propwash

Things are still not right with my intelligent oil life monitor. They called a couple weeks after the oil change and said that the part was in. I took the car in, and at that time the oil life monitor was down to 92%. So far, so good. I figured this service was going to include disconnecting the battery, so I dutifully wrote down all my radio presets and even the values in the odometer and the two trip meters. They paged me about 45 minutes later and asked if I had all my keys with me. Of course I didn't, so they had a porter drive me home so I could get the remaining keys. They had to program all of them at the same time so I would have three working keys. After the work was done, I noticed that the trip odometers were kind of messed up. One was reset to zero and the other one showed about 6.3 miles. The main odometer showed about 10 miles more than it did when I turned the car in for service, so I don't know where that 6.3 mile figure came from. But the clock and radio presets were all fine--nothing to reset there. The problem is, that was many months and a few hundred miles ago, and the oil life monitor has not changed from the 92% value. It went from 100% down to 92% in a couple of weeks, but hasn't changed from 92% in six months. I plan on taking it by just to advise them that something is still wrong, and see what they recommend. It's pretty cold out now, but I'll take it in when things warm up again. Does anyone have any ideas what the problem could be? I get a message about the rear parking aid every time I shift into reverse to back out of the garage, so I think the message center in the instrument cluster is working. Before they did the swap, it seemed like the message center wasn't working, but the oil life monitor was. Now it seems like the message center is working but the oil life monitor is not. If I had my choice, I would rather it be like it was before. At least that way I could know the oil life by manually checking the monitor. Anyway, I would appreciate any suggestions anyone might have. I'd like to get this matter cleared up once and for all.

Have you checked your tire pressures? If they are severely over inflated, it can make the car seem to hop around over small pavement imperfections.

I have a 2012, and only the middle third of the high-mounted brake light illuminates. I was concerned about it when I first got the car, so I started looking at others as I was driving around. They are all like that. I don't think there's anything wrong with yours.

If the computer only differed from the actual by .1 in 30 mpg, that is a difference of .3%, not 3%. Your computer is ten times better than you thought it was!

Ouch!! That must have been an exciting few seconds as you coasted to a stop. Glad to see that you were able to find another engine and get it installed without too much difficulty. Hope you get things figured out soon. Welcome to the forums and good luck.

I loved the Hudson. I've always been a fan of "Twin H-Power."

Are you sure that the switch didn't get turned off accidentally? There is a switch on the center panel below the radio and climate controls that changes the ambient lighting color. One of the settings on that switch is "off." On mine, "off" comes between pink and white as I scroll through the colors. Check and make sure your switch didn't get set to off by accident.

Me too. 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen!

I agree. It sounds like a stuck caliper, or maybe the cable to the parking brake is seized up and not releasing completely. That happened to me once, and I couldn't believe how hot the wheel got after only about a mile of driving. I got the cable unstuck and lubed all the components of the parking brake system, and I had no more problems.

Interesting video. Do you think he'd get better acceleration times if he inflated his tires properly? Notice that his TPMS light is on.

I did try reformatting a couple of times yesterday, but it didn't help. I was finally able to get the update installed with the help of Whitney's suggestions. I had to make a couple of changes in the procedure, however. I used the MENU button to get to System Settings. So far, so good. At this point I started scrolling, but Install Applications never appeared in the display. I took a chance and clicked OK when Advanced appeared in the display. After a little scrolling, it took me to the Install Applications screen, and I was able to successfully complete the installation from there. Thanks to everyone for your help.

Whitney, Those are the files showing on my USB drive, so I guess that is set up correctly. I'll try to install using the AUX and MENU keys as you suggested, and let you know how it went. Thanks again.

Thanks for the advice. I just unzipped it as called for in the instructions, and this resulted in two files plus the folder in the root directory of the USB. The folder contained a bunch of other files. I copied these to the root directory and then deleted the files. I'll try again tomorrow and see what happens. BTW, I don't have nav in my car, but the update process should be pretty much the same.

The USB drive was brand new and formatted as FAT32. Do you think reformatting it will make any difference?

I tried to install the Sync version 4.4 update today with no success. I followed the instructions from the Sync web site exactly, but when I got to step number 5, that's where things fell apart. According to the web site, "Sync USB" is supposed to appear in the display. It never did. All I saw on the radio's screen was "Play Menu" from step number 4. Step 6 says when the prompts display, press Seek until "Install Applications" appears and then press OK. Even though I never made it through step 5, I thought I would give it a try. No luck. I got a lot of choices, but Install Applications was not one of them. So, I aborted the process and tried again. I checked to make sure the downloaded file had unzipped correctly, and all files were copied on to the USB drive. They were. I then downloaded the zip file again, unzipped it and put it on the USB drive again. All files appeared to have been copied properly. This time I took my computer genius son out to the car with me, and we tried again. Same thing--we never got the display Sync USB in step 5. We tried a couple more times, but no luck. Does anyone have any experience in installing this update? If you know something I might have missed, I sure would appreciate any suggestions you might have. Thanks

Thanks to your suggestions, I was able to get the VHR sent in with no problems. Once I did that, I tried to instatll the latest Sync update. However, I couldn't get it to install. I'll post more about that in the Sync forum. Thanks again for the help.

