Fifty150

Android Auto works sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't. This is a problem that happens with a lot of different phones, cars, and radios. No real solution for making it work. Delete the app. Reinstall the app. Delete the app's saved cars. Restart the phone. Restart the car. Disconnect the keep alive memory of the radio. Factory reset the radio. Use a high speed data cable. Unplug USB and plug in again. My guess is that with so many phones and so many radios, there must be a problem with the lines of codes.

This is the light bar on the front of my Transit Connect

Use a fused relay. The fuse will be a part of the relay, so no need to install a separate inline fuse. These are available from most of your electronics or auto supply sources. There are many brands. Buy one with a harness if it makes it easier for you. Change the fuse to an appropriate size. No matter what the seller claims for watts and lumens - it's usually not accurate. While the item description may say 240 watt or whatever, it's probably less than 60 watts, or 5 amps on a 12 volt system. Whatever you buy, test it so that you can install it with the correct fuse. For something like the below shown wiring harness, pole 86 is positive, and pole 85 is ground. There is a coil in the relay. These poles are for either end of the coil. On some diagrams, you will see 85 as the power, and 86 as the ground. It doesn't matter. As long as power goes in one, and the other end grounds, it energizes the coil. This is what trips the relay to turn on. You will tap your high beam wire and connect it to either 85 or 86, and gound the other pole. Pole 30 is known as the Common. That is the pole which will connect to the battery for power. On a fused relay, the fuse will be on pole 30. Pole 87 is the Normally Open pole. Often referred to as "N/O". This connects to your lighting. The circuit is not connected to the battery for power, until the coil is energized. Once you turn your high beam on, the coil will connect the power from the battery to the lighting. Don't forget to ground the light bar. On a lot of diagrams, you will see that the the light bar ground and relay ground can be connected together. That is correct. It is safe to do that.

parts.ford.com

New cars have a 3 year bumper to bumper warranty.

Impossible to say without actually looking at your van. The van has a heater core. There is a series of hoses and valves which feed heated radiator fluid through this heater core. The valves are electronically controlled. The HVAC system is electronically controlled. The van also has a series of computers which receives the data of how you are turning the knobs on the dashboard. Those knobs on the dashboard have a wiring harness behind the dashboard. You could have anything from a bad heater core, to valves which aren't opening correctly, to the computer not operating correctly. You might have bad switches behind the knobs on the dashboard. There could be corrosion in a wiring harness. There's also the little motors which control the little doors under the dashboard to allow cold air, hot air, outside air........ to flow to the floor, dash, windshield defrost.........they used to call those "blend doors", and there were motor units which moved them. You need to start trouble shooting. Check to see what is or isn't working. Is there hot fluid flowing to the heater core? That would be step 1. If the heater core is not hot, then that's why you have no heat. IF the heater core is hot, then you have to figure out why the hot air is not flowing. It's a lot of work. Good luck.

You won't be stocking up on water pumps, alternators, exhaust manifolds, timing belts, fuel pumps, EGR valves....... or anything like that. Your new Ford comes with a 5 year powertrain warranty. Most of these Ford trucks will last a little past that 5 year warranty.

I almost bought those parts to install myself. Then the recall notice came out. The dealership fixed it for me.

