bofus

I've only had the car for six weeks and maybe 500 miles. Bought from a Toyota dealer lot that was traded in. Carfax shows all the proper services done at dealers, so oil changes and such are all documented. I can't think of any way to blow a head gasket unless it was run without coolant and overheated. The Toyota place claimed they did a full service but would not provide paperwork. I went ahead and did an oil/filter change and did see a new air filter installed. So, they did do SOMETHING. The proper amount of oil came out when I changed it and the oil life indicator did match when they said they changed it. I just wanted to be sure and went ahead and did an oil/filter change just to be safe. It was a skosh low on coolant when I got it home, so I topped it up. I notice about 300 miles later that it went from the "FULL" line to the "MIN" line. No errors/warnings on the dash. There are two head gaskets, one for each bank of three. If they find one bank with a blown head gasket, do you just replace the one bank or do you do both in case something was faulty? Dealer claims to need the car for 2+ days and it is just a few days before Christmas. It's going to be pretty easy to replicate my complaint. Just warm up the car, get it onto the freeway, slow down a bit, then step on it to catch up to traffic and witness the lack of visibility out the rear window due to the smoke show you just created. There doesn't appear to be any oil in the coolant. I've not done one of those tests to see if there is exhaust gas in the coolant. I'll defer to the dealership and report back with their findings. I thought the 2.7 was pretty bulletproof? Hmmm...

Added a signature. I am booked for Ford to examine the issue on the 22nd. I'll not drive it until I get a resolution. Dealers have NO loaners or even cars to rent, so figure out alternative transportation. If it wasn't so cold here, I'd just ride my bike; alas, currently there is a forecast of light snow on the ground when I am scheduled to take it in.

Make/Model/Year is shown on my profile to the left of my post. Do you not see it? 2018 Ford Edge Sport. 2.7 ecoboost v6. 22.2k miles at the moment.

Ok, I just got back from a 40 mile drive and I gunned it a quite a few times and saw white puffy smoke. I let the car sit for 30 minutes on the flat and I'm about a pint low on coolant in the reservoir. So, I think I'm burning coolant. That would normally suggest head gasket. Is the turbo cooled at all by the coolant, or just fed oil? It's odd that I see nothing when normally driving and only when I stomp on it does it happen. I guess I'll be booking a trip to the dealer for evaluation. Looks like it was first titled in november 2018, so engine/powertrain should cover a head gasket, right. Right?

I think if the smoke is unburned fuel, then it would be more gray/dark than whispy-white stuff I'm seeing. Mine certainly looks like water vapor, but the sheer quantity of it doesn't seem right. I've only had this car for a few hundred miles, not enough to tell for sure if I'm losing coolant and/or oil. I'm watching it. I might try to get a video of it, somehow. I don't have a gopro to strap out back, so I'll need to find some way to secure a phone or have the Mrs in the back and capture it out the rear window. Again, it's like something out of a James Bond movie when he presses the "smoke screen" button.

A sulphur smell indicates a bad catalytic converter, typically. I don't believe that would cause smoke, however. My '18 only has 22k miles on it, so I wouldn't think the cat could be bad. I'm not behind it when I punch it, so I can't say if there is a sulphur smell (rotten eggs) and certainly don't smell anything in the cabin while driving. I've been under the car and everything looks to be in order with no signs of a crushed exhaust, leaking exhaust joints, a catalytic converter issue, or a rusted muffler. I've not had it to the dealer. I might see if they would have a gander at it while it is still covered by the factory engine/powertrain warranty.

I've noticed mine is doing this too. Drive around for 30+ minutes and under light/normal acceleration, nothing out the tail pipe. If I stomp on it, it's like I activated some smoke screen: you literally can't see anything in the rear view mirror other than white smoke. I don't appear to be burning oil or coolant and there's no odd noise. The smoke-on-startup issue appears to be caused by an oil pipe that feeds the turbo. I don't think my '15 2.7 did this, but my '18 2.7 ecoboost is doing it. It appears white, not blue; though, it can be hard to tell. Unburned fuel, maybe? No codes being thrown. My "issue" sounds exactly the same at Ben's. It is cold here...35 degrees. I've not had the car long enough to know if it happens if it is warmer.