I was notified today that there is a Sync update available for my vehicle (2012 SEL without Nav). When I started the process of downloading it, I was informed that I should do a Vehicle Health Report first. I am assuming that this is something that is done through my cell phone. The problem is that I don't use my phone for internet access, and therefore I don't have a data plan with my phone. The web site says that the last sync update was done in February of 2012, which is the month that the vehicle was first put into service. I don't know if this is the first Sync update for this vehicle published since then, or if I have missed some others. I have only owned the car since November of 2014. Is there any way to do a VHR without going through my cell phone, which cannot connect to the internet? If not, am I losing any good features by not being able to install this latest update? I just had a thought that might work. Right now, my phone is the only one paired with the car's Sync system. Could I have my son pair his phone with the car and then run the VHR through his phone, but have the results sent to my e-mail address, rather than his phone? This is the only work-around that I could think of. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.

I think it was set up that way because in some states, you must have your headlights on if you are using the wipers. Half the drivers out there probably don't know if that is the law in their state or not. Maybe Ford figured they would save some owners a ticket or two by making the lights come on automatically.

Update: I took the car in for an oil change today, and they also did the recall 15V-340 on the steering system. That consisted of an update to the power steering system control module. They also inspected the steering gear, and said that it was just fine. The service adviser told me that they have done around 100 or so of these recall inspections, and they have yet to find a steering gear that needs to be replaced. I guess that's good news for most owners. I told them about the engine oil change soon message not appearing when the oil life monitor got down to below 10%. They ran some kind of test and said that the cluster needs to be replaced. They don't have the part in stock, so they ordered it and he said it would probably be a week or so before they have it. I'm not sure what cluster they are referring to, but I think it's probably the main instrument cluster. If the only thing that is wrong is that this message is not appearing, I'm not sure that I would have anything replaced. I can monitor the oil life myself, and change it when I think it's necessary. My fear is that when they take the dashboard apart to replace the cluster, this will introduce squeaks and rattles that were not there before. I have never had good luck in the past when the instrument panel has been disassembled. Right now the car is nice and tight. There are no rattles at all. I wish I could be sure that this will be the case when they have replaced that cluster. The problem is that if I don't have it replaced, there might be some other messages that don't pop up when they should They said they would replace it under warranty, for which I was grateful. I'm glad I took it in and complained when it was still under warranty, so they had that documented. Has anybody had any bad experiences involving maintenance work on the instrument cluster? I'm probably overreacting on this, but little squeaks and rattles drive me absolutely insane, and I would surely like to avoid them if possible!

It looks like it's happening again. I just hit the 10% mark on the oil life monitor, and no sign of an "Engine Oil change Soon" message in the message center. I specifically looked for that message to appear as I was starting the engine and immediately thereafter, but no message appeared. I'm taking it to the dealer in a couple days to have the recall performed on the steering system, and I'll have them check this oil change warning message as well. I brought the car in before the warranty expired and they made a notation in my records, but I don't think they are going to want to handle this as a warranty claim, since the warranty has now expired. I think they should take care of it since I specifically brought it to their attention, but the service manager ddin't sound too encouraging when I spoke to him this morning. I'll keep you all posted.

I have a 2012 SEL with the Home Link garage door opener. To open my door, I have to be within about 75-100 feet of the garage for it to work reliably. There are times that I have had to push the button three times to get the door to open. Sometimes it opens so late that I have to stop in front of the door to wait for it to open completely before I can drive in to the garage. My wife's car does not have the Home Link setup. She just has the remote transmitter that came with the opener (this one is a Liftmaster brand). When I was driving her car last week, I noticed that I can open the door about two to three times farther away than I can with the Fusion. I was wondering if anyone else has noticed a reduced range with the Home Link system. It's not that big of a deal--more of a nuisance really, but after I press the open button, I have to keep looking at the door for a few seconds to see whether it's going to open or not. Like I said, it's no big deal, but I would like to know if anyone else has noticed this.

The trunk light is right on the centerline of the car, behind the center mounted stop light, and as far back as it can get on the underside of the package shelf. It's a small fixture--the lens is only about 1 by 2 inches in size.

You might also want to check the connections on the battery cables. If they disconnected the battery, it's possible that they didn't tighten them all the way when they reconnected the cables.

You're lucky you discovered it when you did. I would hate to have a tire let go while I was doing 60-70 mph on the freeway.