dbonsall

Since I last posted, I've not really made any progress. I haven't really had the time to follow through. The company I contract for (which is a large well-known corporation), is buying tons of these vans, so I wrote a letter detailing this issue, and had the local office fleet coordinator forward the letter to the national fleet coordinator. My hope was that they might take an interest in the problem, and be able to more easily get Ford's ear. But, I am not sure that the company really cares about the issue. We never heard back. It's probably cheaper just to replace the stolen tools and equipment, than deal with the issue. After all, we found out after two of these vans were broken in to and an E-150 was absconded with, that they weren't even carrying insurance to cover the equipment or tools in the back. They figure it's cheaper to replace the stolen items in the few vans that will be broken in to, than to pay for insurance on however many vans are in their national fleet. Unfortunately for the drivers, they had to replace their hand tools at their own cost. After these three vans were broken in to locally, I decided to look more into a solution again. I contacted Ford via their website about the problem, but they were completely useless. No matter what I said in my email, their response ended up being to contact the local dealer. When I explained that the dealer had no clue how to solve the problem, I was told to go to another dealer. They might as well have just set up an auto-responder on their website that says "Contact your dealer" whenever you email them. My problem with the dealers regarding this issue is their complete lack of knowledge regarding the programming options. When my dealer was reprogramming my TC, I stood right beside him. He was just trying different options and seeing what the result was. I'm not entirely sure that the Smart Unlock can't be programmed out, just that my dealer was unable to stumble across the solution. One of the local drivers I work with ended up pulling the power lock fuse and wiring a toggle switch in line with the fuse. Now, when he gets home at night, he flips that switch to disable the power locks. I might end up doing that myself, but my luck would be that the night I forgot to toggle that switch, would be the night I was broken in to. There should be a better solution to this.... Dennis

Well, unfortunately, it looks like I am no better off after the program changes they made. The other day, I was able to get the vehicle reprogrammed so that the Central Unlocking feature would only unlock the front two doors. This has the advantage of restricting the unlocking of the vehicle by use of the power locks inside the cab to the front two doors only. The owner's manual states that this feature can be so restricted by the dealer. After getting home and messing with the vehicle some more, I found out that the Smart Unlock feature overrides the Central Unlock programming that I had changed. The Smart Unlock feature unlocks the front and sliding doors if a door is ajar, and a lock command is issued. If someone smashes in one of the front windows, reaches in and toggles the power lock switch, all that will unlock is the front two doors. But, if someone smashes in one of the front windows, opens that door, then toggles the power lock switch, the front and sliding doors will unlock. Unfortunately, my dealer cannot seem to make changes to the Smart Unlock feature, so I am not really any better off than when the Central Unlock feature was as defaulted. He is going to research some more, but I am not hopeful. I need to look into another solution for securing the cargo area. Dennis

Looks like I'll probably be going back, as it is. I just found a way that the sliding doors can still be unlocked from the cab. If you have a door open and attempt to lock the doors using the power door lock switch, the vehicle unlocks the cab and sliding doors. So, if someone were to break into the cab, open the front door, then press in the door lock to lock the doors, the cab and sliding doors will unlock. However, the back doors still do not unlock, so I am hopeful that I can get sliding doors to not unlock in that situation. I guess I'll find out. Dennis

I just wanted to provide an update on the resolution to my problem. I was able to get the local Ford dealer to reprogram the locks, so that the sliding doors DO NOT unlock when the power lock switches in the cab are used. In fact, the only way to unlock the sliding doors is to use the keyfob, and press the unlock button twice. The only drawback to this is if the keyfob battery goes dead. The driver's side sliding door is going to have a shelf with drawers installed directly in front of it, which will render the contents of the shelf inaccessible, should the keyfob battery go dead. I am probably going to check with the local dealer again to see if there are any configuration options that allow programming for the back door lock. Perhaps it can be programmed to unlock the sliding doors when the key is used to unlock it. If not, I'll just keep a spare keyfob battery in my glove box. Thanks, Dennis

Thanks for the fast response, and the schematic. First of all, I did notice that when the door lock/unlock switches in the cab are used, they do not unlock the rear doors. Additionally, I assume that the "Generic Electronic Module" in each schematic you posted is actually the same physical module. As such, could I not simply disconnect the wire connected to the GEM labelled "Sliding Door Unlock" and splice it (parallel it) into the wire labelled "Unlock Rear"? I guess the only issue would be if the "Unlock Rear" output provides enough power to run both circuits (and identical voltages). Where is the GEM physically located? Any advice in regard to this modification would be appreciated. Thanks, Dennis

Hello, I just purchased a Transit Connect cargo van, primarily for business use. I am going to have a steel partition installed to separate the cab from the cargo area, along with security screens over the rear and sliding door windows. I am doing this, in part, to make it more difficult for someone to break into the back, where several thousands of dollars of equipment and tools will be located. However, all someone has to do is break into the cab and use the power lock switch to unlock all the doors and gain access to the rear. I notice in the owner's manual that it states that the keyfob can be set up by the dealer to not unlock the rear doors. Is there some programming option they can set so as to not unlock the rear and sliding doors when the power lock switches are used in the cab? Or, is there a way to disable those switches? Thanks for the assistance, Dennis