TheWizard

There is no such thing as a "true 80W" LED bulb. They are talking about "80W equivalent" meaning the light output is similar to that of an 80W incandescent bulb. The incandescent bulb would actually draw 80 watts but an 80W equivalent bulb would draw between 10 and 16 watts depending on the generation of LEDs used. 10 to 16 watts is not going to be a problem for the factory wiring. A halogen H15 is a dual filament 15 / 55 watt bulb producing 260 / 1350 lumens. The output of so-called 80W LED bulbs range from 800 lumens (older LEDs) through 1200 lumens (current inexpensive LEDs) to about 3200 lumens using CREE's latest LEDs (which are quite expensive).

Manually calculating mileage is done by filling up the vehicle, resetting the trip meter or noting the odometer reading, driving around for a while until more fuel is needed, filling up again and noting the number of liters/gallons used along with the trip meter or new odometer reading, then dividing miles by gallons (for miles per gallon) or liters times 100 divided by kilometers (for liters per 100 km). Basically it eliminates the possibility that the value shown in the dash is incorrect (they are almost always inaccurate to some extent although usually a fairly small difference).

I had one in my Edge and still have one in my Mustang. It merely tricks the system by turning off certain inputs such as speed. For the navigation system, it turns off the input of the vehicle's speed so that the navigation will allow input. The problem is that if you forget to turn it back on, you won't get any directions from your navigation because it doesn't know you're moving (don't ask how many exits I've missed because of that). For the backup camera, it doesn't seem to do anything with the gear input - it simply triggers the rear camera manually. I don't know what it does for video because I would never attempt to watch a video while moving. Frankly, I don't even remember which button on the steering wheel activates it anymore (I think you hold the phone button for 3 seconds) because it didn't really provide any features that I couldn't live without so I haven't used it in at least a couple of years. I'm really just too lazy to take it out and try to sell it.

My apologies. I had read chefduane's comment "I'm with IWRBB" as though he meant "I work for a company named IWRBB" and posted my little joke prior to realizing that he was referring to your username.

IWRBB? International World of Rotors Before Beer?

Check out the MyTouch Lockpick: https://www.coastaletech.com/mytouch2.htm. It allows viewing the backup camera at any time as well as navigation inputs while moving.

Try Amazon... search for ford trim panel clips and you'll be amazed at how many options come up.

That first part really isn't the case anymore. Modern tanks (since the EPA forced replacements in 2009) have their pickups away from the bottom and have large fuel filters inline to each dispenser (pump). The bottom 500 - 800 gallons of the tank can't be picked up by the dispensers and has to be pumped out from the top when tanks need to be emptied. Also, the tanks are sealed to prevent water intrusion and that practically eliminates particulates as well. The part about buying from a busy station is very true - especially when buying E10 because the fuel has a tendency to absorb moisture and to separate while sitting in the tank. But you should also be aware of the pump speed... if it seems to be pumping slowly, stop and go somewhere else. The most common cause of slow fuel rate is a clogged filter which indicates poor maintenance at the station. Either water or particulates will clog the filter and you don't want either of them in your gas. Another common thing is always finding a station with separate hoses for each grade if you are buying high octane gas. The theory is that a single hose dispenser (the most common type these days) probably has about a gallon of whatever was last pumped still in the hose and that is usually regular 87 octane. Most dispensers really only retain about a half gallon in the hose but even if it was a full gallon, it wouldn't make any significant difference unless you're only buying 3-4 gallons (for a motorcycle for example). Even then, three gallons of 91 octane mixed with one gallon of 87 only reduces the octane to 90. For any fill up with more total gallons, the difference becomes insignificant.

