Eddy Kilowatt

I have ForScan and it IS very useful... especially since the temp gauge in the dash is (as I understand it) "massaged" to read mid-scale for all ECTs between 160 and 220, or something like that. I haven't had time to let it sit and rise higher than about 210, at which point the radiator fan hadn't come on yet. Thus my question about when it IS supposed to come on, which is not mentioned prominently in the manual, if at all. The fan does come on with the A/C, so I believe it and its associated circuits are good.

Thanks! Welp... I guess the answer is "the pros use a vacuum purge/fill rig". But if they don't have one of those... they do the 5X Fire Drill, just like it says. I guess to vacuum the TC they must also be unbolting the degas bottle and sliding it out to connect the gauge, what with the filler neck being conveniently positioned UNDER the cowl and all. Next question... do the pros really pull those hoses down "flatter than a pancake" during a vacuum fill, as shown in his other video? That seems borderline abusive. I'm back on the road, but still not 100% confident in the radiator fan... seems not to be coming on unless I switch the A/C on. Anyone know what ECT the fan is supposed to start spinning at? Does it have its own sensor? (It's hard to track this stuff down in the 9,000 pages of manual.)

I just had the water pump go out on my 2015 w/ about 70k miles. ? Pretty sudden failure, I don't believe it was dripping, leaking, or making noise previously. After climbing a 1-mile hill and stopping at a light (nothing new, part of my daily route) I got the CEL and about ten seconds later limp mode. Pulled over to steam from under the hood and an orange puddle under the engine. There was coolant all over the accessory-drive end of the engine bay and no obvious leaks or ruptured hoses, so I had it flat-bedded home. Poured more coolant in the next morning and a steady stream dribbled out from the water pump shaft -- cold engine, zero rpm -- so seemingly a sudden and complete failure of the shaft seal. Pretty straightforward replacement, $65 Motorcraft part, six bolts. Access is a bit easier if you take off the belt tensioner (two bolts) first. Getting it bled was a little more involved than I expected. I ignored the manual and just poured coolant (50/50) in to fill the system and de-gas bottle, then fired it up. Luckily I ran ForScan and watched the actual coolant temperature, not the edited-to-look-pretty temperature gauge in the dash... the ECT went from 70 to 210 in about two minutes but no hoses got hot anywhere, so I shut it down. Manual gives a procedure, that is basically seal the cap, start it, run it at 3500 rpm for 30 seconds, shut it down for a minute, and top off... repeat FIVE TIMES. It seems to work, there's some gurgling each time you come down from 3500 and it does take in a bunch more coolant over five cycles, 2-3 quarts I reckon. I finally got the ECT to settle around 195 (normal) and the radiator and heater hot. But geez, wouldn't it have been easier to put a bleed valve on top of the cylinder head or something? Has anyone else bled the cooling system, and are there any shortcuts or more effective air-removal strategies? How do the pros do this... I don't think the 5X fire drill procedure would be popular, or profitable!

My mint 2015 needed the trans rebuilt at ~62k... luckily I'd just bought it a few months before as a CPO vehicle with a one year powertrain warranty. Dealer said I'd have been out about $3500. I believe the trans does fine with highway miles, judging by the number of reports of 200k+ vehicles that are just a few years old. Around town with lots of shifting may be a different story.

Everything you need, right there in that last pic!

I may be the last person in the world not to know this, but I've been trying to figure out what these half-circle cutouts in the interior panels are for. There are a couple in the rear, on either side of the third row, and just yesterday I noticed one in the right front passenger footwell/console area. There may be more. I've flipped through the manual and looked at several dozen post topics here in the Interior section without finding them. Someone bring me into the 21st century, please... gently. ? Ed

Wow, that's quite a find. Thanks for posting.

Any luck with getting the speedo/odo calibration changed?

Finally, a small van with a factory-endorsed Weekender package returns to the US market... but VW was too dumb to do it: https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/a30784375/mercedes-benz-metris-weekender-camper-van/

Amazon signed up for 100,000 delivery vans from Rivian... can't wait to see these on the road.

