milleron

Suggest you Personal Message Forum member ptjones with this question. Last winter, he was selling the Lexan covers that are a perfect fit and come with an ingenious mounting system that's proven very reliable (except in carwashes ), As others have said, the foam-pipe insulation is much, much less expensive. I guess I'm sort of a putz at installing it, though, because I had several foam pieces blow out during highway driving last year. This winter, I've installed the foam and then put the Lexan cover over that. I think it makes a very good seal, and you don't have to worry about the foam coming out, but you do have to elect the carwash without the high-velocity air dryer. The Lexan doesn't actually come off in the dryer, but it will usually come free of it's side restraints, and I don't think you could get away with that many times without it's breaking.

Congratulations; $15 is a fair price, I think. Unfortunately, success is not the norm when asking to have DRLs enabled. Most dealerships either can't figure out how to do it or choose to adhere to the official, customer-hostile, FoMoCo line that "it's impossible." Therefore, in the hope that it might help others to avoid the wild goose chases that some of us have been subjected to, I'd request that those of us who have gotten our DRLs turned on, post the name and general location of the dealership who assisted them. (I realize that some of those dealerships have been named elsewhere in this 20-page thread, but not all have.) My dealer in central Ohio is Bob Boyd Lincoln of Columbus.

Like I said in my prior post, the facts show that the theory doesn't hold water. That's why I made a request for some facts-- to prove or disprove the theory. It was just the vast, vast difference in the results at two dealerships a couple of blocks apart that made me wonder if there might be something making it literally impossible for Ford shops to get this done. I still don't understand how a computer manipulation that's simply trivial to one tech can remain totally inscrutable to another. In spite of how nice they are to me at my Ford dealer, I'll be taking my FFH to the Lincoln service department from now on.

So there are a couple of instances of Ford dealers activating DRLs in the last couple of weeks. That would seem to rule out the possibility of FoMoCo silently removing the setting from the laptops. Thanks for the reports. I guess the problem may lie with my dealer, after all.

In fact, when I was shopping there in late 2012 to compare the FFH to the MKZ hybrid, they told me they do work on Fords. They have a sister shop about 40 miles away that's a Ford dealership. What I don't know is if a Lincoln dealer can perform Ford warranty work.

Man, I'm glad, too!!! I don't think that my service technician failed miserably on the other things. I believe there actually was a malfunctioning module because replacing it allowed the PCM reprogramming to complete quite easily. Troubleshooting that was difficult, and their hands were tied because they have to go through Ford red tape to get permission to order parts, especially expensive parts, under warranty. Ford isn't fast in granting that permission. In a rational world, you'd think that newer software would make it easier, not harder, to turn on the DRLs. But what I'm getting at is the possibility that FoMoCo made a conscious decision to take away from its dealers the ability to continue enabling DLRs. The customer-hostile attitude of Corporate regarding this matter has been obvious from the very beginning. Their company line, whenever service departments would contact them, has always been that it's "impossible to turn on DRLs on 2013 and 2014 Fusions." The only owners who succeeded in getting it done worked with dealers who were willing to ignore FoMoCo. The reason I'm asking is to find out if they might have actually removed the capability from the laptops they sell to the dealers via their software updates. It's important because if that's the case, I'd want members of this forum to know not to bother asking their own dealers for assistance. Maybe there's just something tricky about doing it, but my dealer's tech and Service Managers put some real effort into it and couldn't find a way, whereas the Lincoln mechanic treated it as no more difficult than checking the air pressure in the tires. The difference is what makes me wonder if the Ford Division is being nefarious here. I'm hoping that anyone who got their DRLs turned on in the last couple of months might chime in.

