bluetexan

Anyone assemble the headlights and harnesses on the Lincoln MKX around here? I'm a little confused about the headlight assembly. On the undersurface of both headlights, it looks as if there's a ballast there that has PLENTY of energy to support an HID kit, yet the lights are halogen? Anyone know anything about this? Why would Ford stop at the halogens if they're going to put a 2Kh DOT 35W , 35V AC ballast on the headlamp itself??

We've got a brand new 08. Love the car, but right now I'm kind of interested in the whole HID vs. non-HID issue that I posted in another thread. We test drove a few vehicles before deciding on the MKX. Hands down MKX won the challenge. Good thing the dealer drop tagged 12K off sticker on a loaded 08, or else we would probably still be saving up our money. We've had an issue with our Vista Roof/BAMR already, but hopefully that's been solved. Otherwise it's a quality piece. Time will tell.

Can anyone else with an MKX confirm this? It appears that HID upgrades are possible on an 09MKX, but not an 08. However, I swear I have ballasts on the undersurface of my headlights that seem like they could support HID H11 lights. Has anyone bought an 09 with this "HID lighting" upgrade and actually investigated to see how it works?

True, I wouldn't expect Sirius to sound great at all on a Paradigm, Meridian, Sonance, or Thiel system. A polk car system to me is like installing any of the above in a house because you really can't get perfect sound in a shell of a vehicle that was not designed for audio and has loss due to vacuum leak, etc. But, actually I've tried Sirius on a Thiel system because that's my brother-in-law's home theater system, and via Dish Network, Sirius sounds pretty damn good. It sounds rather decent in my all Polk in-wall LC series system as well. I've yet to find out if Dish actually pushes a higher bitrate to Dish (as I'm sure they do), but obviously it's still nothing compared to true digital. IMO saying that you can't notice an appreciable difference between FM and Sirius in an OE car system is like someone saying they can't tell the difference between DVD and BluRay when they hook up their BluRay to their cathode TV using RCA coax. I had my neighbor about a month ago ask me why his Sirius radio sounded so terrible in his car. When I looked into his car and saw that he had his Stiletto 100 unit attached to his system using FM Direct Connect........................ I'm sorry, but lots of people rip on Sirius' quality when it's hardware limitations they should usually be blaming.

hey tnugs, now that those springs have settled a lil more, can you repost some pics? If that drop ends up being as nice as I think it will, then I'm on board!!!!

Well, it's nice that you direct me to a columnist and a third rate sound website to.....offer others' opinions.....about compressed audio (including the 0.1% that is based on anything educational), but I'll think I'll go on what I already know about compressed audio (which is more than that), and also based on how it sounds to me. When you play Sirius on the MKX THX sound system, it kills the quality of the FM radio stations here in the DFW area. Of course it's not the same as CD, or even a CD track ripped onto a flash drive at 320. This is identical with what I've found in my Pioneer/Polk/Monster Cable system I've got installed in my Fusion. I'm quite impressed with the THX system in the MKX actually. It's weighted and balanced rather well. I initially had XM in my Fusion and yes, the quality was pitiful. I got out of that sh**hole quickly. Sirius WAS firmly between FM and CD quality, but that has changed for the worse lately with the integration. Now I'd say that the gap between FM and Sirius is definitely closing, but with SR I don't have any commercials, have a ton of choices, and don't have to switch stations when traveling between Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. That alone is worth it to me. There are only a handful of stations here that can even compare to Sirius sat in the metroplex (Jack FM-HD and KSCS-HD1 and HD2). Yes, shockingly they're all "HD Radio". Now, Kanatronic, which FM stations are hugely better than satellite from your experiences, and are you by chance running stock headunit and speakers?

If it's like Steeda's any other setups, and I'm thinking it has to be, then you don't have to have it tuned to use just the Steeda CAI. Your factory tune will readjust to handle the new airflow. I'm rather sure you'll notice a significant difference with the CAI and without the tune, but you'll notice a holy crap difference with the tune.

Well, on my Fusion I have the Steeda "CAI", tune, and throttle body spacer and that car is WAY different from a stocker. Not to mention I get insanely better fuel econ. I drive mostly all city miles and I average 22mpg on a the Duratec 30 V6 Fusion. We did an 800 mile trip and averaged 33. I'm at least fairly confident that I'm going to get the throttle body spacer and the tuner from Steeda, but probably will stop short of the Steeda Edge/MKX "CAI" because I don't want the wifey's ride to growl anything near to what mine does

Well, as a matter of fact our brand new MKX is in the shop with dealer tags on it right now because of some kind of strange Vista Roof problem. When we were test driving the vehicle, the wife apparently saw some black smudging on the REAR vista shade on the passenger side but it looked really minor and she really didn't bring it up. I didn't see it until after we bought it and thought it was probably a grease stain. Not more than 1 day after we bought it, some a-hole decided to put a rather good sized ding in the front passenger door handle. When I was over having it painted at a buddy of mine's who owns a P&B shop, it was raining outside. When he went to pull the thing in after an hour of waiting outside in the rain. Almost the entire rear Vista shade was damp and you could see definite water lines on both sides. It went straight from his place to the dealership. They didn't have a new shade, but they're ordering one. I'm thinking the black stuff was mold, so the problem has been there for a while. They still haven't given me an answer, but I think it's strange that the leakage occurred in the STATIC portion of the Vista Roof.

