JustinVP

I can confirm that Forscan now works great for adjust speedo for larger tires. Running 215/65r16 Geolandars I bumped it up to 2070 circumference and it's bang-on perfect now when compared to a GPS speedo app on my phone. Based on prior threads I only changed the circumference, no other settings. First time in Forscan was a bit nerve wracking when that warning message came up that said (paraphrasing): "don't do this, you'll brick your car". At least that's the impression I got. Ha!

Excellent! Adapter ordered and I’ll finally have a reason to mess around in Forscan. If I’m lucky maybe I can also find a way to permanently turn off that bloody backup sensor instead of hitting the off button all the time (bike rack is a permanent fixture).

How’d you do that? Forscan? Last time I dug through the forums I didn’t think it was on option in the TC.

Oooh, tell us more! I'm in basically the same boat. but on a wagon. I'm not sure if they're the same shock size since the spring is heaver on the wagon. I'd really like to fit some air assist rears for loaded up trail building and shuttle or camp days. P.S. nice Sentinel!

Did you ever find the rear shock specs? I'm curious as well as I'd like to fit some Gabriel HiJacker air-assist shocks. I did the 30mm front spacer lift, but left the rear stock (wagon sits higher than your cargo version). It's about right with just me and 1 mtb on back, but sags with 3 trail bikes and a full load of gear.

I'm happy with the 30mm on front. I think with the 40's you might need to use a spring compressor to get the right strut into the knuckle, it took some (reasonable but firm) pushing on the passenger side to get the strut tube back in. That said, I'm a great MTB wrench, but not much experience with cars, so take my input with a pinch of salt. It might be easy if you know what you're doing. I ended up doing nothing yet on the backs, it's level with my 1-person covid routine and my Transition Patrol and heavy-ass rack on back. Loaded for camping it sags a little. 3 DH bikes and 3 dudes going to Whistler it would definitely sag. My dream is to find a way to fit in some Gabriel air-adjust shocks back there, once I rally some time/motivation.

Nice! Much easier that way.

I think it's this piece: https://www.tascaparts.com/oem-parts/ford-cable-dt1z61221a00d Maybe.

After about a year decided to finish off my sound insulation deadening/insulation project, and of course I got a little ham fisted and broke a plastic part taking off the driver-side front door panel. 2016 Titanium Wagon. Broke this plastic part: the little clip that attaches the cable to the latch. The online manual I bought sucks, so don't have parts numbers or good replacement info. Can I replace just the cable, or do I need the whole latch mechanism? Any parts #'s from those of you who have a proper manual/parts diagram would be awesome. Also, any tips on how to elegantly get this piece out would be appreciated! Obviously my "yank on it" method isn't ideal. This pic is the most detail the service manual provides. Pretty sure it's the brown part I circled. Anyone know if this can be done with the lock mechanism still in the van, or does the whole thing need to come out? What a PITA! Shoulda been more careful.

Further research if someone wants an alternate idea for a front lift. This guy on Instagram put in the front struts from an Escape 4x4, plus additional spacers) into his TC. If those are a direct fit, it would be an ideal solution, bit I couldn't find any additional details. Someone with better wrenching experience than me should chase this down and see if it works. https://www.instagram.com/transit_connect_overland/

Negative, Captain. Looks like it, but they're just molding marks.

Hey Kerry, check out this thread, the good bits are on p4: I just put on a 30mm lift with spacers (haven't done rear yet, but maybe next week). Plus 215/65 16 Yokohama Geolandar trires for another 10mm. That's a hair over 1.5" extra, which is a massive improvement for forest road clearance. I build mountain bike trails in my spare time, so I'm driving on crappy, mucky, partially decommissioned logging roads quite a lot, with bikes, people (I guess I'm going solo until the apocalypse is over) and tools in the back. It drives way better now on forest roads, but taller tires and rubber spacers make it drive more van-like, as expected. A guy on Instagram did more of a front lift, but he had to be a pretty decent mechanic to do it, since getting even an extra 30mm in there was tight. He put struts from a 4x4 Escape, plus spacers for 2.5" lift I think. I couldn't find a lot of details from him, so I went with the Russian rubber spacers instead. Find him here on the Insta: https://www.instagram.com/transit_connect_overland/

