sirtanon

Nice write up! Thanks for this.

I could be wrong, but it almost sounds like your A/C compressor is to blame. If I recall, engaging defrost will also engage your compressor. What happens if you just turn on the A/C manually, and put it on floor vents?

Actually, Foe is roughly correct on this. I just did my drain and fill yesterday, along with doing an oil change, and here's what I found: First off, I'll say that I had a feeling I had overfilled my 6F35 when I did it at 200,000, and it turns out I was right. I drained out approximately 5.25-5.5 quarts, and this was after letting it drain until it was coming out just a drop or so per second. After the plug was back in, I poured in one full gallon of MaxLife (LV equivalent) trans fluid and then backed it off the ramps, cycled it through the gears (P - R - N - D - N - R - P --- Repeated twice) and then verified fluid level was within the hashes. It was, so I drive it down to the local AutoZone to drop off the used fluids. The round trip was about 3 miles, and I checked again after I was back in the driveway. Still within the hashes, about 1/3 of the way up. Since you always want to check your trans fluid hot, I took a trip down to the closest Sam's Club, which was about 15 miles away on the highway. After I got back, I left it running and checked the fluid again - It was about 2/3 of the way up the hashes, so I added another (approximately) 6 ounces of fluid. This brought it about 1/8" short of the "Max full when hot" line, which IMHO is about perfect. You always want to leave a LITTLE room for expansion on those trips where it gets EXTRA hot, such as mountain driving. .. In any case, I ended up adding about 4.2 quarts - Just a hair over a gallon. 5.5 quarts is FAR too much to be draining out. If you're filled that much, you're overfilled. I know on mine, before I drained out that 5+ quarts, the dipstick registered OVER the "Max when hot" line even when the car had been sitting overnight.

My god.. how is it that the interior of your car is so bad? Do you live in an area with extremely high humidity? Do you smoke? When you clean the interior, are you using a lot of chemicals or leaving things wet? I have never once heard of a Fusion of any year experiencing this degree of problems. Sure, I've seen one or two of those pop up on a single car occasionally, but never all of them at once. Not to sound mean or accusative, but the level of problems you're encountering sounds much more like the result of mistreatment or environment than a build quality issue. I live in Phoenix, where it routinely gets up to 115+ for days at a time in summertime, with something like 300+ days of full sun / year, and the interior of my 2010 has none of these problems. This on a car with 224,000 miles on it.

Depends on how you look at it.. The last car I drove as my daily driver was my 2003 Mercury Sable LS Premium, which was my only car for about 4 years. The wife decided that she did not like it any more, so I bought a new 2014 Nissan Altima in March 2014, and sold the Sable in June at about 186,000 miles. Drove the Altima roughly 80 miles round trip to work, daily, for a couple months and realized that I would be loading up a new car with over 20,000 miles a year, so I decided I should buy a 2nd car to make my new daily driver. .. and that's where my 2010 Fusion came in. I found it in July 2014 at my local Ford dealership with just under 178,000 miles on it. They were asking about $7,900 but I talked them down to $5,800. SO I guess you could almost say it replaced 2 cars, but in my mind, it replaced my 2003 Sable LS as that was the DD car.

This video should be helpful to you. Please also be sure to read the comments, as one of them makes a correction about the torx bit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM6_gAltun8

While I'm sure you could, with the right amount of effort, you would then have to find a good way to activate them, since the fog light control would most likely not be installed in your car. Fusions that come with fog lights have a different headlight knob that includes control for the fogs. You'd either have to add a separate switch/knob for the fogs, or swap out your headlamp knob with one that has built-in fog control, and then run the necessary wiring/harness. Realistically, you could probably install aftermarkets just as easily.

I would absolutely buy another Fusion again, if I ever find myself without my 2010. It has been one of the most reliable and easy-to-work-on cars I've ever owned.

Don't know if you've ever seen any of his video's but Ford Tech Makuloco has some excellent videos about common Ford issues, as well as general maintenance. See if this video helps you at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho3Kyps2i34

Not quite true. Any dealership that wishes to continue to stay in Ford's good graces, and enjoy various sales kickbacks, CPO certification, and other incentives, must meet minimum customer approval levels. Get enough pissed off customers, and your approval rating starts to suffer. Get it low enough, and it can actually make a pretty hefty dent in the bottom line.

Doesn't matter - This isn't just a matter for ford corporate, it's a matter for the service management, and ALL Ford dealership service centers ultimately answer to their regional management... that is, if they want to continue to enjoy things like being able to sell Certified Pre-Owned cars, etc.. Any regional service manager worth his/her salt will definitely take notice of the slipshot service that has been provided to the OP so far, and in all likelihood try to do something about it, in order to maintain a customer long term. Dealership service managers might not give a crap, but the regional management usually does, at least in my experience.