Akirby........SHH....you're spoiling their fun

I have one for you. We took delivery on an 08 MKX about a week ago. It came with the 08 Nav unit (obviously). When updating the Sync system from 1.0 to 1.2, I noticed on syncmyride.com that 911 Assist and Vehicle Diagnostics is a firmware update that requires the dealer to install those options and features. Since the update was passed on 3/2 and we bought the vehicle on 3/7, I'm making the dealer responsible for installing this update for no charge. However, the question I have for you is: If 911 Assist and the Vehicle diagnostics is a software or firmware update that crosses between the 08's and 09's, then can some of the OTHER features of the 09 Nav (namely Sirius TravelLink) be installed and work on the 08 Nav headunit as well? I'm not looking to rip out the factory 08 unit. I see that the two units are visually different as far as output on the LCD screen (the 09 is nicer with the blue background, etc., etc.) but otherwise as far as buttons and stuff go, they look as if it's the same unit with software and firmware updates. I'm not looking for an update that will enable me to do other things such as rip CD's to the headunit like I know the 09 Nav unit can do. I've heard the compression loss firsthand on a neighbor's 09 with the THX system and would rather just keep CD's in the unit. But, I really just want the travel and traffic features above and beyond anything else. Thanks,

I absolutely love Sirius. I'll never listen to terrestrial radio again. I'm not so sure what others are talking about with the commercials thing though. Yeah, Sirius may advertise the morning show on afternoon radio, but that's SECONDS in comparison to MINUTES of lost time on terrestrial radio. Sirius and 128 compression MP3's have the same quality. I'm so glad Sirius and FoMoCo partnered up because XM before Sirius took it over was garbage. I've noticed a more XM-style compression with the Sirius now that the merger is in full effect, but I paid for 42 months of the service and we still have 5 months of "free service" left.

bbf!! You're over here too? This is thereisnospoon from the Fusion forums. Howdy brother!! Small world. Yeah, I knew the alarm/PATS was standard, but this alarm is apparently one step above their regular. Either way, it ended up really not even factoring into the price. The dealer really did shoot me pretty straight. I had amortization tables in front of me. They printed me off the dealer invoice showing the different plan pricings, etc for that vehicle, including A plan and Z plan pricing, X plan, etc. Then they showed me that the offered price was $2500 and change below that price. They've got a reputation for being a straight shooting dealership, which is why I went to them instead of the two Lincoln dealers that were significantly closer to my home. I will even drive the longer distance to service my vehicle with them only.

Well, when I saw the adaptive lights working for the first time, I thought it was pretty cool. Now I'm just straight pissed that they're not HID adaptive lights.

Just get Steeda to aftermarket tune it. http://www.steedaedge.com

The one thing the wife wants for her 08 MKX is a backup camera. I actually wouldn't mind having it either, but two out of four places I called said that they can't get a backup camera to work with the factory nav. Is that true? The other two said that they could make it work without needing anything additional. Has anyone successfully added a backup camera to a factory 08 Nav?

I'm looking for a much whiter light myself for our MKX. I installed H11 Hoen's in my Fusion and have been very pleased: http://www.hoen-usa.com/

DJ, I definitely agree. I will at least take the dealer logo off, and the LP frame is coming off too when we get our plates. I can't do EVERYTHING I want to do to this vehicle since the wifey will be driving it primarily.....you know how that goes. But, there is a door ding and the thing still needs a make ready done on it (the wife wanted to get home so they did a half-assed job at our request and told us to come back this coming week). I'm gonna let them do that first sometime next week, and then it's coming OFF. I'm then going to find whiter H11's and H9's, and fogs (are they H11 too?) and put some chrome amber lights in the turn signal spots. Bugs the hell outta me when that whole front end has the chrome look except for two rather amber lights in the turn indicator spots Thanks DJ!

As soon as you get a few thousand miles on it, drop a K&N filter in it and buy a Steeda chip tuner and throttle body spacer and I'm sure you'll notice your MPG's go way up. This is what I plan to do eventually but we currently only have 115 miles on the odometer.

I bought all weathertech floor mats for our MKX. I've got them in my Fusion and love them to death. They've been the life saver of my beige carpet, so I expect the same in our dark gray/charcoal/whatever color it really is carpet in our X.

They are making all kinds of deals right now. Here was mine on our MKX that we bought yesterday. 08 Lincoln MKX Standard equipment stickered at 35,840 MSRP Elite Package (Vista Roof, Voice Nav, THX Audio) - $4,595 Ultimate Package (18" chromes, Adaptive Headlamps, Power Liftgate) - $1,295 Heated Rear seats - $295, Class II Trailer Tow Pkg - $395, Delivery - $775 Total sticker - $43,195 Dealer installed options: Perimeter Alarm - $499, Wood Dash Pkg - $350 Total adjusted sticker - $44,044 We were $1,909 upside down on our 05 Explorer after trade. We added GAP at $525, and a 72/72 Safeguard warranty for $1,695. TT&L and fees of approx $1,600 Brings total "sticker" to $49773 give or take $500 or so. We put $3,500 down. After some...."adjustments".... to the ledger that took a few hours of time, we financed the rest - - - - - - - $36,000 and change - - - - , at 5.29 for 72.

Hello everyone, So, it was the wife's idea, but ultimately we ended up making a rather awesome deal. She had liked the Ice Blue for a long time, and we decided to pull the trigger. We ended up doing pretty well - NAV, THX, Ultimate and Elite Packages, and heated rear seats. I've got some plans for this thing - I hope Steeda offers tunes that span across to our platform from the Edge, but I need to read more posts on this site. Most of my issues are related to the low and high beam lights right now (which I feel is rather inadequate even with projector lighting). Hope to see everyone on the boards.