My car is a 2016. I've spent some money on aftermarket modifications. Backup camera. Radio. USB power ports. LED lights. LED light bar. I bought most of the stuff from Amazon. I added what I wanted because my barebones commercial model came with nothing. Only an AM radio. I bought a set of tires. That's normal wear. I'll buy a new battery sooner or later. Normal wear. Wiper blades. Normal wear. I bought tires from a tire shop. Not the dealership. Didn't feel the need to buy OEM tires. I'll probably buy the battery from Costco. I'm not spending double at the dealership for a battery. Costco sells Interstate batteries, and they are priced about half of what a dealership charges for Motorcraft. You can buy whatever wipers you like, from any store. 29" wiper blades are expensive, no matter what you buy. It's 2022. I've had it for 6 years. The only maintenance for me has been oil changes, and transmission fluid change. When I changed the air filter the 1st time, I installed an oiled filter. That's it's own controversy and debatable. I got a case of oil filters from Amazon. 12 Motorcraft oil filters were $15. I buy oil where there is a sale, and/or rebate. No preference. Wal-Mart and Costco both sell motor oil for a good price. I expect to change the spark plugs sooner or later. Amazon had Autolite Iridium spark plugs, in a 4 pack, for $9.64. Autolite had a $3 rebate per spark plug. Autolite sent me a $12 rebate, for spark plugs that I paid $9. I expect to replace the brakes sooner or later. I haven't bought those parts yet. I do not foresee anything in the way of major mechanical repair that I will do myself. I am hoping that I don't have an engine or transmission failure. These vans aren't plagued with cooling system failures, even though it's a somewhat sophisticated cooling system. Radiator, thermostat, fan, sensors, and valves all seem to be working without reported failures. I haven't read on the forum where people are reporting failures in the air conditioning. Although for decades, Fords have been known to have failures with the blend door actuators in different models. My biggest issue has been the leaking windshield. That's been fixed under recall. You may not be ordering a lot of parts. What parts did you think you were going to have a hard time ordering?

I get by with FORScan

I buy from anyplace with the best pricing and availability. I start with Ford Parts to find the right part and part number. I can usually find an auto parts distributor selling the parts for less than dealer price. Online sellers often have better pricing. A local distributor usually has parts in stock. Online sellers ship within days. Ford dealer only if I need the parts immediately, and nobody else has it. A lot of times, I will buy aftermarket parts. I don't care if it's a Motorcraft part.

I have no idea about the European market. In the US, Ford has a website. More than likely, there is an EU version of this.

Maybe. I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe he's talking about where the winch system mounts to the bottom of the vehicle. That part just happened to be on the side of the road, as I was walking along. It looks exactly like it will fit my Transit Connect. But it may not. I haven't tried it. There are no markings on it with a manufacturer name or part number. Just my suspicion that it's a part which is used on other makes and models. Low Speed Pursuit, back to chasing OJ.

I found this on the side of the road. Yeah, now I have 2. I suspect that this particular part is used on other vehicles also. Not just Transit Connect. So it's probably easier to find. People lose things like this all the time. They change the tire. Then they threw the flat tire into the trunk, "the boot", the truck bed, the back seat...... and drive off. I've lost all sorts of bits and pieces. And those little parts are often very expensive. In some cases, it is almost impossible to replace. Most of those things are only important if you are restoring an old vehicle, and you have to have everything original. Otherwise, you may be able to find something like it in the aftermarket auto parts world. With this piece, I would try a junkyard.

I had one. Worked okay. Maybe better to look up at the mirror, than looking down at the dash, when reversing. I still like looking over my shoulder. Mine was a cheap one from Amazon. It still worked. You probably have something nicer. Just a few days ago, I got a better radio with a screen. Then I removed the backup camera monitor on the mirror, and ran the wire to the new radio. Something you can think about doing, before you install the mirror monitor. There are already threads on reprogramming to "dark mode". Also threads on installing backup cameras, radios, extra power ports, etc. You may want to read the thread on exchanging automatic transmission fluid. If the 2016 van had the original battery, that's probably why it died. It's old. That battery was 6 years . Batteries usually have a 36 month warranty. There's a thread about upgrading to a better battery. Questionable about what "better" means. Maybe more cranking amps. But the factory battery starts fine. Will it last longer? My 2016 still has the original battery. My F-150 OEM battery lasted 9 years. An Optima battery which costs twice as much only lasted 5 years.

A lot of useable parts on that car. This is the chance for people who want things like the door stopper, or seats.