The 65 vs stock 55 series tires made it feel a lot less responsive cornering (loved the stock handling of this thing), quieter on insanely rough/loud Seattle freeways, much smoother over broken concrete (aka our streets), and way, way better on logging roads. Basically what you'd expect on a taller sidewall tire. I drove these for a few weeks before installing front spacers. I could tell no difference in handling once the 30mm spacers went in, though I'm sure you'd notice something if on stock tires. Quieter again, if anything, which could be the rubber spacer isolating the struts from the metal body of the van. I get that there will be increased wear on CV's, etc., but 30mm is pretty modest and the angles looked reasonable after install. The amount I pay in CV and front end work will be saved by not peeling open the underside like a popcan on those ridges of cobble that like to stick up from the center of logging roads. @jrm223 Good info on the wiper arms! I put them back on with anti-seize, which should also make it easier. I'm looking to keep this fairly low cost, so no welding or bags. I'll probably do the rear spacers, if the shop wants $$ I'm sure I can find better spring compressor to rent somewhere.

I went for it, and got the front 30mm lift done, plus larger Geolandar 215 65/r16 tires. I haven't yet done the rear, my cheap 2-rod-style spring compressors couldn't do the job due to access. I might have the local shop do it when I get an alignment. It actually measures dead-nuts-level unloaded with just the front lift. I've got some stuff in the back in this pic, but only ~150 lbs including bike rack. I'll definitely do the rear lift one way or the other. Don't want it saggy when I have 3 MTBs on the back plus all my work event stuff inside. Here's the Russian Ebay kit I bought from Tema 4x4 (thanks REI_Grande!). Made of rubber, not plastic, so I hope the front spacers hold up over time. Getting the wiper arms off to access strut bolts is a PITA. Needed to clamp the puller together otherwise the dogs would pop off. The basic Amazon special puller sucks for the job, it really doesn't open far enough, I had to modd it plus used big C-clamp like below, so use something beefier. Removing the passenger side strut on this required a lot of force. The axle bottoms on a metal frame piece (where circled), and you have to push hard, which made me nervous. It eventually slid out of the steering knuckle (slid = hammering on it with 2x2 piece of lumber/2 lb hammer). Driver's side has a lot more room for the axle to move, and was 10x easier. I put the pinch bolts in through the "wrong side" (at end of yellow line) to squeeze open the joint since I didn't have the special tool for this. Worked great. Given the lack of room even stock, the only way to put struts back in with 30mm spacers was to compress the springs. Once I cut some pipe as spacers so the compressor rods wouldn't hit the top of the strut towers, it was relatively easy, though very tight. In hindsight, I'd probably compress the non-drive spring to get the stock strut off without levering so much force on the axle/CV joint. Went back together nicely. Even the brake lines and ABS wire mount went back in with enough room to bend at topout. A couple hundred miles and a bunch of logging roads later, I'm thrilled with the fronts and the awesome Yokohama tires. I'm not 100% sold on the spring spacers for the rear, possible spring bind at full compression? I come from the mountain bike world, so worry about stuff like that. I'd prefer an air assist shock or spring assist shock for the back, but haven't found any that are direct fit. We'll see how much the shop wants to install the rear spacers. Should be less than an hour of labor with a good one-sided commercial spring compressor - but we all know how these odd mods go, so we'll see.

I found a super easy way to spread it. See the bolt that fixes the strut to the knuckle? In the pic it's actually threaded in from the "wrong" side, and I put a washer in there so it pushes against the washer and spreads the joint.

I went for it, and got it off by throwing in a little muscle. Decided to trust the service manual. Definitely need to compress the spring to get it back on with 30mm spacer. Will hit the hardware store tomorrow and buy pipe to space the compressor here (Blue line) otherwise it hits top of shock tower. Fun little conversation I’m having with myself ?.

Circled is where it’s touching. Line is the ~1” left to go before it’s free. Maybe I’m just being a chicken, but don’t want this cheapo lift to cost me $2k in busted parts.

