2011SELSteelBlue

This should only happen if attempting to remote start with a door open. If you are getting this when all of the doors are closed, then the door open sense may be reversed. Check this option is set correctly (bank 1, option 2 should be set to "on"). Also note that the directions say to perform this procedure with all doors closed (although they don't actually say what happens if you don't). You can either have the doors physically closed (that's what I did) or trip the door latch with a screwdriver if you have a door open while you are doing the programming.

Not a big problem, just a matter of personal preference. In the cold months, I hit the remote start as I am packing up to leave work. Then I walk out to the car, load my cooler and briefcase in the back seat, and grab the brush/scraper to remove the remaining snow and frost. It is more convenient if the engine keeps running while I am going around cleaning off the snow and frost, since the defroster helps with clearing the windows. I could get in and restart it and then get back out to scrape, but this is an extra step and most inconvenient when the car is covered with snow, since opening the driver's door inevitably lets snow onto my seat if I don't brush the roof off first.

Hi Hulk. Thanks for posting this info from your dealer. I completely understand why Ford must take this position officially, but it is pretty much just corporate CYA. This "security enhancement" (shutting off the engine when you open the door) seems to be the trend, as I know a couple of other people who have newer cars with OEM remote starters that do the same thing (one Honda owner and one Toyota owner). I am no expert, but in my personal opinion, I don't see how doing this yourself could bite you on any warranty issues. These are designed options of the remote start module strictly for convenience of the user, and nothing that could cause physical damage to the car. The only exposure I can see would be if you really mess up programming the options, and you can't figure out how to correct it yourself, then I would not expect to take it back to your Ford dealer and expect them to fix it for free. That said, I have done it myself and it is pretty straightforward, although it does require some creative body positioning. If you mess up the first time (or change your mind later) you can just start over and try it again. I have been operating my remote start this way since December and have not encountered any problems.

Thanks to everyone for responding. As a follow up, I contacted Sirius customer service to see if what I was experiencing was a result of being on the 6-month free trial period. Alas, it is not. I am a little taken aback, since I would have expected sound quality to be a selling point for their service. The Sirius customer service person I talked with said that they would escalate my concern to a manager, which I take as their way of saying that I'll never hear from them again. I pretty much told them that I wouldn't be continuing the subscription if this is what I can expect it to sound like.

Is anyone else experiencing poor quality from the Sirius channels? I have a 2011 SEL with the Sony system, and music from any of the other sources sounds great (CD, MP3 player, USB memory stick, and even FM radio). The Sirius channels all sound very washed out. Some are worse than others, but even the best are just so bad I can't stand listening to it. I'm in the 6 month free trial. Is there anything I can do to make the Sirius channels sound better?

My wife was uncomfortable backing up on our test drives, even with no spoiler, so we got the backup camera. The backup camera is a must-have for safety, especially for shorter drivers. This discussion brings to mind a news program I saw about backing accidents. An entire class of third-graders was stacked in behind a Chevy Suburban, completely invisible from the driver's view, giving a stunning demonstration of just how big the blind spots can be.

The dealer will always try to play the 'wear item" card to wiggle out of the warranty on brakes, even if it is an obvious manufacturing defect and not abuse or neglect by the owner. I had an issue with badly warped rotors on my 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee after 15,000 mostly highway miles. When I took it back to my Jeep dealer they told me I needed new rotors on all four wheels to the tune of $400 and not covered under warranty, even though they acknowledged that the pads had 80 percent life remaining. I told them that I typically go 80-100,000 miles on a set of brakes, so premature warping of the rotors was clearly a manufacturing defect. The service manager would not budge, so I called Jeep customer service directly. Jeep customer service worked with the dealer and agreed to replace the front rotors at no charge but not the rear. With the new front rotors, the braking vibration went away, so I never did anything with the rear until the pads needed replacement at around 85,000 miles. The front rotors needed replacement AGAIN at around 45,000 miles (only 30,000 on the rotors), so I replaced them myself with a good quality aftermarket set for about $100, and I'm still driving on these with the odometer at 98,000. Later, I got a notification of a class-action lawsuit against Jeep for warping brake rotors, where I could have recovered cost of rotors replaced before 36,000 miles. My advice is this - you are not likely to get any satisfaction from any dealer service dept. on anything to do with brakes, so I would take your brake situation up directly with Ford. Since you have multiple other problems and not getting any satisfaction from your dealer service dept. on those either, I would also take those directly to Ford.