Yes. Your dealer stinks. If I were you, I'd find a different Ford dealer, and perhaps even contact the regional service manager.

Keep in mind that if it is the tensioner pulley, the sound will come from the passenger side of the compartment, near the back corner of the engine. The pulley almost literally sits directly behind the passenger front wheel if you're looking at it wheel-on. You mentioned that it's the "smoothest one" - I'm guessing that means it was also the easiest-turning of them as well?

I've noticed that when I try to upload a new photo to replace the "Ford I drive one" image, it acts like it uploads, but doesn't seem to want to change it. Is there a minimum post requirement or something to allow me to change the picture?

I've considered painting it with chrome paint, but I'm just not sure if it will give me the results I want. Still considering if I want to risk ending up with bezels that are neither black nor proper chrome. At this point, I'm probably going to wait until I can find a suitable junked donor car to get them from - Either actual chrome ones, or black ones that I can paint without worrying how it will turn out. I'll probably also get some interior trim parts from said junker, like the trim pieces around the power lock buttons, center console, etc.. as I'd like to try some carbon fiber vinyl and it will be much easier to apply that to parts that are off the car. Also planning to get my hands on a second valve cover, which I want to clean thoroughly and paint to match the body color of the car, for a little under-hood pop. Hoping to find one soon, since my VC gasket needs replacing. Ultimately, I want to tweak the appearance, inside and out, just a little bit.. but I really don't want it to look cheap or ghetto, if you know what I mean.

10%? Yeah, I suppose if you're talking about overall rotating radius, that's about right. 225mm * 45% = 101.25mm sidewall height 225mm * 60% = 135mm sidewall height So you'd be increasing your overall rotating radius from roughly 330mm to over 365mm.. so just a hair over 10% more. Speedo would be off, suspension geometry would be off, alignment would be off.. 10% is just asking for problems.

... and I thought my 2010 with 223,000 miles was up there, but you've got me beat by at least 88,000 miles at this point. Nicely done! I plan to keep mine until at least 350,000 miles, and hopefully past 400,000.

Thank you both. When I bought the car in 2014, it was completely COVERED with bad swirls - "spider webs" - from front to back. Shortly thereafter, I ended up finding the Autogeek detailing forum, and I've been an avid detailing hobbyist since, which is why the paint looks so good. In Feb 2015, I did a complete paint correction using a Harbor Freight DA orbital polisher and Meguiar's compound,polish, etc.. and I wash it regularly and always finish with a spray wax. The rims were a nice Craigslist find about 18 months ago. I just wish I could find an inexpensive set of chrome fog light bezels, as I feel that the car would really look good with them.

Hi everyone! I've posted in a few threads, but I haven't really introduced myself. I've been reading this forum for a couple years, and am coming over from another Fusion forum that seems to have died out.. This one seems much more active and I like it a lot. I own a 2010 Fusion SE that I bought in August of 2014. It's got the 2.5 engine and 6-speed auto, and currently has just under 223,000 miles on it. It's my daily driver. No real "Mods" at this point, but it does have aftermarket rims and a few internal trim tweaks, as well as some LED lighting inside. I do most of my own maintenance and service, although I do leave the tires and wheels to the Discount Tires down the street. I'm also a hobbyist/enthusiast detailer, so it tends to look nice and clean and shiny. I really HATE swirls in the paint.

Your issue is almost certainly the Tensioner Pulley. This is a known issue with these cars/engines. I replaced mine about 2 years ago for this exact reason. Luckily, it's an easy fix and is not expensive. I was able to buy a Gates branded tensioner through RockAuto for about $45, and it only took about 90 minutes from start to finish to replace. Your best bet is to go in through the passenger wheel well.

At 56k doesn't seem like they're necessarily trying to scam you, but I'd definitely only take them up on it if the charge is relatively cheap - as in $100 or less. If you're even a little mechanically inclined, especially if you do your own oil changes, then I suggest doing it yourself. It's REALLY easy. As others have said, doing it regularly every 30k miles is a good idea. My 2010 Fusion SE has just a hair under 223,000 miles on it, with original 2.5 and 6F35. I just did a standard drain and fill on the trans at 200,000 miles, and I plan do it again at 225,000 when I change my oil, since I'll be under there. Yes, I'll be about 5k miles early, but I'm doing it at 25k, rather than wait until the next oil change 7,500 miles later. Doing a trans drain & fill on these is a breeze - the easiest I've ever done - thanks to the fact that the 6F35 has a drain plug. Just drain out the ~5 quarts and then refill with fresh. You'll be changing out about 60% of the fluid.