mtl1977

Doesn't the PAC just beam an infrared remote signal at the receiver? Pretty freakin' cheesy. The radio related ergonomics on the Fusion aren't bad...its the first car where I hardly use the Alpine remote.

You only lose audio control on the wheel. The layout sucks anyway, the buttons are too small. And can anyone tell me why the temp and fan button locations on the wheel are opposite of what they are on the auto HVAC controls on the dash?!?

Huh? I got the antenna adapter at Circuit City, $15.99. Check out my blog for the details of the radio install...Alpine head, Rockford amp and sub. Stock Audiophile components up front and rear doors. The rear deck 6x9s and amp are disconnected. (late December, early Jan). http://mlav.com/blog.

Saw the car and trans on Wednesday, it might be done by tomorrow. The trans has two holes blown in the bellhousing.

I love these internet wishlists...if they added these items, you would not buy the car because a Camry would be $5k cheaper! "HID Headlamps, that turn with the vehicle, aka Lexus RX." aka MKX?

They claim a replacement trans hasn't arrived yet. In the meantime I am driving a stripped down turd of a Taurtus when my loaded Fusion is stuck in the dealer. No Alpine, no sunroof, no leather, no Metro Park sticker...if I want to use a Detroit area Metro Park, I will have to pay for a new sticker. This f&^#ing sucks. By the time I get the car back, it will be about 2000 miles under on the lease. And if I want to drive more than 100 miles a day on this Taurtus, I have to pay!!! :angry: :wacko: The service advisor said a dowel pin on the flywheel went through the trans housing and did some damage. But, it did not cause the oil leak...as a transmission engineer, I don't recall a trans issue where the housing or case got pierced and didn't leak. I spent a bunch of time trying to clean up the three oil slicks in my driveway with kitty litter yesterday. This is definitely not 5w-20 in my driveway, it doesn't soak up too well. Storm runoff from my 'hood goes to the Rouge River. They are replacing the trans, clutch, throw out bearing, flywheel... My wife is doubting another Ford lease. And I want out of the auto industry. My dad spent 30 years as a Ford engineer. Now he is getting screwed on healthcare costs and who knows what else they will pull.

Called the dealer...parts are on order for fifth gear. Maybe tomorrow I'll get it back. The Edge is running $15 a day for the vehicle upgrade and unlimited mileage. Gonna go broke if they keep the Fusion much longer.

I believe they are a Ford design, built in Cleveland. The I-4 was designed by Mazda but it is built in Chihuahua, Mexico at a Ford plant. Variants of the V-6 have been in a lot of cars, starting in the US in 1995 with the Contour/Mystique as a 2.5L. The 3.0L came out in the 1996 Taurus/Sable

The dealer might pull the trans today. They are putting it on a bench to tear it down. Got an Edge rental. The 3.5L and 6F are a sweet combination. Posted some info in my site.

Yeah, perhaps...just hit 12 months and 11k miles. Ford dealers are given a "rental budget" each month that they can use at their discretion from what I understand. The advisor said the tech reproduced the transmission noise (a deaf person could hear it) but the oil is from the engine. :rolleyes: The trans is being pulled and repaired - next Monday. The oil level in the engine after cooling has been at the same level for weeks - I check it often since I don't trust the stupid oil filter cartridge design - and more specifically, the o-rings. The oil on the splash pan has a strong odor, nothing like engine oil. We will get a rental...my wife can bust balls pretty good. We bought/leased five new cars in the past three years, if they want our business...

I had no vibration issues until I put the 12" sub in the trunk. Now the driver's door panel rattles like crazy when the low frequencies hit. There is a lot of flex in the panel - take off off the panel and do what is necessary to stop the problem. Packing a little cloth between the metal door structure and panel should take care of it.

Same here for Detroit. And my Fusion is at the dealer. Need it back tonight, want to get some shots of the car sliding sideways through unplowed parking lots...if my wife doesn't kill the camera man with the front bumper. The Fusion e-brake works great in the snow.