In my van, I found that replacing the OEM light bulbs with LED was enough to make the interior bright enough. At least for my eyes. You might want to try that first. The backup cameras are now very inexpensive online. A few things to consider are how to run the wires, and what type of monitor you plan to use. Do you already have an aftermarket radio with a screen that you can use for a monitor? Are you installing a monitor? There are also wireless camera and monitor kits, so that you don't have to do as much work.

It usually helps to have the correct part. Whenever you don't have the correct part, and "try to make it work" - you take a chance.

The dash kits are over $100. That's the most expensive part.

I really like that cloth tape also. I only wish I knew about it, half a lifetime ago. My favorite application for it is running wiring inside of motorcycle handlebars. But that is only specific to custom Harley Davidson motorcycles. I got what I paid for. The radio works. The Android Auto works sometimes. Sometimes it connects. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the screen says that it's connecting and loading the phone data, and it stays that way until I unplug the phone. I don't know what I can do about troubleshooting it. Assuming my phone works. Assuming the radio, since it's new, works. I know that it can work. The only thing that I can physically do about it is buy one of those USB cables made for high speed data. At the moment, I just have a power cable for charging. If a better cable doesn't fix it, then it's probably the radio. Which still isn't too bad. I can still connect via Bluetooth for hands free calling and streaming music. The SD card and USB both play all the music and videos. I just won't be able to use the big screen for the navigation application from the phone.

Thanks for the timely reply. I'll note, that for anyone else who bought the cheapest van on the lot, with an AM/FM only radio, that there is a different dash kit. It comes with different parts. There is a sub-dash bracket. And if you are also installing a backup camera, the curved dashboard on the drivers side pops off just like the piece in the center, if you need more access to run the wiring. Since it is so basic, a stripped down commercial model with AM/FM only, encountered zero problems with changing the radio. No steering wheel controls, 4.3" display, or Ford Sync not working. Everything on the new radio worked. The hard part was trying to line up the new radio with the cutout for the dash kit. In case it helps anyone else out, Amazon sells the installation wire harness kit, which also comes with the antenna adapter. It works. I used solder seal connectors, and wire loom cloth tape. The radio that I bought was from Amazon. Nothing special. It offers just a little bit more than the OEM AM/FM. I really can't expect much when the radio only cost $13.59. The price of $67.94 is for a 5 pack. How do they sell something like that, for that price? I don't care. I've got new radios in every car.

You could also buy something from Amazon. If it doesn't work, return it.

You need a diagnostic code reader capable of reading the computer module which controls the brakes. Most code readers, the inexpensive ones, do not read brake codes. They usually only read codes from the engine or powertrain control modules. Try FORScan first. FORScan is very comprehensive, and may be able to read brake codes. See if a local auto parts store has a code reader capable of reading brake codes. I don't know if stores have equipment for that. Auto parts stores usually read diagnostic codes for free, because they want to sell you the auto repair parts. Or you pay for a diagnostic at whatever price a shop or dealer will charge you. They plug in a very expensive code reader. Maybe, you buy the very expensive code reader and buy a license for Ford IDS, and do it yourself. https://www.fordtechservice.dealerconnection.com/vdirs/wds/diagnosticsites/vcmdvd/mcs/idssoftware.asp

The installation kit comes with a harness for the blue wire. The blue wire is usually for power to an amplifier. Before I take apart the dash and remove the radio, does the base model even have a powered amplifier? Do I even need to hook up that wire to the aftermarket radio harness?

Custom upholstery. A good shop will be able to build a more comfortable seat. Different types of foam. Different cover. They could build in heat pads. Vibrating massagers. The frame could be built to offer a different recilne angle. The only construction is adding the airbag sensor to the bottom - if you want to retain that function. You can do whatever you want. Really. People have flipped the seats around to face backward. It's up to you to decide if you want to have a "legal" and/or safe passenger seat. I would first try some pillows and seat pads. Any outlandish "pimp my ride" or "overhaulin'" type of build is possible. But you may not be able to rely on the seat belt or airbag system for safety once the passenger area is reconfigured.