For those of us in the cold winter states, I think most cars experience worse fuel economy during winter. I especially notice a decrease in mpg if that tank had much driving on fresh snow and/or temps below 0 deg. F. I use my engine block heater most days below 20 deg. F to reduce idling time for snow and frost removal. I have averaged around 28 mpg since I got mine new in December (about 1,500 miles now) on about 75% highway/25% city driving, but expecting those numbers to improve when warmer weather arrives.

I have a 2011 SEL that I have been driving for about a month now. I would say the ride quality is similar to most newer cars in this category. The original post described a sudden change in the ride quality. This suggests a problem, not design of the car. Suggest taking the car to an independent mechanic if you know one that you have worked with before and trust. I have my local Goodyear service center do all of my suspension work. You may have to pay them a few dollars to look at your car, but then you know are getting an unbiased opinion.

Thanks for this tip. I was trying to figure out how to "trick" the door open sensor but could not find it. I'm used to the old fashioned style where there is just a pin switch in the door jamb.

A big thank you to redsvt2001 for the post above. I am happy to report that I successfully used these instructions to reset the options on my factory installed Powercode remote start. With bank 2, option 7 set to "off", the engine stays running when opening the door. Insert key, turn to "run", and go. Engine shuts down if brake is pressed with no key inserted. I also set the horn honk option to "off", since I try not to wake the neighbors when I leave for work at 5:00. All I can say is whohoooo! Obviously these are pretty small things in the bigger picture of having a great new car, but there is just some extra level of satisfaction when things just work the way you want them to work. As stated by redsvt2001, after you take a few minutes to read and understand the directions, the actual process takes a couple of minutes at most. Hardest part is physically accessing the programming button, since the doors have to be closed while you are doing it. I am 6'2", so getting my body into position to see the button and LED and reach a hand up under the dash while the doors were closed was not easy I can tell you. Not a job for someone with back problems. I found reclining the driver's seat as far as it would go helpful. Maybe there is a trim panel you can remove to make it easier to reach, but I didn't. On the MyKey thing, although I have not personally tried it yet, the owner's manual does have instructions for setting up the remote start system like a restricted MyKey. So then whenever the vehicle is started remotely (using either key fob), the MyKey restrictions would be in effect. To get the car out of the resticted mode, you would have to shut off the engine and restart it with an admin key. Easiest is probably as discussed by redsvt2001, just don't give a restricted driver the remote start fob. Then they can only start with their restricted physical key. One other note - if your cell phone is too far from the car when it is started, then the bluetooth will not automatically link up with the sync system. You have to manually initiate the bluetooth link once you get in the car. This may be another reason why the factory default is to force a shutdown and restart of the engine once you get there. One might argue that restarting the car is easier than clicking the buttons to establish the bluetooth link. I prefer clicking a couple of buttons rather than restarting the engine. On the nav screen, I can have the phone linked in three clicks. But, you have to remember to do it, so not everyone will like this. Thanks again to redsvt2001 for your detailed directions.

A big thank you to redsvt2001 for the post above. I am happy to report that I successfully used these instructions to reset the options on my factory installed Powercode remote start. With bank 2, option 7 set to "off", the engine stays running when opening the door. Insert key, turn to "run", and go. Engine shuts down if brake is pressed with no key inserted. I also set the horn honk option to "off", since I try not to wake the neighbors when I leave for work at 5:00. All I can say is whohoooo! Obviously these are pretty small things in the bigger picture of having a great new car, but there is just some extra level of satisfaction when things just work the way you want them to work. As stated by redsvt2001, after you take a few minutes to read and understand the directions, the actual process takes a couple of minutes at most. Hardest part is physically accessing the programming button, since the doors have to be closed while you are doing it. I am 6'2", so getting my body into position to see the button and LED and reach a hand up under the dash while the doors were closed was not easy I can tell you. Not a job for someone with back problems. I found reclining the driver's seat as far as it would go helpful. Maybe there is a trim panel you can remove to make it easier to reach, but I didn't. On the MyKey thing, although I have not personally tried it yet, the owner's manual does have instructions for setting up the remote start system like a restricted MyKey. So then whenever the vehicle is started remotely (using either key fob), the MyKey restrictions would be in effect. To get the car out of the resticted mode, you would have to shut off the engine and restart it with an admin key. Easiest is probably as discussed by redsvt2001, just don't give a restricted driver the remote start fob. Then they can only start with their restricted physical key. One other note - if your cell phone is too far from the car when it is started, then the bluetooth will not automatically link up with the sync system. You have to manually initiate the bluetooth link once you get in the car. This may be another reason why the factory default is to force a shutdown and restart of the engine once you get there. One might argue that restarting the car is easier than clicking the buttons to establish the bluetooth link. I prefer clicking a couple of buttons rather than restarting the engine. On the nav screen, I can have the phone linked in three clicks. But, you have to remember to do it, so not everyone will like this. Thanks again to redsvt2001 for your detailed directions.