The swap is pretty easy. Just jack up the corner, remove the wheel, then you can access the bolts at the bottom of the shock and at the top. No need to mess with the spring or anything; that is, if you're talking about the 2.7 Edge Sport with AWD. You do need to remove the "bump stops" from the old shock and transfer them to the new one. I did this last year on my '15 Edge Sport. Super easy. Barely an inconvenience.

I wouldn't think the weather could impact strut performance, unless you're motoring around at the south pole, of course. Does the corner of the car with the issue seem to have suspension travel? If the car was in an accident and the control arms are bent/damaged, then perhaps the suspension isn't running in the normal range of motion, causing binding? Something sounds weird with the geometry in that corner or something is binding in that corner and transferring all the energy to the strut mount instead of the suspension absorbing that energy.

Yeah, I'm thinking this could be a seized strut. I had a rear shock completely locked in the rear of a '15 Edge, could NOT compress it at all. The thing crashed over any bump until I replaced both rears. I'm not sure how that happens.

I noticed that the '18 model ditched the little storage tray to the left of the steering wheel and just have a dumb blanking plate there. I got my new storage tray today and just popped it in. It's semi-useful for putting things in there: parking ticket pass, key for the trailer hitch lock, and an emergency energy bar. Really weird of Ford to ditch that...along with some of the ambient lighting that my '15 Edge had. Part number for that is: FK7Z-5813546-AB.

Upper trim panel of the liftback/hatchback had a busted clip, something I found whilst investigating a rattling noise over rough roads. Alas, the clip is part of the panel, so I ordered a new panel online. Part number is: FT4Z-5841308-AB, about $53 + shipping. I removed the panel only to find non-factory wiring at the 3rd brake light behind the panel. It appeared something was tapped into the brake light and they used those snap-wire connectors to tap into the power lead for the 3rd brake light. I found a short length of wires that terminated in a rectangular shaped chunk of rubberized plastic about 1.5" long by .5" wide. After pulling it from the car, I wondered what it could be. GPS tracker? Power for a rear-facing dash camera? Why tap into the 3rd brake light power? After peeling away the plastic, I find a circuit board. Upon close inspection of the circuit board, I see a name: Williams and Lake, LLC. Quick google search turns up: https://pulseprotects.com/ Looks like a dealer at some point added a pulsing 3rd brake light upgrade to this car, and you can't buy this product unless you're an authorized "dealer". It's a nice idea, but the installation was atrocious. Snap-wire splice? Ugh. Busted upper trim panel. Eeek. Oh, and the little circuit board encased in rubber was just rattling around up in the liftgate with no strain relief to the wiring. n00bs! I'm the third owner, so I don't know who/when this was done. It seems that dealers are adding this and then charging people for it when they buy a car. I guess it's a way for the dealers to make more money on a car by adding this "upgrade". Again, this is a very amateur installation.

Hmm. I went to my local dealer today with photos of my installation (before and after), the old bushing in hand, the parts packages that I used, and my VIN. They said they can't mark a recall complete unless they do the work. No exceptions. I understand that from a liability perspective I guess: what if some moron did it wrong and the dealer marks it complete and the vehicle pops out of park due to a bodged installation and the vehicle causes damage to property or a person. Still, don't I have the right to repair my own vehicle? My local dealer has screwed up my other car and I really don't like other people working on my car; plus, the time to get the car there and then pick it up whenever they happen to get to it is a major inconvenience. With the airbox out, I took the opportunity to clean the area in/around the area..something I'm sure the local mechanics wouldn't bother doing. Surely there's a way to mark the recall as complete by an end-user?

I just installed these parts last night on my 2018 Ford Edge. Pretty straightforward. The airbox requires a quick tug upwards to release the two plastic bulges that sit in two rubber doughnuts after removing the two bolts from the crash structure. The shifter housing retaining clip took a few minutes to figure out how to get it to release: there are two dimples that stick out and hold it in place. The one on the right can be pressed with your finger and then you can sort of twist (counter-clockwise) the yellow thing to release the dimple on the left. I used a plastic panel removal tool to pop off the connector from the transmission. I went with the 5mm and 15mm socket and large wrench method to press out the old bushing. Worked great! Releasing the adjustable end also took me a while. I found that you can slide the green locking tab with one hand and and then press the white clamp from the backside with flat plastic pry tool to be effective. Took me an hour, but I could do it in 20 minutes now that I know all the "tricks".

