Laminar

It's wild that Ford was still using 3G hardware on 2020 model year vehicles when they had switched other models over to 4G two years earlier. The "trial" is valid for any vehicle VIN entered into your app, and the timer starts on the date the vehicle was first sold. It doesn't require you to sign up for anything or activate anything. Ford is paying AT&T for cellular service on the vehicle, just like if you added a smart watch to your existing cellular plan. If your Fusion was purchased any time before Nov. 3, 2020, you wouldn't be within the warranty period so you wouldn't have received a mailed letter, just the email or app notification like the rest of us.

Yep, that's right. Given the common upgrade part number, I'd be willing to bet that an MKX TCU would work in a C-Max. From what I understand, Ford offered a 4 year "trial" of 3G connectivity. For those few vehicles that happened to still be within the "trial" period, they gave early notification (including actual mailed letters) and free labor for the 4G upgrade, where the rest of us were on the hook for the full parts + labor cost. FAKRA! That's what I was looking for, thank you!

Since the official Ford document lists a common upgrade kit for the MKX and C-Max Energi, I'm posting this here in case it helps someone else: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2021/MC-10204043-0001.pdf I can report a successful self-upgrade to 4G. I found a 4G TCU from a 2018 MKX on eBay for just under $100. Things to look for: - The FCC ID of "LHJ-FANW" indicates a 4G modem. There are a few other IDs for different model vehicles that are 4G as well. - The maroon antenna plug is the 4G plug. If there's a second plug there that's tan, that's for the wifi hotspot. All 4G modems will have a maroon plug, a TCU that supports Wifi will have the second plug. I made some room in the trunk. The passenger side cover pops loose, but it take a fairly significant amount of force. I didn't remove it entirely, just enough to pull the top back and get at the modem. Before disconnecting the modem, I pulled up Forscan and trended all values available in the TCU: Then I unplugged the factory TCU and plugged in the new TCU. Once booted, the TCU showed several DTC error codes - lost communication with ECU, no antenna, and a couple others. I saved the As Built of the TCU in an as-found configuration. At this point, and I'm not 100% sure it was necessary, but I disconnected the vehicle battery for a couple of minutes to give everything a good reset. Once reconnected, I went into the LincolnWay app and deleted the vehicle. I then went in and re-added it. It was able to find the vehicle and sent an activation request. In a few seconds the request popped up on the Sync 3 screen and I authorized. The app still didn't show I was authorized even though I got a confirmation email stating everything was good to go, so I logged out and logged back in to the app. Once I did that, everything worked and I was able to lock, unlock, and start via the app. Here's what the TCU looked like after the upgrade: I don't have an antenna hooked up, but I was able to easily activate from inside of my closed garage. I think the connector the TCU wants is a TS9 female, so I'm trying to find something that will work. Other than that, it looks like I'm good to go for another decade or so until they decided to sunset 4G, too. ?

What is the FCC ID of the module you installed? If it's LHJ-FANW, here are the antenna specs per the FCC filing: https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/LHJ-FANW/3033645 Another interesting blurb: Sounds like the FCC authorization specifies that end users can't install or modify the TCU, including the antenna.

Good info, thanks! If you get just the TCU, what do you do about the antenna? Are the 3G and 4G antennas the same? It looks like the kit antenna is a flat rectangle that gets stuck to the plastic trim panel.

This is fantastic news! I have a 2016 MKX with the old 3G modem that is being put out of service. According to the Ford documentation, the C-Max and MKX share a common 4G upgrade kit - AMMU7J A00A25 AA. I haven't called around to see if a dealership will sell me just the retrofit kit, but it's not showing up in any of the online Ford parts dealerships. The instructions reference IDS, so I was worried about the dealership having to activate the kit. I've started working my way through the 80 page F-150 forum thread, lots of into there. If I wanted to try to retrofit a module from another Ford vehicle, is there a specific reason you went for the Escape unit, or could any 2018+ unit work for me? Do you think there's some kind of initial setup the dealership would have to do on a brand new modem that you didn't have to do on an already-activated used one?