I had two appointments back to back. The second one was at the Lincoln dealer, and I did not get there initially. I went first to my Ford dealer because my health report mentioned recalls on the PCM reprogramming and one I'd never heard about for the airbag control module. Well, the PCM was reprogrammed per a TSB in October 2013, one year ago. Even though there for the airbag module recall, the PCM was done first. What should have taken a few hours could not be completed. It turns out that the PCM reprogramming has to propagate, for some reason that passeth understanding, through the ABS module and into the BLIS module. They told me that the PCM reprogrammed [yet again] but that the process could not go further; the ABS module would not accept the programming, so the whole process hung, and the engine could not be started. Long story short: they had to keep my car 15 days to figure this out, and it required installing a new ABS module that's actually contained in the master cylinder. That required disconnecting all the brake lines. Then, they couldn't get the lines to bleed to complete the job. It turns out that on these cars, a pressurized device must be connected to the master cylinder/ABS control module, and then that pressure plus the pump in the ABS completes the bleeding process. Apparently, the shop had no manuals that explained this as they'd never replaced this $800 part before. Because they felt so bad about the long, long delay in getting my car back to me, they promised that they'd try very hard yet again to enable the DRLs. They did try. They could not accomplish it. I thanked them very kindly for their efforts, went 0.1 mile down the street to the Lincoln dealer, and asked to reschedule the appointment there for the DRLs. They said they had time on the spot, and ten minutes later, my DRLs were running for the first time in the YEAR that I've been fighting this problem. They charged me $61, which I thought was fair since I didn't buy the car there. Some DRLs turn off when a turn signal is activated so as to make the blinker a little more visible. The Fusion's do not have that functionality, but that seems a very small price to pay; otherwise they're perfect. My conclusion is that Ford may be supplying to their dealers periodic laptop upgrades that do not permit enabling DRLs, whereas the Lincoln dealers' periodic upgrades still retain this ability (which they've had all along). I'm wondering if anyone on this forum has had any success getting DRLs turned on by a Ford dealer recently. I know that many folks have had it done at Ford in the past, but I'm just trying to see if it's possible that Ford might actually have removed the capacity with laptop software upgrades. For anyone interested, the airbag-module replacement is being done ONLY on cars that have airbag warning lights coming on. Once they are able to replete their inventories, replacement of this module will be done on ALL vehicles on which the Vehicle Health Report shows the recall notice.

Hope this post isn't premature, but I was so fascinated by the results of my inquiry at my local Lincoln dealership that I can't restrain myself from sharing. I live in Columbus OH. I tried my dealer without success. Although they were interested in helping me initially, they couldn't activate my DRLs, and I made several posts about that negative experience. I tried 2 other local Ford dealerships, but couldn't get anywhere with them, either. One of my fellow forum members here suggested that I try a Lincoln dealer. Sorry, but I can't recall who it was in order to give credit. I guess I waited several months just because I'd virtually abandoned hope, but I finally decided to drop by this week. Now this Lincoln dealer is literally 0.1 miles from my Ford dealer on the other side of the street. When I launched into my spiel, expecting to have to give a lot of details, I noticed that the service rep was shaking his head in agreement and saying "OK, good." He knew exactly what I was talking about. He leaned around to ask his SM if he couldn't do this for my Fusion, and the SM said, "Sure, it's in the Lighting Control Module. You can turn it on just like we did for all our '13 and '14 MKZs." I almost dropped my teeth. The solution to my problem was a tenth of a mile down the street for the last two years. My appointment's next Monday. I expect to pay something because I didn't buy my car there, but I fully anticipate an end to this mini-nightmare. For anyone in central Ohio who needs DRLs activated but has been hitting a brick wall, I'm talking about Bob Boyd Lincoln of Columbus on Billingsly Road, immediately off the intersection of Sawmill and I-270.

This question was brought up several times before the 2014 MY, because the '13 MKZ Hybrid did not have its DRLs enabled, and that function was not owner-controllable. I think that's why a few people have had success at Lincoln dealers. I'm going to try as soon as I get time.

Good tip, I haven't tried that yet, and there' a Lincoln dealer within three miles of my house. I'll let you know how that goes. Fingers crossed.

What product are you talking about?

acdii, This problem irks me so much that I'm actually considering driving out of state to get my freakin' DRLs turned on. Just where is your dealer, and are you sure that since your success, they've not succumbed to the lunacy at Ford Corporate? Ron

Dad may have been right in his day. On modern cars, you won't damage the fuel pump even if you run out of gas, so the admonition about not letting the level fall below 1/4 is obsolete.

Very good to know, HB. I guess that's the workaround, and I'll start doing that -- just ripping the CDs in iTunes and creating USB sticks or CDs. I STILL wonder what in the heck the Gracenote in MFT is supposed to do. In my experience, it does nothing. I certainly wish the Owner Manual were more forthcoming, as the Gracenote Web site is as worthless as Gracenote itself. But now I have a nice workaround, even though it will be labor intensive at first. Thanks

That's a reasonable work-around for an unreasonable problem -- i.e., it's UNreasonable that my dealer won't simply turn them on -- but it's certainly not a DIY option for me. Are you able to supply any hints about how to accomplish that installation?