I do note that my door sills and glove box are illuminated. Really? No glove box light? Even my old civic had a glove box light in the 80s. Maybe it is burned out. Does your center console SUPER-deep cubby automatically turn off if you close the lid with the headlights on? Just be curious if this is normal. If not, then my OCD will get triggered and I'll rip the entire console out of the car to fix it. I'm weird that way.

I did notice the lack of the storage drawer and that they replaced it with a blanking plate. I used that location to put the key for the hitch pin when I have the bike rack on the car. I am pretty sure that there was footwell lighting for the rear passengers (lights were in the seats and would match your ambient lighting color). It's just a black hole back there now. Were the rear map pockets also illuminated in the older car? I sold it the other day, so I can't go out and check it.

I had a 2015 Edge Sport and now I have a 2018 Edge Sport. I have been noticing a few changes and I wonder if this is normal. In looking at the ambient lighting, I notice on the 2018 that my map pockets (in the doors) are no longer illuminated. Is that right? My interior door handles ARE lit up, so I know there is power there. Should the door pockets be illuminated or did they remove that for some reason? Is there an option that wasn't checked to include map pocket lighting? I also noticed that the big/deep center console location is lit up even with the lid closed (if headlights are on). On my 2015, the light would turn off as the lid was ALMOST closed. Did they save a few pennies by not having a switch?

Ok...mystery finally solved. The shark fin antenna is to blame. The new one arrived today and I was able to drop the rear part of the headliner and unplug the antenna and power leads to just try the new one before removing the old one: HD Radio started working! I then worked blindly to remove the old antenna, unscrew the 9 torx bolts holding the painted cover on, then moved my painted one over to the replacement antenna, and then finally worked blindly again to get that 10mm bolt back in situ. Using the radio system tests, I'm getting 70+ signal reception where I was getting MAYBE 7 and sometimes 0. All good. I don't SEE anything wrong; however, the underside had some aluminum corrosion and there are three little springs on the old one that aren't on the replacement antenna. These are pretty heavily corroded and covered in aluminum powder. Maybe just cleaning it would have worked? It seems like Ford went away from that design on the replacements as those three springs aren't there on the new one...just to the left of the wire and bolt hole. Here's the dead one:

The antenna parts should be here this week, though I'm not convinced that is the issue. Using the radio diagnostics and some testing, I get: Sirius satellite: works great. No issues. (this apparently is a separate antenna in the shark fin) FM Radio: VERY poor reception. I get signal strengths typically below 40 and often 0 or sub 20. Unusuable. AM Radio: Good reception. Getting signal strength above 70 most of the time. It's all very strange. I don't know how the attenuation of FM signals differ from AM and how an antenna could impact one but not the other. If the second antenna line was bad used for radio reception, I would have guessed that AM and FM would be impacted similarly. So, maybe it is something inside the head unit? More updates as I try to use the old "parts cannon" to figure this out.

I am suspecting the "amp" portion of the antenna in the roof to be busted; or, the antenna isn't getting the power signal from the radio unit. I've gone ahead and ordered a new antenna and new "isolater" that is shown on a parts list. Parts will be here next week, then I'll drop the headliner and swap it out. Back in the "old days", I had a powered FM radio antenna to try to boost FM reception in my apartment. It BARELY helped. However, if I removed power from that antenna then radio reception was almost non-existent. This is acting like that, so I bit the bullet and ordered some parts. Once I have it apart, I'll verify power signal from the radio (blue wire, apparently) is getting to the antenna area.