I have worked for a major Shell regional jobber for just shy of 20 years so perhaps I can add some information about gasoline. Gas is gas... just as Randall said. Basic gasoline is essentially the same from all suppliers. The "unbranded" stores will buy from whatever terminal has the best price because there is no real difference in the base gasoline. It's the additives that make all the difference. When a tanker goes to a terminal to pick up a load for a store, they get the additives added to their load as they are filling up the truck. Those additives are what differentiate a Top Tier gasoline from all others. The oil companies are very secretive about what their additives include because it is one of the few things that differentiate them from their competition. Many brand name companies that aren't Top Tier also have their own additive packages but those don't meet the standards required by the Top Tier certification. Unbranded companies have only the minimum additives required by law. The Top Tier designation applies to all grades (regular, midgrade, premium, etc.) sold by the company although many will do even more with their high octane grades in an effort to convince customers that higher octane is really "premium" fuel. In reality, for most vehicles, there is absolutely no reason to use higher octane fuel than what is specified by the vehicle manufacturer. For most engines, unless you are experiencing knocking issues, premium is just wasted money. Some engines have active knock sensing that will increase ignition timing advance as far as possible to take advantage of higher octane fuel and therefore produce a small increase in top-end power. But with the exception of higher performance vehicles (Mustang, Corvette, etc.) even that increase is tiny compared to the difference in cost between 87 and 91/93 octane and is only seen at the top end of the RPM range. I would never recommend it for a people-mover like an Edge - there's just not enough performance increase to even be felt let alone justify the cost.

For those of us in the US, the 7.2 L/km equals 39.2 mpg (Imperial gallons) which is only 32.7 mpg (US gallons). But the point is well taken... if that really was the mileage then it would be nothing to complain about. Have you tried calculating the mileage manually? That would tell you whether the problem is an optimistic mileage calculator or a problem with the fuel gauge indicating you have less than actual (i.e. you're filling up when you still have more gas left in the tank than is indicated).

Oh yes, no question that pure gas gives better mileage than E10. But I wonder if the additional energy of pure gas is better for power than the increased ignition timing advance afforded by a higher octane grade of E10.

I'd be very curious to see if the higher octane or the pure gas produces better results. The higher octane allows your Mustang to advance timing for more power but pure gas has more energy potential than E10 (ethanol has about 32% less energy than gasoline) so there might be equivalent (or even more) gains to be had there. Want to experiment and let us know?

Here in Florida, the difference between branded and unbranded is usually just a few cents as you mention but the difference between E10 and pure gas is usually about 50 cents per gallon. Right now a local Shell station has regular at 2.36 while pure gas is 2.89. Part of that difference is that nobody around here carries pure gas in regular 87 octane (it's all midgrade or premium) but the midgrade E10 at the same store is 2.56 so there's still a significant difference.

That would be 6000K. 6K would be in the range called "far-infrared" and quite invisible.

I don't understand your comment about the color temperature affecting the level of glare for oncoming drivers. How does 6000K "crystal" white produce less glare than 4300K "sunlight" (a somewhat more yellowish color)? OEMs use 4300K because it is the most effective color for the driver's visibility. The more you move toward the blue end of the scale (higher numbers like 6000K and 8000K), the less effective the light because the human eye perceives blue light as glare.

It might not hurt to have the rotors machined to get rid of unevenly deposited friction material. Some shops will insist on turning the rotors (or replacing them) to avoid customers coming back complaining of "warped" rotors. Rotors don't actually warp... they get friction material from the pads unevenly deposited causing excessive runout (variation in the surface flatness) which produces a pulsing or vibration when the brakes are applied. Machining will get rid of the variances and give you a nice even surface for the new pads to "bed" into.

It's not white out back, it's red. As mentioned, it looks a lot like a single misplaced brake light that is on constantly. Often misused and frequently annoying. You may have seen them on some Mercedes sedans.

I have seen this discussion on the Mustang forums as well and nobody has ever provided a satisfactory answer to the question "why would you want to run down to nearly empty?" I have a low fuel light that I have only seen once... and that was done deliberately just to see it work (the gauge turns red). Otherwise I always try to fill up with between a quarter and a half tank remaining. That's something that was drilled into me growing up in Canada and never changed even when I moved south. In snow country you don't want to get stuck somewhere without enough fuel to keep warm if necessary, and even here you don't want to risk getting stuck in a traffic jam for hours and running out of fuel. On a long interstate trip I tend to let it get a little lower to reduce stops (as long as I don't have my wife along) but with normal driving I see no reason to avoid a five minute stop to fill up. Can someone explain it to me?

