TheWizard

I would definitely not go to a 17" wheel since that size was not offered on any second generation Edge model and therefore may be a problem with clearance for the brakes. The 18" with 245/60-18 tires should fit fine and not impact your speedometer (only 1mm difference in overall diameter).

Oh sure we do... like the 15" chrome reverse wheels I put on my 67 Mustang.

Anyone else remember their advertising campaign... "Ford - Kwality is Job #1"

In the south, one asks for a "Coke" then the waitstaff asks what flavor... as in Sprite, Orange, Root Beer, etc.

That $350 amount surprises me. I would have thought the heated steering wheel would be more expensive on the assumption that there would be different wiring as well as the wheel itself. That makes me wonder if one can just buy the wheel and it will work when installed because everything else needed is already there. If true, that could be a bit of a problem for the principal of not paying for unwanted extras - the vehicle already includes extras to support a heated steering wheel even though it didn't come with one. On the other hand, it could be a way to get a heated wheel without floor mats.

What's wrong with outside the vehicle? The hitch is outside and the battery is outside so why run wire into the interior and then back out again? Just make sure your wiring is properly insulated and protected from heat and moving parts and it will be fine for years to come.

Nicely done... if you were aiming for that "in the 'hood" look.

I understand packaging of options in groups and why a manufacturer will do that but I have to admit that the inclusion of floor mats in a package is a little baffling. Most packages consist of factory installed options grouped together such as heated seats with heated steering wheel. But there is no "installation" of floor mats - they just get thrown in the back of the vehicle. Most manufacturers would simply list the mats as accessories (either over-the-counter or dealer installed) rather than as factory options. I remember when "get them to throw in the floor mats" was part of the standard bargaining process when buying a new car.

Just get an upholstery shop to put leather on your seats. If that was the only package item that wasn't satisfactory, most dealers will arrange to recover the seats as part of the original sale. I know many people who wanted leather on lower trim vehicles and didn't want to get a higher trim level because of the cost and the extra package features they didn't want. They ended up with the lower trim level they wanted but with leather seating added for a fraction of the difference in cost between the trim levels.

Don't forget to upgrade your brakes if you go significantly taller than the stock size. People tend to forget that a larger diameter wheel/tire combination requires more torque to get moving and also more torque to slow down. So your acceleration will suffer (not generally a safety issue) and your braking will also suffer (definitely a safety issue) unless you do additional upgrades.

The rain sensor works by using several infrared LEDs along with light sensors mounted on the inside of the windshield. The LEDs shine light at a 45 degree angle into the windshield glass. On a dry windshield, the light from the LEDs will reflect back from the outer surface of the windshield glass to the sensors. When water is on the outside of the windshield, some of the light will get refracted through the surface water and not reflect back to the sensors. The more water, the more refraction and the less light reflects back to the sensors. Your hand would not provide the same refraction but I suppose some translucent materials (bubble wrap, anyone?) placed against the outside of the windshield could cause a reaction similar to water.

Your wipers are either intermittent or automatic - not both. As Omar pointed out, if they are automatic, the switch will say auto on it and the various positions control the sensitivity of the sensor to moisture on the windshield (more sensitive selection will wipe more frequently based on needing less moisture to trigger a wipe). If they are regular intermittent then the various switch positions represent fixed time intervals between wipes regardless of whether there is any moisture on the windshield. Rotating the switch away from you will shorten the time between wipes. I have found that Ford intermittent wiper designs tend to have a longer delay between wipes at the low end than many other brands. This is helpful in cases of really light mist/fog or just handling spray from other vehicles.

The brake dash light is not just for the parking brake. It is used to indicate service brake issues such as low brake fluid or a problem with the differential between front and rear brakes. Also, it will normally illuminate along with the ABS or TCS lights when there is a problem with one of those systems. Since your TCS light is on, I would have the traction control system checked and repaired... you'll probably find the brake warning light will go out as well once that is done.

Good answer! Mine was going to be more along the lines of intermittent wipers being like turn signals - they're working, no they're not, now they are, no they aren't...

I'm with you on that for muscle cars but I think they would make the Edge look too much like an old Chevy van.

An engine speed that high is also unnecessary. The alternator will reach its maximum output before that and the regulator eliminates any benefit of additional speed from there. An engine speed of 2,400 - 2,500 RPM is quite sufficient.

It is not necessary to drive over the speed limit to charge a battery. Your alternator will provide sufficient output to charge a healthy battery at engine speeds just above idle (say, 1,000 RPM or more). It will produce maximum output when it's turning around 6,000 RPM - equivalent to engine speed of about 2,400 RPM, since the alternator generally turns about 2.5 times as fast as the engine. Simply turning off overdrive while driving at highway speeds will accomplish that.

