Guitars4cancer Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 Hi, as the title says - I'm an excited new owner of a 2014 Transit Connect XLT (SWB) wagon, with the 1.6L EcoBoost engine. Just wanted to say Hi. Drove it home 1400 miles across the rockies and averaged 29.4 mpg despite high speeds (80ish), high altitudes (8000'+), and low temps (7 F). Color me impressed! Busted a wheel and needed to replace a tire - wow! 215/55 r16 tires are about as hard to find as used Transit Connects with the 1.6L! Nobody could get me a tire in less than 3 days! Ended up replacing them all with 215/60r16 tires... Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beta Don Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Hopefully they replaced your tires with a 215/60R16 rated at least 97H, the minimum required as shown on the driver's door jamb and not some lesser rated tires they just happened to have on hand . . . . . The old "I can't get you just one in that size, but I can sell you 4 new ones in this size" isn't that unusual to hear at some shops Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G B L Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Right Don that's the load range you need. The 215/60/16 I put on my TC were a 99H load range so tires with an adequate load rating are available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beta Don Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Certainly 97H and better tires are readily available, but so are lesser rated ones which should not be used. Hard to know from here what they sold him . . . . especially if they convinced him that 215/55R15's are 'Hen's Teeth' so they could sell him a full set of 4 Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhotoAl Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Welcome and I'm envious of that engine. I needed a LWB so it wasn't for me but would love to have a turbo as they can be bumped up a bit in power. When I was shopping I noticed TC wagons are pretty scarce, SWB are even rarer and I can only imagine how much trouble you had finding the 1.6 turbo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitars4cancer Posted January 6, 2018 Author Share Posted January 6, 2018 Yeah, well I called Sears, Costco, BigO, Les Schwab, Tire Pros, Walmart etc myself in 2 major metro areas and everyone could get me a tire, nobody had one in stock. It was my idea to buy 4 in a different size and I had to go to 3 different tire dealers just to talk someone even then into putting the 'incorrect' size tire on my Transit Connect. The other 3 tires were of indeterminate origin (no discernable brand name) and had less than 40% tread on them. The Firestone Champion Fuel Fighter tires are the XL with a 99H load rating. Nobody convinced me they were hens teeth other than me from spending an entire afternoon on the phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitars4cancer Posted January 6, 2018 Author Share Posted January 6, 2018 Doing a simple Google search on cars that use 215/55R16 tires it becomes apparent they are pretty popular on European cars,(my TC is made in Valencia, Spain) and my theory is either they are in high enough demand they can't be kept in stock.. OR they are in so little demand that it cost too much to stock them. Either way I was going to soon replace the tires, and I'm happy with the tires I got, the .4" raise is nice, and slightly taller gearing suits the 1.6 - plus I got a fantastic deal (buy 3, get one free) and a nice road hazard warranty, lifetime balance and rotation from a chain that has locations near where I live, and travel. I was just wondering if anyone else had problems finding tires. AND are other parts going to be oddball? They couldn't find me a wheel locally, I located one in a salvage yard in Washington and it's enroute to my home as we speak. I'll be glad to get the TPMS back in shape, the incessant nagging is tiring (no pun.. ok, well yes pun intended). :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrtn Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Thought the wagon didn’t have XL load rating. At least the old shape didn’t. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G B L Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 7 hours ago, Guitars4cancer said: I'm happy with the tires I got, the .4" raise is nice, and slightly taller That was the reason that I went with the 215/60/16. The performance difference for the 2.5 and the 1.6 is very small but the ride improvement is the real bonus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Ridley Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Welcome and congratulations on your purchase. The 1.6L SWB is indeed rare. I joke that there are probably only 10 of us in California. It is a great little engine and the mileage is impressive for a mini van. Check out the handful of posts for performance and aesthetic upgrades to this vehicle. I added the Flowmaster Turbo Transformer and it works great. Simple to install and does not cause any fault codes and will pass all emissions checks. You will have to quickly learn how to handle the torque steer when the turbo kicks in : ) Ford discontinued the 1.6L TC in 2016. But fortunately the 1.6L was popular in the Ford Focus so parts should not be that scarce. The rarity of our vehicle is confusing. When I ordered mine in 2016 the dealer (in Oklahoma) ordered another with similar specs and they sold it immediately (before it was even received!). Maybe the SWB wagon defies the American habit of buying the largest vehicle available? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beta Don Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 11 hours ago, Guitars4cancer said: Doing a simple Google search on cars that use 215/55R16 tires it becomes apparent they are pretty popular on European cars,(my TC is made in Valencia, Spain) and my theory is either they are in high enough demand they can't be kept in stock.. OR they are in so little demand that it cost too much to stock them I was just wondering if anyone else had problems finding tires. AND are other parts going to be oddball? They couldn't find me a wheel locally, I located one in a salvage yard in Washington and it's enroute to my home as we speak. I'll be glad to get the TPMS back in shape, the incessant nagging is tiring (no pun.. ok, well yes pun intended). :-) The engine, transmission and suspension of the Gen 2 TC's was taken from the Ford Focus and they use the same tire size we do, and they sold lots of those - Probably why Tire Rack stocks 58 different tires - Summer, winter, all weather and ultra high performance. Yes, all TC's are made in Spain and imported. This causes Ford some import duty problems - Google 'Chicken Tax' I agree a tire with a taller sidewall can give a significantly better ride and the TC sure can use that. On the Mazda I had before this, I swapped out the 195/50R16's for 205/55R15's and saw a marked improvement in the ride while not giving up anything in handling. The 'trick' is to find a replacement tire size that maintains the same overall circumference so the gearing and the speedo stays the same Since we share so many parts with the Focus, wheels are easy to find. On my 2014 SWB wagon, I swapped out the 16 X 6.5 steel wheels for a set of 16 X 7 OEM Ford alloys from a Focus - The TPMS senders transferred over with no problems. Kept the same tires as they still have many miles left on them I had no idea the 1.6 ecoboost was so rare in SWB vans. When we were shopping for our SWB I found 3 or 4 of them fairly close to home but based largely on the problems Ford was having with them (tens of thousands recalled for overheating issues) I had eliminated those from my search and was looking at only the 2.5 L models - I had to drive 300 miles to find the one I wanted Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boomerweps Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 (edited) The SWB even with the 2.5 handles and drives like a sports car. A noticeable difference when I traded mine in for a LWB. While I appreciate the extra room, it was the only reason I traded my 2014 for a 2017. I miss the 2014 and should have just kept it ;( My wife complained about the loss of power, especially on the last trip, our second, driving PA to UT and back. Using the select shift gearing was a must on that trip with the LWB. Edited January 6, 2018 by Boomerweps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitars4cancer Posted January 6, 2018 Author Share Posted January 6, 2018 2 hours ago, Beta Don said: I had no idea the 1.6 ecoboost was so rare in SWB vans. When we were shopping for our SWB I found 3 or 4 of them fairly close to home but based largely on the problems Ford was having with them (tens of thousands recalled for overheating issues) I had eliminated those from my search and was looking at only the 2.5 L models - I had to drive 300 miles to find the one I wanted I think the 1.6 is pretty much only in the SWB, I didn't see a single LWB 1.6 wagon looking at listings for the Western half of the country. The closest TC that was a wagon, not a cargo van, had the 1.6, was under 50k miles (38k!) and was in our price range was located in Windsor, Colorado... some 1400 miles away. I couldn't even find a TC wagon to test drive, though I did get to drive a cargo van with the 2.5 - we are in the boonies, I'd say directly in the middle of nowhere, but we aren't on the road to anywhere... 40 miles south of the Oregon border on the California coast. As they say location is everything... Very happy so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitars4cancer Posted January 6, 2018 Author Share Posted January 6, 2018 4 hours ago, Don Ridley said: Welcome and congratulations on your purchase. The 1.6L SWB is indeed rare. I joke that there are probably only 10 of us in California. It is a great little engine and the mileage is impressive for a minivan. LOL, well you can make that 11 now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitars4cancer Posted January 6, 2018 Author Share Posted January 6, 2018 Yeah, I have no doubt that there are hundreds of different tires in 215/55 16R listed on the Web pages for Tire Rack, Tires dot com, Tire buyer, Sears, Walmart etc... but that didn't lessen the sting of not finding a single tire in the required XL load range anywhere near me in stock. We almost always buy our tires online, and have them delivered... but broken down 5 hrs from home was a different story. It could very well have been as simple as what vehicles are popular in the area I broke down in...I saw lots of 4x4 diesel pickups, not much else. There was 1 tire at a store 4 or 5 hours behind me in Reno, but it was a Hankook... was 4 or 5 hours behind me with no way to go get it, and wasn't XL. And another in Sparks (even farther behind me)... an unpronounceable jumble of letters, also not XL. I didn't want to waste my money on either one, not that either could get to me the same day. I know, I wouldn't have believed the shortage either had I just had one dealer tell me they didn't have the tires. I spent an entire afternoon on the phone, I don't usually take no for an answer.. but sometimes that is the only answer you can find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitars4cancer Posted January 6, 2018 Author Share Posted January 6, 2018 Why would they spec XL tires on a Focus? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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