Beta Don

Nothing to worry about. That's not a hose . It's a plastic cover for electrical wires. They make that crackly noise when they're brand new. Have a safe trip to California! Don

Good luck with that! There are plenty of very potent Mustangs out there and they're all rear wheel drive - If you had 400 HP in a TC you'd still be no match for most of them from a standing stop. The guy in the Mustang might be surprised by your cloud of tire smoke in his rear view mirror ? Don

Thanks for posting, Fifty. It does look like their version of 12,000 pound capacity is . . . . one end of a 12,000 pound vehicle. Pretty loose interpretation of the English language, IMO At any rate, whatcha got that weighs in at more than 12K? Don

Please quote a source for your 'understanding' Why would something sold only in pairs have an actual weight rating of only half what's stamped on the product? It's my 'understanding' that each ramp will safely support 6,000 pounds, 12,000 for the pair because . . . . that's what's stamped on them Don

Altering the tire sizes by any appreciable amount screws up so many things and the gain is so small, it's just not worth it. The transmission shift points are computer generated and depend on the tires being the OEM size. You can make minor programming changes for other size tires, but only for a few sizes very close to the factory size tires Considering the low ground clearance of the factory air dam, if I was looking to buy a vehicle for off-road camping, I would be looking at something else - Maybe a Transit instead of a Transit connect. Modifying the suspension of a TRansit for added ground clearance would be much easier than with a TC Don

Mine are the 12K version I honestly can't think of anything that would fit on them that would harm them, weightwise. Dually tires are too wide and what can you think of that has more than 6 tons of weight on one axle?? Maybe a back-hoe or a Caterpillar Bulldozer?? Don

Rhino Ramps are the answer - I've been using a set now for more than 20 years on half a dozen different cars. They worked well even on my Miata with the front chin spoiler. They fit the TC's air dam no problem. Well worth the cost Don

Ford Transit vans are the larger, rear wheel drive variety, most with V-6's or V-8's and they have their own forum This forum is for the Transit Connect variety, which are more 'car like' and are 4 cylinder, front wheel drive. If you're looking at Transit Connects, they come in either a short wheelbase, about the size of a car, but they only seat 5, with rear seats that both fold flat and then store vertically behind the front buckets, or the rear seats can be quickly and easily removed. The other option is the long wheelbase, which is about 18" longer and seats 7 with folding rear seats which don't come out. Going from a Honda Fit to a LWB van will be quite a transition - I would suggest you drive both a LWB and a SWB version to see what best suits your needs . . . . or, maybe you are looking at Ford Transits, in which case you'll need to consult their forum for advice Don

I did that too - Never understood why my XLT van didn't come with the leather wrapped wheel when lots of XL cargo vans did??? I bought the leather wheel on eBay and it's a straight swap - Remove the airbag (after removing the positive battery cable and pushing the brake pedal to make sure there's no voltage at the airbag connector) and then the wheel comes off with a single nut. Install the new wheel, airbag and reconnect the battery cable and you're all set. Whether or not you can make the audio controls work or not is another question. I sold my original wheel on here to someone who needed one with the cruise control switches Don

You never know - They might find they like it better than Trader Joe's in the bottle . . . . with a cork! ? Don

If it's 'bag in box' it's not exposed to anything when you open it - Same reason wine in the box doesn't go bad in your refrigerator Not sure how you'd be exposing it to hydrogen anyway - The atmosphere is 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen and 1% argon - If there was any hydrogen present, it would be at the very top of everything, far from reach at sea level, since it's the lightest gas of them all Don

Sticking with the filter the engineers call for is always the best way to go - If they thought it needed more filter area, they would have specified a bigger filter. There's lots more going on inside any modern filter than just the amount of filtration material Don

Actually, that's not true. There are reinforced places in the pinch weld where it is triple thick and those are the only safe jack points. Jacking where it's just the two thicknesses welded together could crush the rocker panel If you keep the jack within about 6 inches behind the front wheel and 6 inches in front of the rear wheel, you're pretty safe, but the bet practice is to double check to make sure you're jacking at the reinforced spots where there are 3 pieces of metal welded up and not just two Don

My 2014 still has digital speed available on the tiny screen - Thank goodness, as that's about all I look at Don

I have 26,710 on my '14 - I don't drive it every day, usually not every week for that matter and sometimes it sits for a couple months between uses. I only drive it when I need a van or when I need something with a trailer hitch. Since we bought it, we're averaging less than 5,000 miles per year and 90% or more of those are freeway miles. We have more practical vehicles for daily commutes and around town use Sure wish I had the knowledge and skills to upgrade my dash like Don has done - I almost never look at the speedo when driving this thing, so I'm using that tiny screen to see how fast I'm going almost all the time and something bigger would be a huge plus Don

Hopefully you always use a dab of anti-seize compound on any plug threads which will be used in any vehicle with aluminum cylinder heads - Very important! Don