Sorry (jmr061), I read your APIM thing and I was confused since the GPS signal comes in on the APIM, I thought maybe this was related. Sorry...I was confused. Gotcha: APIM does not do anything with the FM signal, only the GPS signals. I just pulled apart the center console and I pulled the radio. All connections to the back of the unit appeared fine. While I'm not a Sirius XM subscriber, I find I CAN listen to their "advertising" channel clearly. I drove around for an hour and Sirius kept playing. It's my understanding that FM radio and Sirius radio comes in via the shark fin to the back of the radio via two cables. There is one antenna for am/fm, and one for sirius. I get sirius fine. I also get somewhat OK am radio reception. FM is the problem. So, radio unit itself or the shark fin? What could possibly go bad in the shark fin? Maybe it got water inside and it corroded? I'll put the center console section back together and then drop the rear portion of the headliner and remove the shark fin and see what is happening back there.

More diagnostic info. I upgraded Sync to the latest 3.4.22XX something. No change. I went into Sync 3 diagnostics (hold track skip on steering wheel and track skip on the center console), then it beeps and goes into diagnostic mode running a speaker test. I selected the AHU diagnostic and pulled up radio signal strength. On a particular station (94.9) I get a signal strength of 35 and the head unit locks in on the HD portion. This is the only station that locks in HD. On another station (96.5) I get a signal strength of 1 and is obviously quite fuzzy and no chance of locking on the HD signal. I would suggest the antenna must be connected or I wouldn't get the one channel locked in ok? If I drive around, this station won't stay locked and easily drops, but I can't enter diags when driving. Opinions? Bad head unit? Is there an antenna amplifier somewhere that might be to blame? It's hard to imagine that a passive antenna could fail in some weird way. Water/corrosion in the shark fin? In reviewing the installation directions, there is no separate FM radio connection cable, the only separate antenna connection is for the GPS hockey puck thing. My GPS is working. I'm assuming that the antenna signal must be coming in on the giant multi-pin connector on the back of the APIM. I just compared the signal levels with my '16 Ford Focus. I am getting 45 for a signal strength on 94.9 AND the 96.5. I get above 40 pretty much across the board on a Focus, but it seems the unit in the Edge can't seem to pull a signal other than one channel. Antenna or head unit issue? I'd guess the APIM that is bolted onto the screen display, so maybe just a new APIM or new antenna. Looking at photos online, there are at least two cables attached to the antenna, so I'd guess this is an amplified unit. Maybe the amp crapped out; but, where is it? Looking at ebay, I see: https://www.ebay.com/itm/373773058941 Where is this part? I'm going to guess near the antenna in the roof?

Are there multiple antennas on this car? I know my old Passat had a shark fin and antennas in the rear glass. There must have been a module somewhere that would switch between whichever antenna was getting better reception. Is there anything like that to the Edge? Does the wire just go right from the shark fin directly to the radio? No antenna module or anything? Before I rip out the radio and look, I'd like to get a decent understanding of how the head unit obtains the radio signal.

I've got a 2015 Ford Edge and I upgraded the center system to Sync 3. It was all working, then recently I've noticed that radio reception is essentially non-existent. It was working fine, but not any longer. Is all radio reception handled by the shark-fin antenna thing? Is there a module that controls reception somewhere, perhaps? I would doubt that the cable fell out of the back, which I'll check, of course. GPS location is spot-on, but that uses a dedicated antenna. I can try AM radio and see if the problem is there too. Can you get to the antenna on the roof externally, or must you drop the headliner to access. It's not powered in some way, is it?

The coffee was around the cupholder/shifter area. This is where the plastic clips were missing in a few places. The center stack itself appeared untouched. Yes, I had a Sync 2 system with Ford Touch...no car play or the Sync 3.0 stuff. The touchscreen on Ford Touch requires actual pressure on the screen for "touch" as you have to press two panes of "plastic" together. The new screen is capacative touch, like any modern mobile phone. You just barely breathe on it and it registers. This was pretty much plug-n-play, except for the initially-wrong gps antenna. Yep, $650 included them pre-programming the APIM module as I had to submit my VIN to them upon ordering. It took about 9 days for the screen to arrive from China to Seattle. The directions they shipped with the unit aren't that great or specific to my vehicle, but there were a few youtube videos I watched that provided a lot of help on where the clips were located. It's really easy. I could pull the unit out of the dash in less than 15 minutes now without breaking anything. If you can install a car stereo, you can do this.