kxrf

I've found information alluding to the existence of a Battery Charging Monitor built into either the Body Control Module? or the Powertrain Control Module. True or false? I'm about to replace the original silver chloride battery in the TC, and again I've found articles alluding to needing to be reset from OLD to a new battery. I'm thinking of a battery with different chemistry i.e., lead chloride or AGM. The add on to that question is whether the Charging Monitor (if exists!) has to be notified that a battery with a different chemistry was installed. I've read in those allusions stated above that the Charging Monitor is rather basic. In 2013 Ford was in the process of including a more comprehensive full battery monitor in vehicles that changed that year. With the basic alleged Charging Monitor in the TC need not be reset via a scan tool with Ford plugins, but rather just disconnect the battery for some period of time to reset, in this case, all modules. Will the radio code be necessary after such reset?

Damn. Would have been perfect for the '13...

How else can government create jobs? And if the tax code wasn't so convoluted, think of all the accountants that would be out of work!

One man's distraction is another man's information... Just like shifting is a bother for some, but keeps me involved in the act of driving.

They can't replace those stupid "cigarette lighter" adapters fast enough for me. At least many vehicles are making USB ports available, which helps a bit - even if they are not in the 2amp family. As far as other devices, the manufacturer has to weigh the liability to the company vis a vis ease of access vs driver distraction.

Welcome to the present. ANY VEHICLE PURCHASED TODAY IS "What you get is what was in the vehicle when you drive it away." The TC is f a r from the being among the more advanced vehicles being sold today. The center "nav" screen/radio has become the de-facto access point to the on-board electronics and subsystems of the car. BMW primarily, but other high end marque owners have been the guinea pigs for the total electronic control of vehicles for the last 15 years - remember the initial offering of I-Drive from BMW? My 7-series BMW (pre-iDrive) nav system quit (due to a trunk leak) rendering my otherwise fully operational radio/CD system inoperative - it would play two minutes exactly and then shut off. Couldn't change the station, no CD, no screen at all. This was a 2001 - 15 years ago!! Had the nav system failed in the iDrive cars, I doubt the car would have driven at all - if lucky, limp mode. Yes indeedie, this is the near future for the "normal" cars. Many are already there. Thankfully, the cargo vans, like the TC, have lagged behind the passenger segment. Even base models are afflicted with this technology - and more to come - the lane assist, automatic braking (scares me TO DEATH) many mandated by the government. Not buying the TC would not have saved you unless you plan to keep your Frontier (think about the name and the advancing technology - almost a pun) until your death. ANY new vehicle will have at least the current level of intrusion. Funny, the two most maligned features that cause vehicles to fall in ownership polls - Infotainment systems, and automatic transmissions. By time the car is (re)designed, the electronics have to be at least five-years old to have been part of the testing cycles required to put one on the road. What did your 5-year-old phone look like? By time the vehicle reaches its design end-of-life, how antiquated are the electronics within? We live in a electronics age and are used to 6-12 month development cycles. Your vehicle, even the uber-expensive ones, with state of the art pieces are five-years old. How old are the designs that filter down to something like the TC? Even the reports of the MB Metris slam the "infotainment system" as being an "older generation". frank

Lucky Gen 2 owners. Probably a good default to reset to traction ON after restart. Then there's us Gen One owners... One problem with traction control is getting the vehicle to initially move - basically spin control. Then it is a problem keeping it moving while it plays with the brakes, and cuts power plowing through deep snow - spin control and stability control. There are times when I would want to temporarily disable traction control. But in most cases, once under way, on a normal, flat, slick, road not piled up to the yingyang with snow, I would want the traction control active. It would be great if one could press a button and disable traction control, then press it again to turn it back on. (like most normal vehicles) The current pull fuse 15, or interrupt power to the yaw control module gets half the job done - disabling - but requires a vehicle restart (a reboot of all the interconnected systems) to go back to normal. I'm thinking if one could spoof the analog signal voltage from the yaw sensor one might be able to use that to effectively switch on and off the traction control. I *believe* I have read somewhere the analog voltage varies between zero and five volts - the left and right lateral G maximums before going to the DAC for digitization and then onto the CAN bus. Driving while monitoring the voltage on that line may reveal a zero-G voltage value, which if fed to the circuit from a different source may be enough to spoof the system. One issue that may arise is that the system is smarter than just blindly accepting voltage as an input - but compares the steering angle sensor values with the output of the yaw sensor and "flag" when the data becomes nonsensical - i.e., throttle open, steering sensor maxed out left or right, speed sensor showing significant speed, yet the yaw sensor is happily showing no lateral forces. Just some idle thoughts...

