Eddy Kilowatt

Do you have the automatic dual-zone panel (left), or the manual twisty-knob panel (right)?

Mostly mine, and mostly weekend duties, though I'll make sure she knows how to drive it. We quickly, and without any prompting, fell into the oft-reported Transit Connect Couples' Dynamic... i.e. she says "why not an SUV, that's what all my friends have"... and he says "... but this is so practical". Or in other words, she's not going to be clamoring to drive it, but she'll be happy enough when it brings home ten buckets of gravel for the driveway. In fairness to her, we did go on our first date (long ago), and our honeymoon, in a German sports car... so at some point I am going to have to make some amends in the vehicle-fun department.

Well actually... more like Swimsuit Issue cheesecake, there's not a lot of hardcore stuff out there about the 2.5. But here are a few fun items I found while reading up on this engine: Tech-oriented write-up on an Aussie car website: http://australiancar.reviews/L5-VE-engine.php This is for the Mazda 2.5 L-engine, but the Ford Duratec is a close twin. I hadn't realized that our engines had balance shafts, and I'm curious whether we have chromoly cylinder liners (vs cast iron), forged cranks, and variable-length intakes as this article claims for the Mazda engine. And here's a timelapse video of a Duratec 2.5 being taken apart. Hover over the Stop/Play button if you want to see any details, because it goes quick :

I've already added it to my "garage" on Fuelly.com, so I will be finding out. Just curious what the collective wisdom is here regarding accuracy of that readout.

As anyone who's looked for used Wagons knows, you have to look for awhile to find one... at least if you live outside a major metro in North America. This CPO 2015 with 61k miles was at a dealer 100+ miles away, but they finally got eager enough to sell ($15.5k)... and I finally got tired of looking for Deep Blue, my sweetie's preferred color (the principal part of the car-buying process she has input on). So we have a thoroughly minivan-colored minivan that's a real snoozer, but hopefully will earn its keep hauling bikes, camping gear, Home Depot loot, and visiting family from the airport. What's peoples' experience with the Indicated-MPG readout? Am I to believe the 29+ mpg it reported on the (mostly freeway) drive home, or the 31 on my 35-mile commute?

It appears they now offer a "Deluxe Edition" with live hyperlinks, for $130: " DeLuxe Edition contain the same manual, but is full operational with hyperlinks (Interactive pdf), bookmarks detailed on three steps and also have the connector details. " I'm about to give that a try and see how it works... 7000 pages without links sounds like a barely better-than-nothing option, especially in a cold garage on my dim beater laptop. I appreciate this being a PDF... I had scarring experiences with e-manuals and swore to only buy paper at one point, but naturally that's not a sustainable stance these days. One was with a skeevy aftermarket copy of the VW ETKA manual, and one with an expensive fully-authorized Bentley manual, that Bentley outrageously failed to support on the next release of Windows.

Tully Kieys -- Where'd you get the overhead storage bin for the rear? Is it the same one Ford supplies as a factory option for the 2nd row seats? Someone here tried to source that one via the Ford parts system, but I don't believe was successful.

Again I'd like to mention that these cost-driven decisions are made by the bean counters. The engineers on the project would LOVE to give you a billet aluminum plate anchored every other inch with stainless hex-head captive hardware, probably make it a load-bearing stiffener in the suspension design while they're at it. NOBODY suffers through engineering school dreaming of designing crap like that plastic anchor.

If you strangle the engineer, the suits and bean counters will laugh and high-five each other... because if it was up to the engineer you'd have more switches, dials, buttons, and gauges than you can shake a stick at. ??

When it comes to chemicals (like glue), I'm willing to believe it... they'll put much stronger methy-ethyl-awful stuff in the hands of pros than they'll trust an idiot consumer with over the counter. I bought a $20 consumer-grade headlight lens restore/polish kit for my Golf, 3M (quality) product, did a beautiful job... lasted about 2 months then started to yellow and fog again. Took it to a detail shop for $50, did a beautiful job... it lasted almost a year before I had to get them to do it again. I'm guessing they got a better UV protectant in their package... better at stopping UV, and probably better at starting liver cancer if handled carelessly :-(.

A clever idea, as it offers the possibility to remove the module and fairly easily return the van to normal duties when not being used as a camper. Is there anything else like this on the market in the USA ? I am planning a minimalist conversion of my LWB along these lines, but I expect that the Nestbox would be 1) better engineered, 2) better looking, and 3) easier (obviously) than doing it myself. It has a similar aesthetic to the Westfalia conversion that VW has orphaned. Based on what I see I'd be happy to have one in my van. I will be very interested in this if it reaches the USA. Price will be a major determining factor, of course... but I think it has potential to be a viable product among the small-van set, assuming that one distributor will import several models to fit the several small vans on the US market.

So how did this bucket-to-bench swap turn out? Did the bench bolt right in where the buckets had been? A fair amount of interest in this topic on the forums. You guys probably know the answer by now.

