AdanA

Tl;dr this alternative mod is working really great so far. The visors snap all the way up. Hi! My 2019 van’s visors have been floppy since I began using it (6k miles at that point, 40k now). They’ve gotten progressively worse to the point that, if I were to lurch forward in a crash, they could scalp me. I’m very tall. 🤷‍♂️ I studied these magnet- related posts - thanks! - but in the end decided the spring mechanism itself is maybe ok (it’s still very torquey, tough to actuate by hand once you disassemble the thing from the car) it’s just the structure that was trying to hold it in place that was inadequate. I think it’s some kind of sandwich attempting to squeeze on either side of the mechanism, but which is easily popped apart by typical road conditions. I decided to try to squeeze that sandwich back together and see how it worked. It’s very easy to take the assembly off the car, T20 is the size bit or wrench needed. This would be annoying to try to do in place. Here’s the hardware I used. I have it on hand because of a product my little company makes. Half of it is a binding bolt, female end, the other is an off the shelf button head screw and washer. There’s room for improvisation here. There’s adequate space above the closed visor for a nut (or lock nut if you want to be vibration wary). You’ll want it to be about 5/8” when cinched up but it’s best if you can get the parts to engage at 3/4”. I’m sorry I didn’t take measurements while I was doing it. Another important note: I did find a _wrong_ place to put these fasteners. I thought I was going to put two sets up there, you can see the marks on the blue masking tape. But the holes I tried to drill that were 9 inches from the mounting end wouldn’t go through easily. I think there were steel components there (Spring steel for the mechanism?), while in the other location I was just drilling aluminum & plastic. It seems to be working great with just the one set though. Also, possibly helpful: I started with a 1/16” bit and drilled through with masking tape on both sides in order to know where my holes were going to meet up. But then I used a razor knife to cut the vinyl on both sides before drilling with the larger diameter drillbit (0.206 for my fasteners, YMMV). I was worried about the vinyl twisting and making a mess. And then on a subsequent hole, I decided I was being overcautious. I tried drilling the vinyl, and it twisted and made a mess! Another random note: if you can have a strong shop vac pulling right where you’re drilling it might help reduce debris. It gets trapped under the vinyl. I didn’t use vacuum and there is debris sort of showing lumps from inside the vinyl. But it’s not bad and it’s not as disfiguring as the droopy visors. It really does seem to be working well, feels solid and they snap right up quite firmly. I need to go back and put some Loctite on my fasteners. Let me know if you have questions. I’ll keep you all posted if it stops behaving well.

Hi all! The AC on my not-that-old van's not working and a mechanic has declared it to be a "busted condenser and dryer." The intermediate symptom was very low refrigerant pressure, so they diagnosed the bustedness after refilling it. Anyway: has anyone experienced a "busted" condenser? Is this a typical thing for these vans and if so, is there an understanding of why? The mechanic didn't have a great explanation for how this kind of problem could develop... but I'd love to learn more, 'cause he wants >$2000 for the fix arghhhhh 🙂

Ohhhhh... sure, that makes sense! I guess I let my imagination run away and forgot to think about simple possibilities ? thanks!

Hi all, I’m still getting to know my new van, liking it more and more (‘19 LWB Titanium). This morning I was trying to remove the lid from the front console armrest, as it’s in the way when I’m trying to use this as a mobile office. It lifts my elbow up when I’m trying to use my mouse and type. I did not figure out how to remove it, so that’s a separate question, but… ... I noticed a few little features inside the console storage area, under the armrest lid, that look almost as if there could be a little tray or some other sort of pivoting feature that could go inside there. Does anybody know what those features are for or whether that’s an available accessory?

I played around in some more damp grass this morning. It was again pretty embarrassing how easily my poor little van lost traction. Turning off traction control did make a difference: it allowed me to spin the tires instead of having them auto-stop after beginning to spin. But it didn't help me go much farther on the damp slope. After studying the tires, however, I'm ready to say this isn't a Transit Connect problem. It's a Continental ProContact TX problem. These tires just... I mean, they're for the road. They run smoothly and quietly on asphalt. But a couple of blades of grass in the tread and they're slicks. I guess I need to decide how much it matters to me, being able to drive on non-paved surfaces. Do I care enough to replace these with grippier (noisier, less efficient...) tires? I do still love the vehicle. This is just part of the getting to know it process.

Thanks all for your thoughts and comments! I’ve now retried turning off traction control and it was straightforward... not sure what I was doing wrong before. I haven’t gotten back to a slippery situation to see if it makes a difference. The tires really may be just too street-optimized for this use case. I don’t do _that_ much off road travel but I’m still tempted to explore a grippier tire option. I can’t imagine trying to get myself to work in the snow as they are. No joke, my history with the Subaru does mess up my traction expectations ? Oh well.

Hey all, a couple of weeks ago my wife and I traded a fifteen-year-old (and very well loved) Subaru Forester for a nearly new 2019 Ford Transit Connect LWB passenger wagon, Titanium features, with ~6k miles on it. It was a nice find, well discounted for not being new but feeling essentially unused. I’m hoping it’ll be a great all-around daily driver / toddler-hauler / mountain bike carrier / kayak carrier / camp mobile... as well as something I can use when I have to travel, carry display equipment, and sell my small business’s products at shows. Until last night I was feeling pretty great about it... but then I was completely unable to drive up a shallow damp grassy slope. Now I’m a little bummed and hoping to learn how to improve its off-road performance. It wasn’t like it was just spinning and spinning - it would just sort of spin and stop. I assume it’s trying some kind of traction control stuff? I tried toggling traction control off with the dash button but it didn’t seem to be responding. I tried in M mode to be sure it wasn’t kicking out of first but no difference. This was happening in overflow parking for a pizza joint and I was lucky to be able to ask the guy behind me to move back a bit. That allowed me to get a running start at the hill and I was able to get up and over that portion of slope. Phew! I know these stock tires are hardly knobbies (some kind of Continental street tire) but I swear other FWD vehicles with similarly bland tires I’ve driven could handle way more difficult grassy stuff than that. Does anyone have tips and tricks for low/no speed traction without snow tires and chains? Thanks!