Hanging 2-3 was one of the symptoms (along with a bunch of other harsh shifts) when I had to have my trans rebuilt at 62k. It was still there, though less so, even after the rebuild. I haven't heard of anyone having satisfaction after resetting the adaptations, but it's free to try if you have the tools. Something that seems like snake oil is to try running premium fuel for a couple of tanks. I laughed when I first heard this, but here in modern times when the engine knows the tranny's bidness and the tranny knows the engine's bidness and they both share the same computer anyway... it turns out there is an effect. The engine adapts its ignition timing for the fuel octane and the tranny for some reason knows about the engine timing. At any rate, I feel (subjectively) that the shift points have moved down a little since I started running 91 octane a few tanks ago.

Yes, that's my understanding of the parts of the system. The ATF flow is straightforward; from the one diagram of the flow in the cooling system it is a bit harder to understand which way coolant is flowing and where the hot and cold and high and low pressure parts of the system are. In my mind there's a bit of a puzzle about the role of the cooler bypass valve. I too believe that it ordinarily would not send ATF to the heat exchanger until the ATF warms up. And yet, there are these two coolant valves, and per the shop manual the job of one of them is to send warm coolant to the heat exchanger to help warm up the ATF. BUT, how can that do any good if the cooler bypass valve doesn't send ATF to the heat exchanger until the ATF is warm? I wonder if the bypass valve for this model is strictly a pressure bypass, rather than thermostatic. There don't seem to be any specs for its operation in the manual. Thanks for the tips about the coolant valve parameters, I might try adding those to my Forscan display to see if they make any sense. I did a 90 minute drive last weekend and TFT seemed to settle around 165-170, but I didn't give the van enough work to get the TFT hotter and see if it returned to that level.

Thanks for the link... You are a braver man than I, though at those prices the gamble wasn't huge I suppose. Plug-and-play installation on the TC? How do you like them out on the road?

Wow the beam on those lights looks awesome. Info on the lights? (I realize we probably can't get them over here in the USA.)

Well for example, on my 35 mile drive to work: ten miles of two-lane at 45-60 mph, a couple miles of stop-and-go with several traffic lights, then 20 miles of freeway. 60-80F Central Coast temperatures. TFT rises steadily but slowly and has just barely made it to 70C by the end of the 45-minute drive. Seems slow to me, given that engine coolant is over 80C within a few miles, and there's a somewhat elaborate heating/cooling system with a trans fluid heat exchanger, that should be actively seeking to servo the TFT to a target temp that I suspect should be in the 80-90C range. I *have* seen higher temps but only when climbing extended grades in hot weather. I need to see if I can reach the heat exchanger to do a "put your hand on the upper radiator hose" kind of test, or else tape a couple of thermocouples to it and remotely monitor the ins and outs to see what's going on.

That's is my plan as well. My take after a bunch of reading is that the 6F35 fails because the fluid loads up with wear products (especially from the Torque Converter Clutch), rather than because the fluid breaks down or has additives (e.g. TBN boosters etc) that get used up. Taking out a third or half of the dirt every 10k should give about the same average dirt level as taking it all[most] out every 30k, but with lower extremes on both the dirty and the clean side... plus it is convenient (IMO) to add 20 minutes to an engine oil change, rather than spending a morning messing with multiple drains, fills, and warm-ups. I haven't actually done a change yet because I'm trying to figure out why my trans never gets hot (above 70C) and is slow to warm up (15 minutes to get to 50C), plus I'm researching external spin-on fluid filter set-ups.

Good info, thanks for posting. Seems like a good part to track down and at least stash in the spares box... I hate fifty-cent bushings (sold for $5) that can leave you with windows that won't go up, hoods that won't open, or cars that won't go into gear. Do you know anything about the actual failure mode... does the shifting gradually get sloppy, or does it just let go one day and pop the cable off the lever?

There is, at least here in California, for the exact reason you state. Not that it's enforced or anything, but at least someone in the Traffic Code department was astute enough to realize the hazard.