Great. More power for an already overpowered car that needs driver aids to drive.

(sigh) (drool) Wish WE could get these drivetrain options. Thanks EPA. Thanks DOT.

We call it the nickle-bag tax. I guess yours is a dime-bag tax.

Merci!

Which BT adapter are you using? I'm using ODBlink LX which works with my Samsung Galaxy 5 Active, but not to my LG tablet. I'm not sure whether it is the adapter or the tablet, or Android version.

Mrtn, Thanks for the tip on Brodit mounts. Very cool for GPS and phone (and running TORQUE PRO) to monitor systems. On my short list for all my three vehicles with move adapters. Too bad my wife and I use different phones... May just be time to upgrade mine!

Hi, Luddite here. Thanks mrtn and 103west43rd for your responses. I'm a point-and-click guy. My voice and any voice-recognition system have n e v e r gotten along well, whether it be (any) cell phone, phone voice response systems, etc. The first and most useful command I learned was "CANCEL". I can't be bothered. That, and I have lots of other "customers" for my patience. Inanimate objects kicking my a$$? I don't think so. Given the call functions and other voice controls are pretty much useless to me (or I useless to them), I'll just ignore Sync. That I use the phone so very little, probably a tempest in a teapot. I can at least listen to news radio and maybe receive a call. That is, if anybody ever calls. Which is another story altogether. 103west43ed, thanks for the list of modules on the CANBUS. Just having that information goes a long way to understanding the vehicle well beyond my original question. Thanks! frank

In my new (to me) 2013 Transit Connect LXT Premium with Sync, I just got the iPhone connected, and... well... I'm a bit underwhelmed. Audio, for me, is fine. I don't need much. Display is horrid, leaving me with voice commands which are worse, IMO. I don't use the phone much, but as hands-free is mandated by law here in Maryland, I guess I may as well get on board. I also have a 2014 Jetta, and it's phone functions are intuitive, straight forward, and readable; none of which applies to the SYNC system in the TC. Silly me, I thought the phone display functions would have been routed to the central LCD display ala VW. Little did I know, that display was unchanging, basically unprogramable. I know as the cars progress through the years, the radio/nav is becoming the access point computer for the user driver experience, and more and more functions are contained within, (much like BMW's IDrive monstrosity) So the question is How much of the TCs system does SYNC have its grubby little fingers into? The eventual question is, if I get rid of the head unit, and replace with another, what functions will be lost? Of course, radio, CD will be replaced in their entirety. Telephone functions will be replaced. Will I be able to use the already built-in microphone with the new system? (Analog?) Some new heads integrate with the steering wheel controls (as rudimentary as they are... Volume, input and phone is about it.) As I understand it, the factory backup camera/mirror/display are integrated with SYNC? True or False? Is the factory backup camera signal analog over coax to RCA plug, or CANBUS multiplexed? (or is there a third option, I hadn't even counted upon...? I had read that an Ford upgrade mirror with rear-view w/temp and compass could be fit EXCEPT on SYNC equipped vehicles. True or false? Is the CANBUS network feeding the mirror/rearview display? Switching of reverse cam based on gear selection is controlled - how? (CANBUS? Analog switch?) No drivability or environmental controls are controlled in this early SYNC system, right? How about the rear parking sensors? A separate system, independent of both the backup camera and SYNC? How is SYNC integrated into the CANBUS architecture? As for things I could potentially gain or lose based on head choice, that is controlled. One thing. Nav. I'm not enamored with built-in nav. At least the factory ones are slow, clunky, and always out of date. Software in them is always 3-4 years behind what you can get in this year's Garmin or TomTom. But, they're there. Aftermarket built-in? I'm not sure of continuing map support. Even Garmin and TomTom have screwed that pooch. Any insight into how this is all connected would be appreciated. frank