You could do that, no problem I'm going to put 3 new quarts in and I don't want to have to check the fluid level every time because since Ford opted not to give us a dipsrick, checking fluid level is very complicated - So, since I'm going to put in 3 quarts, I only want to remove exactly 3 quarts, so anything more than 3 that comes out goes back in with the 3 new quarts. Quick, simple (or as simple as Ford will allow) and (relatively) easy Don

We had an old Mitsu van years ago with an automatic trans famous for not lasting 100K and I did exactly what you're suggesting - It had a conventional pan on the trans with a drain plug (fortunately) and also a dipstick to check the level. Draining it got almost exactly 3 quarts out of it, so I drained and flushed it several times to put full synthetic ATF in it and then I drained and replaced the 3 quarts with every oil change. Don't know how long it would have lasted - My wife was rear ended in it and it was totaled at 88K Now that I've drained and flushed (4X) the TC with Castrol TransMax full synthetic ATF, I do plan to drain out 3 quarts and refill with new every oil change - Drain whatever comes out, pour it into 3 empty quart cans, then put the rest back in there with 3 new quarts - All this damn trouble because Ford decided NOT to include a dipstick to check the trans level - I'm sure not going to go to all the trouble to jack it up level like I did last time. THAT (and a few other things) means this will very likely be my last Ford purchase. It's one thing to call a questionable transmission a 'lifetime maintenance free' unit, but it's unforgivable (IMO) to make it so hard to service that you must take it to the dealer to get anything done . . . . especially considering how incompetent so many dealers service techs are Don

Any location that puts the phone where you can't see it is great - Somewhere that you also can't hear it when you're driving is even better Thousands of people used to get killed by drivers who had been drinking every year. We're getting better at eliminating those drivers, but now we have even more getting killed because of cel phones. We really need to get a handle on that problem . . . . . before the guy coming at me in the other lane kills me! Don

Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that. The front side of the battery box is also a high power fused distribution point and you'll have to cut some cable ties so you can fold that forward far enough to get the old battery out and the new one in. Getting the larger AGM in there isn't what I would call a simple task - I've changed batteries in dozens of cars over the years and this one would rank up there as the most difficult exchange I can ever recall doing . . . . and I'll BET you'll agree after you get yours replaced As I said in my post at the beginning of this thread, if you buy a battery from a place that offers free installation, *by all means* take them up on it! - They'll probably think twice before they offer to do another TC Don

There are 4 choices there in both menus, but none of them are very far from the stock sizes. Some models came from the factory with either 16 or 17 inch wheels, so it stands to reason there would be an adjustment there to make things 'right' for either size. It looks like if you wanted to go very far from a stock size you're still out of luck though Don

Modern engines are engineering marvels. Most all of the internal tolerances are much closer than in earlier generations which were usually worn out at around 100,000 miles. Newer engines use thinner oil (5W20 and sometimes even 0W15 or 20) than the 10W30 or 20W40 which was common waaaay back when the FL1A oil filter was designed. Modern engines all use smaller oil filters than older engines largely because they are designed to produce many times less metal particles floating around in the oil, so large filters on todays small engines are pretty much a thing of the past Mostly though, you've gotta consider that these modern engines which often last for 300,000 miles when properly cared for and can easily get 30 to 40 mph were designed by very smart engineers and you've got to wonder when any shade tree mechanic decides to make a major change to something like the oil filter the engineer specified for this particular engine, what are the odds that you're making a change for the better (you're smarter than the guys who designed it?) or are you changing an important part based on very little knowledge of all the parameters involved? If your TC would really benefit from a larger filter, the engineers at Ford would have put one on there. If it needed 6 quarts of oil, they would have given it a bigger oil pan. To my mind, what you're proposing is very much like your doctor with 8 or 10 years of schooling in his profession telling you that you need to take this specific medicine, and you arbitrarily deciding that no, what I really need is this other medication When guys much smarter than me design something, I'm very hesitant to decide I know better than they do and make a change based on my own . . . . hunch Don

I'm sure a reprogram like that could be done with your TC too - The problem would be finding a dealer with a tech who knew how and was willing to do it for a reasonable fee. My various dealer experiences has shown me that not too many dealerships have anyone who really knows this vehicle, nor are they willing to lean . . . . unless you have a warranty claim where they can spend 10 or 12 hours of shop time doing something that should take half an hour and still get paid. You will hear a LOT of "That can't be done" and then you will come here and read that someone did in fact get it done, but it took a knowledgeable technician and those are in very short supply at most Ford dealerships Don

The problem isn't so much with the throttle, it's that 1st gear is such a low ratio that it's not easy to take off smoothly without spinning the tires or jerking the passengers around. Once you get used to it . . . . and it does take awhile . . . . you won't find it's a problem any longer. My problem is I drive the TC so seldom that every time I have to begin getting used to it all over again, but once I've driven it 2 or 3 days in a row, it all seems perfectly normal to me Don

It's not what it does to the speedometer that's the problem - It messes up the transmission shift points which affect all sorts of things, not the least of which is how long the transmission may last. It will also cost you fuel economy for sure. Modern computer controlled vehicles depend on the tire circumference being very close to what they programmed the computer for to get the best results Don