16 hours ago, Osco said: 115,000, first transmission flush, old fluid came out looking just like the new fluid.. Shifted exactly the same after. Flushed the cooling system, Still running original factory brake pads front and rear... Yep you read that right. I think there's a big diff in tranny wear between town-driven and highway-driven TCs. Aside from the clutch wear of going through the gears, 6F35s trannys do some monkey business with the torque converter clutch, allowing continuous slip in 4th-5th-6th below 50 mph (pretty much anytime below 1500 rpm) and also allowing slip on every on/off throttle transition, apparently for driveability reasons. Driving around with ForScan set up to monitor torque converter slip will show this stuff happening. The black fluid that results is from the carbon converter clutch, and then causes valve bore wear and further issues. The vans that are racking up 60k+ per year on the other hand are spending most of their miles at highway speed with the torque converter clutch solidly locked and the trans fluid staying clean (and any ferrous gear wear particles grabbed by the magnet inside the trans).

I'm not sure which ones MrTn posted, but I've used these Philips "Daylight 8" DRLs on previous cars with good results. They appear to be made to roughly Euro-OEM standards, i.e. cast aluminum body, glass lens, decently stout wiring, safety agency marks and designed to comply with DRL lighting regulations. https://www.amazon.com/Philips-12824WLVWAC1-DayLight-Powered-Daytime/dp/B005DX6BKW I've been hoping to find some 3" round DRL-beam lights to replace the original foglights with, but between difficulty finding a quality product and difficulty of access to those spaces on the van, gradually leaning toward these linear lights tucked behind the grill... heaven knows there's plenty of space there.

I seem to recall noticing "electronic brake distribution" as a feature somewhere in the Ford literature, I suppose it's pretty common these days. I believe that means they apply the rear brakes first during gentle braking, then shift to more and more front brake as braking increases and weight transfers to the front axle. It's a smart strategy to equalize brake wear, but it seems in this case either Ford over-did it on the algorithm... or you brake gradually the majority of the time (not that there's anything wrong with that).

I would too, but it seems to be nanny'd out on both of my recent cars... possibly there's a rule somewhere that defrost has to select outside air, which admittedly can be somewhat more effective for defrost which admittedly is a safety-critical function. (Though as Bob notes, by far the most effective defrost is to get the A/C pulling water out of the air.) When I can, I drive with the defrost vents selected and outside air coming in, as it gives a more diffuse flow of face-level air than selecting the dash vents. But it's always nice to have recirc available for those moments when something smoky or stinky pulls out in front of you... quite maddening to be rolling up on a black cloud of diesel spew and have the HVAC refusing to close the outside intakes!

I'm using this one... as recommended either by the Forscan folks, or people here, or perhaps both: "OBDLink 426101 ScanTool MX Bluetooth: Professional Grade OBD-II Automotive Scan Tool for Windows and Android – DIY Car and Truck Data and Diagnostics" https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006NZTZLQ/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I didn't delve into all the details, but this one has seamless switching between low and hi-speed CAN busses, which gives easier access to all (well, at least more) of the smart boxes in the van. It works well once it gets linked up with the Forscan app; the linking process is as fraught and unreliable as any bluetooth device. It doesn't like it after I've used my phone to talk to my other car's OBD... but that could just as easily be an issue with Forscan, the other car's app, or with the OS on my phone. But overall it's pretty workable.

Easiest with a scanner app like Forscan. There's a parameter in the Body Control Module called Transmission Fluid Temperature (BCM_TFT) that has the name and behavior that one would expect, Forscan makes it easy to pipe to a gauge icon on your phone screen. (There are also a few dozen other transmission-related parameters in the BCM to puzzle over... the ones for actual gear selected and torque converter slip have been pretty interesting to watch.)

Um, note that diagram is from the manual for the 2015 USA-spec 2.5 gas engine (as best as I can tell... the manual is not always clear about the differences between the 2.5 and the 1.6 turbo). Euro spec diesel is probably going to be quite different from this picture.