Glad that worked, but on their blog, Google announced that Google Maps would no longer be able to send destinations to not only Sync but also to OnStar users as of July 2014. I fear that fixes may be temporary

What a great tip, jsolan! I've forever wanted to scan up and down the Sirius channels, but I never thought to try the physical buttons on the center stack. It works. It requires a reach, but it's the only think that works. Thanks.

Stranger and stranger . . . I just received a CD from Holland. It's brand new, much newer than the Gracenote "database" that's allegedly stored on my SD card, and, lo and behold, artist and song titles are displayed on my center-stack display. I'm even more perplexed, but it seems that there is a way to include this metadata on the CD, itself, so that a CD database isn't even necessary to display it. What's constant is my total disappointment in Gracenote, whatever it is. It's total absence of function keeps me wondering what it's even for.

At $3.50/gallon, this check buys me 222 gallons of 87-octane gasoline. The distance I must drive to use an extra 222 gallons of gas at 42 mpg, versus 47 mpg, is approximately 87,650 miles. Ironically, my lifetime average (per the car's reckoning) is now 42.1 mpg -- just like Ford predicts for overall economy, although I have 1.5 summers and but 1 winter on the odometer (so perhaps not truly indicative of how I'll do over 87,000 miles) Conclusion: Because I hope to drive my 2013 FFH a lot farther than 87,650 miles, I don't think that Ford was overly generous. I guess they could have opted to give me absolutely nothing, so I'm not ungrateful, but I'll not be praising FoMoCo for being overly generous.

Absolutely, but I've tried the Autoplay, Gracenote Mgmt, and the setting for album art in all permutations with no results. Thanks for the reply, though. Do you see any artist or track information for traditional music CDs???

Well, that's right. The first two digits of their signature are the offset in seconds before music starts, the next four digits are the total playing time in seconds, and the last two digits are the number of tracks. The resultant number may not be unique, so I think there's an option for adding a code for the genre. That's the number in their database that refers to a specific CD. That started in CDDB before it evolved into Gracenote and was eventually acquired by Sony. What functionality has been added since then is unknown, at least to me. Usually, this information is accessed via an active Internet connection, so the size of the database can be unlimited. I have no idea if they can put all of it on the tiny SD card that contains the Nav database. I think I actually have a Gracenote database because I can see an edition number for it in one of my Settings menu. Unfortunately, it seems to be totally NONfunctional, so I'm wondering if I have a problem. If it's not me, then why in the world is Gracenote even present -- i.e., if it serves no purpose, why is it included? I'm still hoping that more owners might chime in to tell if any CDs can be identified, so I can tell where the problem lies.

WHY won't it work? Their Web site claims they have 130 million tracks in their database. I inserted what was for years the largest selling CD in the history of American sales: "The Eagles Greatest Hits, 1971 - 1975." I saw the usual "reading the disc" message box, then nothing but "unknown artist, Track 1." WTH?!?

So, perhaps if I ripped the CDs first, then Gracenote might display track information? I have to ask because I couldn't obtain useful info about Gracenote from its Web site. I thought it was actually a CD database, but it must work by electronic analysis of the music that's playing to identify it; is that correct?

We Verizon owners finally got the KitKat 4.4 upgrade for our Galaxy S IIIs. Just as rumored, Google's inclusion of the Bluetooth MAP function within the OS, rather than leaving its implementation to the individual manufacturers, has at LONG last, allowed metadata to stream to the center console screen regardless of the source. Pandora, Rhapsody, Spotify, and other services now display title and artist on the dash screen. Now if I could just get Gracenote to display anything at all besides track number for CDs, I'd be near the end of my rants. I can't get the damned thing to recognize any CD, even ones from 10 - 15 years ago. Can someone please tell me how Gracenote is working for them -- i.e., does it ever recognize even one CD of any vintage and display any information at all?

I thought so, but I never see album art and rarely, these days, any track titles. Gracenote is fully enabled in the system information. I took delivery only 52 weeks ago. It acts as though it's badly out of date, but I can find no information on how to update it. Does updating perhaps require buying a new SD card for the Nav system???