Fifty150

Try sourcing recycle auto parts for something like that. Companies like LKQ are nationwide & online.

The car you drive, as well the your clothing; makes a statement about you, and presents your image. People judge you by your presentation. Wide brim fedora, long rain coat, and creepy van with blacked out tinted window.........the kind of guy who hangs out in the back room of adult video arcades, and not the kind of stranger you would take candy from. Want to come see my puppy? I've got ice cream.

With enough mechanical knowledge, and an unlimited budget, you can do anything that you want. Mechanically, the entire front end & drivetrain will not be strong enough once you start lifting, using larger wheels & tires, and weight is added. The front end will be a challenge. You should be able to fabricate mounting and use larger coilover struts. Lining up your steering will be a challenge, which you may be able to engineer with good CAD software. I just don't see the OEM engine & transmission package being able to effectively operate with what you want to do. Lifting the rear, with leaf springs, you can probably add-a-leaf, or have a custom leaf pack made, and add lift blocks with longer u-bolts. Then it's fairly simply to spec larger and longer shocks. Fenders will be cut. New wheel well liners will be fabricated. You won't have much to work with when you start sliding the rear doors. You may consider eliminating those sliding rear doors altogether, so that they don't slide open right into the modified larger rear wheels & tires. With the wheelbase, and added height, your stability will be like a Suzuki Samurai. This fantasy build can become a reality, if the right team of people find work-arounds. Very few Transit Connect builds out there. A few have been built to be faster. But nobody has built a front-wheel-drive, lifted, rugged terrain vehicle.

I like the Mercedes vans. Just don't like the pricing. I would rather drive a Ford, and keep the other $10K in my pocket. But that's how I feel about cars in general. I would never buy a luxury car. Vehicles for me are about utility and transportation. I'm not willing to spend more money for luxury features. Same way I don't buy designer label fashion jeans. Hush! That would be a waste of a couple of good chicks. Someone else could find some good use for those 2 chicks.

Covered under new car warranty. Just something for everyone else to pay attention to. That little bit of oil or grease you might see, but figure it's nothing.....Or you might hear a little rattle, but can't figure it out. Maybe it just doesn't seem like it's driving straight or the tires aren't wearing evenly. Get as much done under warranty as possible. That's why you bought new instead of used.

A lot of people consider 1,000 miles a month to be "average". That's a loose rule of thumb which is based on warranty coverage. 3 years, 36,000 miles. In reality, everyone has different driving habits, commutes, and ex-wives.

PhotoAl, Sorry about your father in law. 5150

Looks like you found a van with reasonable mileage, and still within the powertrain warranty.

Just in case you have the same issue.

The senior citizens are passing and flipping you off, because their granddaughters are riding in your van. I get it now.

It's all within the parameters of "free speech". Inasmuch as this is an open, and free, forum. Some people have other ideas. They feel the need to control what is being said, where it is being said, and categorize as to their own personal opinion what belongs and does not belong.

Don't buy it. Forget about even trying to diagnose it, and negotiating with the seller for presale repairs. Be patient. Wait until you find a van you like, without a clunk.

It's official. Someone will be mad. Thread is off topic.

My van is in the dealership at present. Service Writer offered a rental. I didn't need it, so I declined. I guess it depends on the level of customer service offered by the Service Writer standing in front of you.

Violence is the universal language. Over the course of human history, when encountering other people who do not speak the same language, violence has always been able to bridge the chasm. It's often inflicted upon request. But my personal life, and what girls want me to do to them, is not up for discussion in this forum.

Although I am privileged with the luxury of having a larger vehicle for heavier loads and heavier towing. Not everyone has a truck at their disposal. And not everyone is able to rent a truck @ $19.95 a day when they do have a something heavier to tow. Kind of hard to imagine having enough money to buy a boat, enough money to maintain a boat, enough money to put fuel in a boat; but not having the $20 to rent a U-Haul van for the day so that you can tow the boat. A real genius will try to tow a trailer with horses behind a Transit Connect. Same story. They have all the money for those horses, but can't afford a U-Haul truck rental. Same way I can't see how anyone could overload a Transit Connect, when logic and common sense should prevent that from happening. Bricks, concrete, wood.......how much can you fit before you notice that your rear end is slow low that the rear tires are pressing into the wheel well? At what point do you realize that the front end is not suppose to point up in the air because your rear end is too low? How much weight does it take to blow the tires? I can only imagine the poor horses suffering in that horse trailer, towed by a Transit Connect, and the trailer flips & rolls. Makes me want to use violence.