Okay, this question still doesn't seem to have been definitively answered, as in, someone who's actually done it posting photos, or at least a few words about whether it works and what's required. I'm looking at used TCs and the one that meets all my other 'wants' (including the all-important "wife's favorite color" ? ) is a six-seater. For various reasons, seven seats (with the triple second row) works better for me... and my dog. It looks like the triple seats are not hard to find in the salvage industry, even in matching color. But... is it a bolt-in operation, or is this going to require boxes of brackets and adapters, multiple trips to the salvage yard, drilling or cutting, etc etc? Surely someone's done this swap by now...

Sorry can't answer as to the block heater installation, but just wanted to note (you may know already) that there are aftermarket coolant heaters (e.g. Zerostart) that typically splice into a cooling system hose and circulate coolant via thermosyphon (convection) effect. I don't know if the TC's "plumbing" is suitable, probably someone here does... it depends on whether the thermostat has a bypass that's accessible. It would certainly be something to investigate before going the block heater route, if installation is that involved.

Sorry if I missed this, but... what engine was/is this, the 2.5 or the 1.6 turbo? (I'm guessing the 2.5 of course...) Glad to hear these can rack up high miles... I"m considering a 2014 that's in the high 70s. Was pondering whether that might be halfway to major items needing replacement... tranny clutches, timing components, that sort of thing... but you seem to have a data point that says "not if you take care of it". (Lots of highway miles helps too.)

I'll check that out, as it looks to have more members than Transit Connect Owners, which I'm already a member of. The 2.0 EcoBlue (meeting Euro6) was announced by Ford in 2016 and has been available since 2017... the 1.5 version is more recent. I'm trying to learn where and when it might have been road tested, and released for sale to the public.

Yes, in addition to the usual suspects (Craigslist, AutoTrader, Cars.com, etc) in a 100-mile radius, I've been looking at some of these new nationwide franchise operations like CarMax, CarGurus, and Carvana. They offer pre-inspected vehicles, meant I think to be equivalent to manufacturer Certified Pre-Owned, at a no-haggle price, with transport options that range all the way up to "we drop it off in your driveway"... for a fee, of course (visible or built-in). I'm curious whether you or anyone else here might have seen or heard any scuttlebut about the "inspections" these outfits do. My personal default is to mentally translate "rigorous 128-point inspection" into "we drove it around the block... no smoke came out, and no parts fell off"... but this is an interesting new market niche and there is the opportunity for an honest player who actually does credible inspections to gain a foothold by delivering actual customer value. Anyone heard anything?

I was going to resist the new diesel and go for a used 2.5, but private-owner wagons are scarce on the market around here and nothing's turned up yet. So I'm back to being tempted by the 1.5 diesel, somewhat to my dismay -- I have never in my life bought a new engine (and transmission) in its first year of production. But the diesel seems appealingly quirky to me, I've had a VW TDI (older rotary-pump job) which was a great long-life diesel experience, and a 5-cylinder Eurovan with even less power than the 1.5 diesel will have, so if anyone can deal with it, I figure I can. This new "EcoBlue" ought to be second generation for the SCR and DPF emissions hardware, so by rights they ought to have the major bugs worked out. It's odd that there's still not much info out there on the 1.5 other than the splash of publicity at introduction last February. No progress reports, ordering info, test drives of the engine in Euro-market cars, or really much of anything at all.

Transit Custom, that's the Europe-only model that's midway in size between Transit and Transit Connect, nicht wahr? The one a lot of us wish they'd bring over to the USA? Bummer about the ergonomics. But how's the diesel?

What's technical about "the transmission cooler/warmer"? TL/DR: there's already one there, it acts to warm the trans to operating temp more quickly (for fuel economy and probably shift smoothness), and it acts to cool the trans when it's working hard. Sounds like a trans temp gauge would be the place to start, see how well the factory cooler is doing its job.

The press reports from the Feb 2018 announcement have all referred to "a new EcoBlue 1.5 liter diesel" (some even say "all new"). Googling around a bit, a 2-liter EcoBlue was introduced in Europe in 2016. Wikipedia says it's used in Transit, Transit Custom, and a souped-up version in the Ranger Raptor. It meets Euro 6 and has SCR, EGR, and DPF... or as Beta Don mentioned, bye-bye to that appealing diesel simplicity of old. The 1.5 liter EcoBlue seems to have appeared in late 2017 for the EcoSport, , and then of course the US version announced in Feb 2018. I haven't seen its emissions hardware spelled out but presumably very similar to the 2.0. So I'll amend my clean-sheet-of-paper remark to just "newly introduced", although of course all the USA emissions programming (and perhaps hardware) will be brand new. I'm still making myself think of the 2.5 gas engine as the "iron block pushrod V-8" option in terms of simplicity and reliability... even though it's DOHC and four valves. But compared to the direct injected and turbocharged EcoBoost, or the EcoBlue with all that plus an alphabet soup of emissions hardware... I guess it is.

So getting back to the 1.5 l diesel Ford says they will offer on the '19s... it's a brand new clean-sheet-of-paper design, innit? That alone gives me pause, and I don't care which builder you're talking about. First year of anything always has some surprises for the engineers (I should know, I are one). I'm coming from a TDI and a Eurovan (not the same vehicle) so the TC diesel caught my eye too, but a lightly used 2.5 l will have more ... simplicity, cheapness, and reliability ...even if it has less technical interest.