I have the freshest Gen 1, and questions!

[eddiez]

Greetings. New guy, here. I just bought a 2013, and, it must be freshest example in North America: 4900 miles. I bought from a dealer. I think the older folks that had it may have found it too lacking in luxury, and mostly kept it stored in a barn. Got 28.5 mph on the 230 mile trip home.

 

I chose the Gen 1 for the extra inches of cargo head room. And, I like the looks. I have read a good bit of this forum over the past few months. Now, I have 3 questions, 2 of which are not well addressed in the owner manual:

 

1) My TC has SYNC, with the button pod below the turn signal control. The icons for phone and seek actions are unclear to me. It seems to indicate that the entire control pod can be flipped up or down, like a turn signal, or, maybe that the entire control can be moved forward and back, like a headlight dimmer. But, when I test these actions, it seems like too much force would be required, and would risk breaking something that may NOT be designed to move. What am I missing, here?

 

2) Locking the vehicle, to walk away... I can do this with the key remote. Or, I can do this with the key inserted in the lock. What I can not figure out, is how to flip the interior lock switch at the opener lever, to walk away. That lock switch seems to allow lock and unlock of all doors, while sitting in the van, only. If I'm standing outside the van and flip the lock switch, it just switches itself back to unlock position. What am I missing, here?

 

3) Knowing the transmissions are the weak point of the Gen 1, I will plan on doing regular fluid changes. Would like to buy a new transmission pan for $30, and have a petcock drain added to it, ready for an initial filter and fluid change. Petcock to allow easier container and measurement of fluid drained, over simply a drain plug. I think some here have done pan drains, so, what type of petcock drains have been added, and what location on the pan works best? I would not want to mod a pan, only to find out the drain is in an inappropriate position for something inside.

 

Thanks a lot!

[Fifty150]

6 hours ago, eddiez said:

What am I missing, here?

You'll find out when you lock your keys in the car.

6 hours ago, eddiez said:

what location on the pan works best?

On the bottom.  It allows all the fluid to drain.  That's the position on the Gen 2 transmission.  Problem is that you need to have the car on a lift, or jacked up on 4 jack stands.  You could put it in the rear, closer to the passenger.  Then you jack up the front tire on the driver side, and in theory. all the fluid will go to that corner.  But I would put it on the bottom.  

[G B L]

Good Idea  on the Drain plug.  Put it on the side to keep it out of the way.

I have had good results with this fluid.

 

[eddiez]

On 2/28/2021 at 7:06 PM, Fifty150 said:

You'll find out when you lock your keys in the car.

On the bottom.  It allows all the fluid to drain.  That's the position on the Gen 2 transmission.  Problem is that you need to have the car on a lift, or jacked up on 4 jack stands.  You could put it in the rear, closer to the passenger.  Then you jack up the front tire on the driver side, and in theory. all the fluid will go to that corner.  But I would put it on the bottom.  

 

Locking -- OK, it get your point. But, I do like the behavior I'm used to with other vehicles -- which would allow accidental lockout. That's one reason to have an entry keypad, which I do plan to add.

 

Transmission drain -- So, it sounds like the entire bottom is clear of inside obstruction -- such as from a sump, or sump-thing else?

[eddiez]

22 hours ago, G B L said:

Good Idea  on the Drain plug.  Put it on the side to keep it out of the way.

I have had good results with this fluid.

 

 

Thanks for those links. I might go with that plug.

[eddiez]

Answering my own question on the SYNC controls. When I finally took a look at the back of the pod, I realized that the divider between the Vol. Up and Vol. Down buttons is actually a toggle switch -- which operates the Seek and Phone controls.

 

Here's the front of the SYNC pod, for anyone that's curious.