I made that exact mistake several years ago. Fortunately, the Garmin customer service people are so good, they had me send back the fried unit and then they sent me a replacement one for no cost other than shipping. They really are a great company to deal with.

There is no law that says vehicles coming off lease must be auctioned. Auctioning them is common practice only because the actual owner of the leased vehicle is the leasing company (a bank, leasing company or finance division of a vehicle manufacturer) and they usually don't want any inventory of vehicles. But if they did, (perhaps they wanted to add to a fleet of company cars for salesmen or executives) there's nothing keeping them from simply retaining ownership and using the vehicles however they please. When sold at auction, the auction price goes to the leasing company not the dealer.

Imperial versus US? 10.7 US quarts = 8.9 Imperial (Canadian) quarts.

If I were you, I'd get on the internet, join a forum and post my first post as a list of complaints. Seriously though, that is an extremely unusual number of issues for the first three months. Is it possible that the vehicle had been damaged in shipping or something that would make it not square? If the body isn't straight, all kinds of interior pieces could be stressed causing deformations, breakage, clips coming loose, rattles, etc. It might be worth a trip to a good body shop (not the dealer) to have them check that everything is true. If it isn't, then you can challenge the dealer with how are they going to fix it under warranty... I suspect they would just put you into a new one.

Apparently not the 3.7 - at least not in rear wheel drive configurations. I'm about to replace the water pump on my 3.7 Mustang (TSB about air getting in and damaging the pump due to lack of a check valve in the hose from the degas bottle) and it is a good old fashioned belt driven, bolt on to the front of the engine pump. Remove belt, remove thermostat housing, unbolt pump, replace gaskets and o-rings then bolt on a new one. This is my second water pump. The first was under warranty but apparently before they determined the cause and issued the TSB. This one will be on my dime but at least it won't be terribly expensive. So I guess my vote is for the replace it a couple of times but not expensive rather than the may never need it but costs a fortune if you do. But that comes from many years of older cars where replacing a water pump was expected to be necessary someday.

It depends... by halogen it sounds like you're looking to replace the headlights (since the other bulbs such as taillights and turn signals are not halogen). In that case, addison21 is correct, HIDs will provide better bang for the buck. Really good LED headlight bulbs are expensive ($200 or more). They need to have adjustable collars, strong and reliable cooling, and lots of power to be better than OEM halogen projectors. On the other hand, replacing the miniature incandescent bulbs with their LED equivalents is quite simple. Some types will work better than others because of the reflector designs. For example, SMD tower LED bulbs tend to work best for the turn signals because the larger number of LEDs fills out the lamp better. But high power CREE bulbs often work well for tail/brake lights even though they only have a couple of LEDs. Always get LED bulbs that match the color of the lens (i.e. red LEDs for tail lights) except of course clear turn signal lenses would call for amber LEDs. You likely will need load resistors for the turn signals to prevent hyper-flashing.

He means that no OEM makes LED headlights that have plug in bulbs. The currently available LED headlights from auto manufacturers use specially designed housings with unique LED modules in them.

Way off topic but as long as you're going to be that guy... HID have only been used in automobiles since BMW introduced them in the early '90s but since we're talking about Ford, only that one Lincoln model had them as optional equipment before 2000 so "this century" is fairly accurate. HIDs actually last longer than halogen bulbs. HIDs are rated around 2,000 hours while halogen bulbs are rated 500 - 1,000 hours depending on bulb type (e.g. the H9 is brighter but has a much shorter lifespan than the equivalent H11). I suppose I should have been more specific and said that there are no plug-and-play LED replacements for HID. They all have to be wired into the vehicle. Plus the fit is just as problematic due to the cooling requirements at the back of the LED bulb making housing dust covers a problem. That's probably why the leaders in the field (Morimoto, V-LEDs, Diode Dynamics, etc.) don't make them. But yes, you can buy then on ebay. As George Carlin used to say, "you can nail together any two things that have never been nailed together before and some schmuck will buy them." You keep saying "this LED kit" but you don't provide details. If you have HID headlights then the outer projector is the high and low beam headlights while the inner bulb acts as the DRL and is an H15. That H15 can easily be replaced with an LED bulb. On the other hand, if you have halogen projector headlights then the outer projector is low beam and DRLs at reduced power - it's a 9005 bulb. LEDs hate PWM reduced voltage even more than HIDs do, so you would likely have to put up with a lot of flickering if you use them there. That's because PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) doesn't reduce the voltage directly but sends timed pulses to reduce the overall average voltage. The pulsing is much too fast for a filament in a bulb to react so it just looks dimmer from the lower average voltage but LEDs react almost instantly so they basically flash for the on/off cycles of the modulation.