Probably one of three things given the location of most of the oil... 1) Input shaft oil seal - but the clutch wouid probably get soaked with oil and I have not noticed anything strange with the cluch. 2) Leak between the housing and case. 3) Diff/axle seal leak. I'm gonna take it in tonight. The dealer's location is about a 25 minute walk to home, so I can hit some bars on the walk back!

My manual trans seems to have puked up all of its oil...found an oil slick in the driveway. I smell burning oil. Today I started getting massive gear whine in fifth. Now I know where the oil is coming from. The splash shield is covered in oil. When I saw the dark oil, I thought it was engine oil. Most of the other Ford manuals I have owned used Mercon. Didn't see pink in the driveway. The Fusion Mazda G5M uses 75W90 gear oil. Great fun. I just happen to be a transmission engineer...

"Make all models fuel efficient like Honda and Toyota." All models? Toyota admitted they do not care about fuel economy on the new Tundra. Its all about torque. The GS400h, Highlander and RX hybrids have been blasted for going after performance instead of fuel economy...more so on the GS. 0-60 in 5.2 seconds.

Is it really a ZF trans since it is made at Batavia, which Ford now owns 100%? They kicked ZF to the curb a few years back. The CVT transmissions on the market are limited by torque capacity. I'm sure they could make a new one with higher capacity - but then weight becomes an issue when compared to a conventional trans. http://waw.wardsauto.com/ar/auto_ford_zf_no_2/ And from what I have seen, Batavia is on the list of plants to go bye bye.

6-8 weeks is pretty typical.

CVTs have reliability and noise issues with the belt and pulley system. It becomes amplified with higher input torque. The Prius, Highlander, RX400h, GS450h, Escape Hybrid all use a planetary gear CVT system. But they don't get the torque advantages of a torque converter that the belt/pulley designs use. GM had a CVT in the Saturn VUE I-4 when it came out back in 2002, didn't last for long. Nissan must have a great CVT design from JATCO. They are expanding their offerings with the CVT. (JATCO is part owned by Nissan like Aisin AW is partly owned by Toyota) AWD versions of the Five Hundred and Montego use the CVT, but FWD and AWD Freestyles all use the CVT.

"Well, I guess Toyotas have been using Aisin-Warner transmissions longer than Ford. " Aisin is partly owned by Toyota. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisin_AW

The Focus wagon is alive until 2008MY. The Freestyle is NOT SUV like. Have you driven one? I was going to lease one. Got the Caravan instead. Waiting for the 6F Freestyle, the CVT is a joke.

My blower motor is making noise in the extreme cold. A clicking noise as the fan rotates. Reminds me of my 1993 Escort Wagon that had 162,000 miles on it and water would leak through the cowl and ice would form in the blower.

Was the SHO engine just a Vulcan 3.0L (later 3.2L) with the Yamaha heads? I thought the 3.2L SHO was only offered in the auto to boost torque to match the manuals performance... I remember my dad bringing home a SHO prototype back in 1988/1989. Black paint, manual trans of course. Not sure how he got it since he was on the MN12 (89 T-bird) program.

Ford already has a nice performance sedan, the Focus ZX4 ST! :boring: :lol2: The hardest part of working in the auto biz is what you can't talk about (you know, the "networking" knowledge of whats to come). "The first rule of Fight Club..."

The nice thing about the Fusion is that Ford has a solid car to start with. After driving a 1999 SVT Contour and my 2006 Fusion SEL back to back, it was obvious the SVT had better handling and power. But the refinement of the Fusion - wind noise, road noise, etc is so much better. And the lack of recalls...the base Contour/Mondeo program was a POS. Unfortunately the SVT was dragged down with it. My dad was Chief Engineer on the SVT Contour when it launched (he left SVT in 1999). PS - a few old scanned pics...http://mlav.us/picofpic/

If the fluid is turning brown and has a burnt smell...hopefully the chutches aren't slipping too bad during that event.