This is correct. The 20" standard tire is 245/50-20 and the 21" optional tire is 265/40-21. Because of the lower aspect ratio, the 21" is within 1% of the 20" in overall circumference so the calculations when comparing to your 17" wheels is almost the same. I know you wanted to avoid buying new tires but the tires you have on the Escape wheels are not suitable for the Edge. I suggested the alternate 17" tire size so that you could at least use the wheels (if they fit over the brakes) and only have to buy winter tires rather than both wheels and tires. 17" tires are generally less expensive than 20" tires so you could see significant savings over buying 20" winter tires and either another set of wheels or paying to have the tires mounted and balanced twice a year.

There are a number of tire size calculators online like this one: http://www.rimsntires.com/specspro.jsp The 21" tires on a '15 Edge Sport are 265/40-21. The 17" tires on a '13 Escape are 235/55-17. The difference in circumference is about 7.3% meaning that using the 17" wheel/tire combination (if they even fit over the brakes) will cause your speedometer to register 7.3% higher than your actual speed. When the speedometer indicates 60 mph, you'll actually be going only 55.6 mph... a significant difference that not only affects the speedometer but can also adversely affect things like stability control and anti-lock braking systems. If the wheels will fit over the brakes, you could make it work by replacing the tires with 225/70-17 winter tires which are only 0.2% larger making your actual speed 60.1 mph at an indicated 60 mph - not enough to make any practical difference.

The 2015 Edge and the 2013 Escape use wheels with the same bolt pattern and center bore size. The smaller Edge wheels (up to 20") also have the same 52.5 offset but the larger (21" and 22") wheels had a smaller offset of only 50mm. That 2.5 mm isn't enough to worry about except that the Edge wheels are also wider so you will probably see some difference in how they fit under the wheel wells. But the big concerns are that the '15 Edge doesn't come with a 17" wheel in any trim level so they may not fit over the brakes and you may have a significant change in your speedometer/odometer because of the difference in overall circumference (depending on tire size).

Agreed! I have used JDM ASTAR bulbs in multiple vehicles and have found them to be reliable, very bright and quite reasonably priced. I have also used bulbs from V-LEDs and Diode Dynamics which are very good although sometimes more expensive.

I wouldn't buy any bulb from a supplier (even on Amazon) who thinks that a single bulb can be used for both 7440 (T20 base) and 3156 (T25 base). Not only does the 3156 have a wider base, it's also more than twice as thick. So if the bulb is made with a small enough base to fit a 7440 (T20) socket then it will be very loose in a 3156 (T25) socket. In most cases you will need to install resistors with LED bulbs. Some bulbs will work without but it's hit-or-miss and just because they are advertised as "error free" doesn't mean they won't hyper-flash. Some of the higher output LED bulbs won't hyper-flash in some vehicles but I've seen cases where the same bulb will produce different results in two vehicles of the same make and model. Installation of resistors is quite simple - each resistor has a wire on each end and comes with a pair of ScotchLock type crimp-on connectors... one wire goes to the positive for the turn signal and the other goes to ground.

It's not a new thing... the Oakville plant made Aerostar and Freestar minivans starting in the mid '90s and before that I think they were making the Escort or some similar small car.

I'm going to assume that this photo really doesn't do justice to the actual lighting produced. Yes, it has the cutoff that online forums always tout as being the ideal configuration... but in practical terms, based on that photo, the lighting is terrible. There's too much light in the foreground and it's not even lighting far enough down the road to see the curve ahead that you see in the high beam photo. What's the distance to the curve... about 50 yards? That means you would be overdriving the headlights at just 30 miles per hour (you couldn't stop within the illuminated distance). If it's not just the photo then maybe the aim is off?