using AI will allow machines to hear and understand language in a noisy background like humans do. The military has poured mega bucks into it because they want tanks that can understand voice commands from the human operators.

AVguy2: I also recommend that you take a serious look at FORScan. It's actually a lot more flexible and powerful than you would guess from just looking at the FORScan webpages. ODBLink MX will work, but also good is a "modified elm327" cable. The "modified" bit refers to a switch on the side of the cable that lets you access ms can bus. The info on the Forscan web site is a little out dated, you don't have to mod a elm327 cable yourself for this, there are plenty of FORScan modified elm327 cables on the market for purchase. In addition the selection of elm327 cables that are fully FORScan compatible is very good and not so sketchy as it was in years gone by. For full control that allows you to program some very "core" modules you might have to purchase the "extended license" but the cost is VERY REASONABLE and you can generate a "trial extended license" that is very generous (I think it's like two months, but I'm not sure). Compared to anything else on the market it is very inexpensive. Also, FORScan also supports J2534 Pass-Thru adapters. I think this means VCM2 style adapters. The best version of FORScan Is the windows version used on laptops. However their are versions for android and IOS, they are not nearly as full functional but they are evolving fast. But they cost a little bit of money. The windows version is free, the extended version really only does a very few things that the regular version doesn't. I suggest you try it. At the very least you'll find it to be the very best ODB reader for Fords under $1000 bucks(the cable will set you back like $50 dollar at most and the program is free).

My 2017 XLT Cargo still has the fold forward "desk" plastic passenger seat back. I love it. I think that Transit Connects with certain front seat options do not have the fold forward "desk" plastic passenger seat back?