TourGuide

I think so. Front/rear facelift, upgraded V6, new transmission is the real news for this .5 gen.

If you do as RC Mike suggests you'll probably find that it is off from the actual by a couple of mpg over the course of a tank or so. Want to have some fun? Try this - go to the top of a hill somewhere and at the top reset your trip meter - then coast down the hill and see what your mpg is when you get to the bottom. Think this is your actual mpg reading? It probably is not. I think (and others are suggesting this here too) that this is the phenomenon you are experiencing with your readings. It should become more 'normal' the further you travel down the road with the reset trip meter values.

I've been using 5-30 Penzoil Platinum (full syn) in mine at running 5000 miles between oil changes regardless of what the oil life monitor says. I realize this may be overkill, but I plan on keeping this vehicle - so that is how I justify it.

I owned an 07 for a few years. This helped me learn about front hub assemblies in those vehicles that lasted around 75k for the Motorcraft parts. Cheaper knock offs usually lasted fewer miles (40-50k or so). Those hub assemblies run around $225 EACH and are replaced up front on the explorer when wheel bearings need replacing. After doing a couple sets of those - I started shopping for a different kind of vehicle to drive.

Hey Mac, Have you ever owned a gen-3 Explorer? -TG

Many moons ago I might have crawled under the beast and done this myself. These days I find less and less time to do these kinds of things. I am thankful for my local service rep (who I coached in football as a lad). He always treats me right.

Today I had my 2016 sport PTU serviced at my local Ford dealership. They charged my .5 hour labor (which I thought was fair enough) to drain and fill the unit. My service rep said they also use a vacuum device to get everything out of the PTU so that absolutely nothing is left and you get a fresh fill. I plan to do this at least every 15k miles as long as I own this car. I am really relieved that it was as easy as talking to my service rep and having it done. When I inquired before this - they made it sound like it was going to be a hassle - IF they would even agree to perform the service.

I'm afraid it is done. You are on borrowed time. You should either start looking for a re-man unit, junkyard special, or a new motor.

I think an interesting thing about those homelink videos is that they mention that you may have to press the transmitter up to 3 times in order for the door to program correctly. In the case of my liftmaster openers this was not true, but I think other brands may need this.

Be glad you have access to these. Those of us with SYNC3 are finding that map updates are very, very slow. The maps for the SYNC3 nav system are in dire need of an update but so far - nothing. The good thing about the SD card updates is that at least they come on a fairly predictable and regular timetable.

I think the real problem with this issue (HID kits in halogen housings) is that there isn't enough enforcement surrounding it. It is illegal to do this because you're creating a hazard to others - but I see people with these all over in my area - this and light bars which get run in lieu of the actual headlights - SHEESH people!

Awesome! Thanks a bunch for the pictures. Now why in the hell would they NOT agree to service that?! It is BS!

We still do not have any pictures of the drain plug on the gen 2 sport PTUs though. That makes me wonder about whether it is actually present or not.

Well - my software update did not in fact solve the issue. Here we are - December 30 and the error is back. Guess I'm due for another appointment with the dealer.

I had the software update done some weeks ago and no error has popped up since that time. I think there is hope that this has fixed the issue. It may be some time though before I say - yes - it is fixed because for me I drove my vehicle for months before the first errors appeared. So I won't say - it is for sure fixed until - perhaps next December.

I'm hoping it will work well too. I've seen the demonstration videos for it and it looks to have all the benefits of Google Maps on the big NAV screen. I'm really looking forward to it.

I don't have the new AA/CP installed yet, but I have been a user of Google Maps for some time and I can tell you it is great. I've used numerous NAV systems over the years and in my experience Google Maps has the best routing - which leads you to the best results (getting to your destination hassle free). I think this goes to the fact that the database for Google Maps is really second to none. The down side of Google Maps is usually that it is a consumer of data on your mobile device (in most cases). I have noted though that the amount of data it uses is pretty reasonable for how it works.

Sorry Dave - my wife threw the service paperwork out so I don't have a record of what software update was performed. The SSM 46171 update that was mentioned above sounds familiar though and is probably the update they applied on my 16. In any case - I've had no new errors since - so I guess I've got that going for me...

I also had the adaptive steering fault. It came and went intermittently with no real pattern. When I was in last week for an oil change I asked them to scan for codes. My printout didn't mention any codes thrown, but they did do a software update. Hopefully that is the last of this nonsense.

Does this mean you're ready to spend $7k on new SS lines?

I like the feature - most of the time - but there are situations where it can act weird. On the way to Virginia we passed through some construction zones where the road had a concrete divider and some pylons set up on top that created a shutter effect with oncoming trucks. The flashing of the lights with oncoming traffic made it hard for the system to decide what it was supposed to do. I'd say it works as intended around 95% of the time or more. As far as the sensors go - I'm not sure if the day/night photo cell is what is used to trip the high beams or not. My guess would be - not. That sensor seems to have a higher threshold to activate. When in high beam (auto-on) mode - there is very, very little light needed to turn the beams down to low. I suppose this is good from the standpoint of being considerate to others - but it sure seems like an entirely different level of sensitivity to me.

I don't claim to know anything really about how the HIDs work or their requirements (someone here probably does), but I do have them on my sport - and I think there may be a little more to them than a housing swap and reprogram. The HIDs - at least on my sport - come with an 'auto highbeam' feature that turns the high-beams on automatically when conditions are dark enough. I am sure that there is a photo sensor controlling this embedded somewhere - but I have no idea where. To get full functionality out of it there may be more to it than housing and software, although that would probably get you at least manual control of high beam function. The question would be if an error of some kind would be generated after a reprogramming to the sport system where there is a call to a sensor that isn't installed.

I did try this - I worked it a few times and now it is folding - although the folding isn't prefect, it does work. I certainly wouldn't call these seats 'fold flat' by any means.

Since this is a 2015 (and most probably still under warranty) - I'd let the dealership worry about fixing it at the next oil change.

The best example I can think of is - towing. There are times - like when I am towing my lawn tractor, or I have my bike rack hooked up - where I DON'T want that tailgate popping open - at all. When I am hooking either of those things up - I frequently will trigger the liftgate to open without trying. Now I know I need to leave my key elsewhere and I don't have to worry about it - but a switch that allows me to temporarily disable the sensor would also solve this without forcing me to alter my behavior in carrying my smartkey. Sifting through the menus doesn't seem very user friendly to me. My Buick made this very easy.