It seems like a car of this size should have more headroom. I am 6'2", which is maybe a little above average but not unusually tall. I am ok in the driver's seat, which has power adjustment to lower the seat down far enough. But the passenger side power seat does not have the same range of adjustments, so I am brushing my head on the passenger side. I knew this when I bought the car, and it's not such a big deal since I am usually driving. But still... The rain sensing wipers are too sensitive and wipe too often in mist, even on the lowest setting. Position of the turn signal/dimmer switch is too high. I know, this is a really nit-pickey one, but this time of year I am almost always driving in the dark, and much of my driving is in deer country. I switch to high beams whenever possible to look for deer, even if briefly due to an oncoming car around the next corner or over the next hill. It is probably fine if you are a 2-hands on the wheel at 10-and-2 o'clock driver, but from many years of driving a manual I am more of a 1-hand on the wheel at 8 o'clock guy. So, it is a long reach up to the dimmer which is positioned at 10 o'clock. Most cars have the turn signal/dimmer more or less straight out at 9 o'clock, which is an easy reach from either hand position.

I have read that any Ford vehicle with the MyKey system and a Ford OEM remote starter will shut down the engine when you open the door. This is a crude workaround due to design of the MyKey system that only detects which key is inserted (a restricted key or an admin key) at the time the engine is started. So if the car is remote started, then the computer would otherwise not detect if a restricted key is later inserted to drive the vehicle. This is resolved by forcing the driver to restart the vehicle with the key after they enter the car. I have read in other forums that some dealers know how to get around this, but it involves permanently disabling the MyKey feature. If you have no use for MyKey, then it might be worthwhile to inquire with your dealer. I would hope that Ford would fix this in some future version of the MyKey system. On the other hand, remote start users may be such a small market segment that they will just ignore it. I am otherwise happy with the factory installed "Powercode" remote in my 2011. It seems to have better range in some situations than the aftermarket Viper system in my old car. My Viper system was advertised as a 2500' range, but the actual range was reduced significantly, sometimes to less than a couple of hundred feet, in city areas that I presume had a lot of radio noise. The Ford Powercode seems to work fine in places where my Viper system struggled.

I do not trust the MPG numbers from the dash computer. The only way to know for sure is to log the miles and fillups and do the math yourself. I have a 2011 2.5L SEL automatic, but it is still breaking in (<1000 miles). I did a quick check on my second fillup and got 29 mpg in probably 75% highway/25% city driving.

1998 Chevy Lumina LTZ 3.8L V6, which I bought brand new and sold with 290,000 miles. It was still a good runner--the 3800 engine was the best one GM ever made--but it was just time since I need a car absolutely reliable for work and repairs were on the increase as you would expect for a car of this age. New car is a 2011 SEL with 2.5L. I was underwhelmed by the current GM lineup so made the switch to Ford. I also much prefer the Ford Sync system to GM's Onstar. The Fusion is well designed all around and a perfect fit for our family's needs. The 2.5L with 6-speed auto is the only 4-cyl automatic of the cars I tested that I felt delivered adequate performance, and one of my goals was better gas mileage due to my long commute. What I'll miss - Head room, low end torque What I won't miss - battery under the washer fluid tank What I can't live without now - Sunroof, in-dash navigation, Sirius travel link

Hi. I also took delivery of a 2011 SEL in mid-December with factory installed remote start. And also like you, was unpleasantly surprised by Ford having made it impossible by design to enter the car without the engine shutting down. I work a night shift job in a cold region, so I have had remote starts in my cars for many years, and never seen or heard of such a thing. The dealer seemed unaware of this limitation when I ordered the car (they described the more conventional operation of insert the key and drive off), and I did not think to test the remote start at the time I took delivery. I have read in the forums that it is not possible to circumvent the shutdown without making the mykey feature useless, and I have a child that will become of driving age in a few years so I really don't want to lose the mykey. So, I have not approached my dealer on the subject and am somewhat resigned to live with starting the car twice. I am just wondering if you have had a chance to talk with your dealer yet and what they had to say.