When public schools lost funding for Drivers Ed, we unleashed a nation of untrained teen drivers; whom all became untrained adults behind the wheel.

We are officially off topic. Some people's feelings get hurt when all natural order in the universe is disturbed. You simply cannot have a free flowing, organic, fluid, and dynamic exchange which strays away from the original topic.

Most effective, lowest cost, and ugliest solution is a commercial ladder rack. Get a used vehicle without a roof rack, and you won't have to worry about how much weight the previous owner loaded on the roof. i would look for the vehicle without the hitch. Because who knows what the last owner towed. Without the hitch, it never towed, and that's less wear on the transmission to worry about. Have the dealer tune it up, flush the tranny, and perform all service work before you take delivery. At 50,000+ miles, ask about an extended warranty and have that includes into your out the door price.

Sounds like a San Francisco Cable Car. http://www.cablecarmuseum.org/the-brakes.html THE BRAKES The cable cars employ a series of mechanisms to assist in braking the car and regulating its speed. The three parts of this system are the wheel brakes, track brakes, and an emergency brake. Both front and rear wheels have metal brake shoes, which the gripman operated by means of a pedal located by the grip. The conductor also has a rear brake lever at the back of the Powell and Mason cars for use on steep grades, while the California car has two pedals, one at each end of the car. Next to the grip and quadrant is a lever that operates the track brakes, pine blocks situated between the wheels. These blocks are pressed into the track whenever the gripman pulls back on the brake lever. The soft wood used exerts pressure on the tracks—sometimes enough to produce smoke—and stops the car. These blocks wear quickly and are replaced every three days or so. The final brake device is an emergency brake, operated also with a lever near the grip and track brake levers. The brake itself is a one-and-a-half inch thick piece of steel, about eighteen inches in length, hanging under the cars and over the track slot. If the gripman cannot stop the car by other means, pulling on the lever will push the brake down into the slot where it wedges so tightly that it must often be removed with a torch. This action leads to it sometimes being referred to as a “guillotine” brake. Of course these brakes are in many ways supplemental as the main braking action results from the cable itself, which when tightly held in the grip’s jaws enable the cable cars to move along at a nice 9.5 miles per hour constant speed, even on steep grades.

I had the "sport edition" Pinto. A Mustang II.

On the F-150, I have a ScanGauge II. Instant data. I can see that driving 55, compared to driving 75, means real time MPG of +4, and a 30 degree Fahrenheit transmission fluid temperature difference. 18 MPG on the freeway vs 14 MPG. 210 degree vs 180 degree. This is not a stock vehicle. Many mods, including a 6" lift, + oversized wheels & tires which tend to lower MPG and raise transmission temps. I suspect that the Transit Connect may yield similar results. Instead of 23 MPG on the freeway; I could see 27 MPG. But I just can't drive in the No. 4 lane, as senior citizens in a Prius are passing me and giving me the finger.

I was just there. Service advisor said that he thinks that the perimeter lights can only be disabled on van models, not wagons. I'm hoping that the techs know more than the service advisors.

A common roof leak with F-150's, for the last few generations, was the 3rd brake light, or high mount stop lamp. The fix for that was a revised part with a better gasket. On mine, there were stress fractures where the lamp's mounting screws were. That could have been me with a heavy hand torquing down on the screws, or simply heat expansion against the screws. We will never know. My solution was to replace the lamp. There are aftermarket gaskets for those lamps. Sponsored MOFORKIT 3rd Third Brake Light Seal Gasket Compatible with Ford F150 2004 to 2008, Explorer Sport Trac 2007 to 2010 by MOFORKIT 4.5 out of 5 stars 12 $15.99$15.99 Save 10% with coupon FREE delivery by Fri, Feb 22 Sponsored MOFORKIT 3rd Third Brake Light Seal Gasket Compatible with Ford F150 2009 to 2014 by MOFORKIT 4.3 out of 5 stars 20 $15.99$15.99 Save 10% with coupon FREE delivery by Thu, Feb 21 Sponsored MOFORKIT 3rd Third Brake Light Seal Gasket Compatible with Ford F150 1997 to 2003, F250 1997 to 1999 by MOFORKIT 4.3 out of 5 stars 6 $15.99$15.99 | FREE One-Day. FREE delivery by Tomorrow, Feb 20 on qualifying orders over $35 Ford has a cleaner to be used for the headliner which removes those water stains left behind from roof leaks. The Transit Connect may leak from the antenna, the holes used for mounting roof rails, and the 3rd brake light. On my lift gate wagon, there are also 2 rubber wire looms. You, or your dealer, may have to remove the headliner to look for the leak.