I’m half way through a project to install 30mm strut spacers on my ‘16 Wagon. The service manual I have just says disconnect steering knuckle and the struts should be free to remove. Well I can’t get the suspension low enough since the drive axle bottoms out on a frame piece, and there’s a good 1” of the strut left in the knuckle. Not inclined to bang on it while the axle it touching metal and do damage to shaft or CV or something. Anyone do this and got advice? I’m a newb to this kind of thing on modern cars. Spring compressor is my next option, but I need to rig up some spacers for the threaded rod since the rod sticks up too high to use it as-is. Not much room while strut is in the car. I’ll certainly need the compressor to get it all back together once I make it 30mm more difficult. This guy made it sound easy (I already got wiper motors out), so I figure I’m missing something obvious.

I purchased one from emanualonline.com. For $13 I thought it was worth a shot since I just need a few things like strut removal instructions. DON'T get it, doesn't work. It makes you launch some kind of virtual machine (oracle software), and then tries to launch a virtual instance of windows, which can't load. This is after it took forever to download and install. Asking for a refund. Going for the $70 factory-manuals one now.

I just pulled the trigger on this. 30mm front and rear. Feels odd buying stuff from Russia, but it’s a known company, soooo.... Shipping is up to 2 months!?! Since I killed a tire on a forest road, I’m going with the bigger 215/65r16 Geolandars, going on this week (been on spare for a while). That gives me .8” extra clearance, plus the 1.2”/30mm from the spacers I get 2” more, which should be enough to feel confident on the cobble and crap that sometimes need to straddle on logging roads. I’ll post before and after pics... in a few months once the spacers actually arrive. On that note, any idea how the rear spacers go on? If I’m lucky, they’ll have install instructions in English. Front is easy, just drop the struts and sandwich the spacers in. I’ll probably also buy my own grade 10 bolts, don’t trust the Russia ones. Rear I’m hoping I don’t need a spring compressor.

Well that's a bummer, literally no other traction tires available w/out going up an additional size. I'm skeptical that it's actually a liability problem, but now you have me worrying. D*** internet, it suckered you, now it's suckering me!

Yeah I noted that and for my use a little lower load rating is fine. They can go up to relatively high PSI, which helps. I don’t want to give up highway mileage, wet pavement traction, or road noise, so these G015 tires look like the best solution. Not a lot of options for better traction, really, just these two tires.

Yeah, we’re after the same basic goal. As are a few other people in my little world of mountain biking in the PNW - I now a couple other people that would like a small lift. This is the perfect rig for hauling stuff to the trail w/out guzzling too much gas. Why won’t rubber spacers work in the front? Do you know if the Spaccer branded uber-expensive spacers work in the front of these?

I'm thinking about a small lift, so wanted to jump into this thread. I'm on a '16 Wagon, and drive a lot of forest roads. An extra inch to clear water bars and cobbles/rocks in the road would be nice. Gideon, did you end out doing this? I'll probably go with Geolandar G015 tires when my OEM Conti's are toast in a few months. Just one notch bigger than OEM, gives me .4" extra clearance. https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Yokohama&tireModel=Geolandar+A%2FT+G015&partnum=16HR6G015&i1_Qty=4 Then it looks like Spaccers are the only real lift option? Good grief they're expensive for what they are. Leaning toward the 15mm/.6" Spaccer option for a total of 1" lift. Not too crazy, hopefully won't mess things up. A better/cheaper option could be air adjustable rear shocks, but couldn't find any. Not sure those are a thing anymore, but growing up in the 80's we used them. I've never torn into the suspension of a modern car, so no clue what I'm doing on whatever the heck struts are :) A couple Q's: Can I align this thing properly once I put the .5 - .75" lift on it? It's not too extreme, so I'd think so. Anyone strut/spring spacers yet? Easy to do by the home mechanic who doesn't have specialty auto tools? It looks like I might need a spring compressor to do it, but not sure if that'll work on this car.

Thanks GBL. Pulled on the trim a bit, but I'm in the same boat as Don, some of the trim feels stubborn and not worth breaking it. I can peel back the carpet with this console still in place and do 95% of the sound deadening I plan on doing - that's good enough. This afternoon I'll fish the speaker wires, that part should be fairly easy.