Marc Smith

so did the first full tank. on the new tires. 10.6 gallons 445.3 miles of which 180 was highway miles. 41.8 mpg previous two fill up were 47 and 45 mpg. so time will tell...

that is a good deal closest ford dealership for me is 30 miles. which would have been a tow truck

what brand and model of tire Plus3- yeah figured overall I'd expect a drop since the tires are "low rolling resistance" Eco tires. pumped them up to 40 yesterday so we'll see. also did oil change and air filter change. weather is going to change so less AC use will help

Ended up going with the BFG Advantage TA Sport. got a deal i think... 489.97 looks like I could go off roading with this tread but surprisingly quiet Pain....yeah I usually am ahead of the curve on replacing tires, as all it takes is early snow, or odd rain and you'd be screwed and with no spare. is a true kick in the nuts if it happens away from home. I have a full tank of gas, and I'll set the pressures tonight and see how much MPG i lose..

i knew i was going to replace them this year before my annual safety inspection. last year they said they were getting close. Glad it happened when it did. Its not uncommon for me to head out of town 80-100 miles away. would have sucked to have gotten stranded...

thanks... i ran these way too long... great dry traction.... glad it hasn't rained in a few months..

so had a flat today. thankfully close to home so i was able to pump it back up and get home. weird. run around all morning and stopped for lunch came out and it was flat. sidewall almost looks like it was stabbed... but I got my moneys worth out of these tires. ran them a bit too long. 77K for the originals So I don't see myself owning this car for another 77K miles. and 900 bucks for tires is a stretch... I'm thinking about maybe 2-3 years and this car will be gone. Anyone have any success stories with other tires?

I understand that nothing last forever, but given the pretty damning evidence. Transmissino shafts aren't supposed to cut holes in the case, even at 140K miles are you going to ford to ask for some help. I'm surprised that they dealer wouldn't send it up the food chain to the designers and engineers. "hey look whats going on"

if there is a recall, (doubful as i dont see evidence of many failures) have them pay me for the repair i did (non ford shop with an used rack) and then install a new one... but I'm not holding my breath

so far no leaks on my trans. only 70k miles though... on my 2013... it does suck that there is no way to easily check fluid levels. I guess car makers are thinking that most car owners aren't smart enough to care... simple dfact that by the time the seals fail and leak out and it causes a problem, the car will be so far out of warranty the car maker won't care.

ford wanted more than 2K for the job...

investigation complete damage not related to previous accident. So I had the body shop put in a used rack. 1100 bucks... ugh

broken rack...ugh.... but nov 2017 car was involved in an accident the removed the left front wheel and suspension from the car. dealership thinks that the internal damage may have been caused by the accident and finally completely failed. so they are talking with insurance company and body shop that handled the repairs. we'll see what happens... wif ele tme borrow her new forrester for the drive to work. surprising 29 mpg average to work this morning..

so driving in to work today, after having been off of work since Dec 20. get the red warning "service power steering system" so I pull it into the shop at work. steering was a bit heavier not not bad check alldata, check the forum, check the manual. realize there is nothing I can do. go back out and turn car on and get "power steering failure" message now the car steers like a water buffalo. SH#T . if this were to happen while driving, no wonder it freaks people out. now this could have happened when I was off work for nearly two weeks when I could have dropped the car off and not needed a rental..... but noooooo. 2019 is starting off great... 69,000 miles fwiw no CEL either... Sigh....

Ive got 66K on the car, and i'm not afraid to use the horn.... so maybe i used up my allotment of toots :)

So, finally had a chance to let one of the mechanics at work take a look. I had checked the fuse and relay, no problems. they plugged in the scan tool, since the horn is controlled through the the body control module, we were able to see that the switch is fine, and took off the lower covers and found two dead horns. test wired up a spare horn and it worked fine. so the parts supply store dropped off two new horns. My c-max can make noise again.

obob. thanks yeah I did not do a search. mea culpa...

So, yesterday the horn stopped working. but started working today. I have had the horn not work one or twice previously, but nothing reproducible... which is the frustration with electrical gremlins. gonna check the relay and fuses before I start taking apart the stearing wheel to access the switch or pull the lower engine cover to check the horn itself... anyone else have any problems with the horn...

we ended up with the subie

odob from the edmonds site 2.5i (non turbo) CVT 26 32 28.7 combined 2.5i (non turbo) manual 22 28 24.7 2.0 XT turbo CVT 23 27 24.8 so yeah the bigger engine has less horsepower 170 than the 2.0 turbo 280 and Im sure the folks that drive the turbo moel are a bit more throttle happy than the 2.5. I know i would be. :)

Well its over... She really tried to like the toyota hybrid, and i think the 24 hour test drive was not a benefit for the toyota. It gave her more time to drive and figure out what she really didn't like about the car. ended up with a 2018 forester 2.5 touring MSRP 35525 trade was worth 2500 out the door after taxes, tags incentives, ect 30560

niro, kona, hrv, eco sport too small she sat in them, but she doesn't want to go any bgger than the saturn or much smaller... she was not comfortable in the CRV if you could get automatic seats with out a sunroof, it may work but you cant. she wasnt happy with the seating position Ford escape is off the list. She asked the sales person. "why is the interior the same as my husbands five year old Cmax?" She wasn't wowed by the drive... I have a bit of a blood feud with GM when they filed for chapter 11 the saturn purchase was the last time i set foot on a GM lot to buy a GM vehicle. so now we start narrowing it down by color/interior/options based on whats in stock locally.

Joe, every year there will be more models.... I'm sure there will be even more interesting stuff in 2020, we just cant wait. We'll be able to pass the annual safety inspection this year. But with the check engine light and cat codes being displayed I won't be able to pass the emissions unless I sink $500-1000 in catalytic converters/labor. Trading the vehicle in at the dealer, spending $1000 bucks on the work wont net me $1000 return on the trade-in. so no real reason to do it. Plus, shes been driving the car for nearly ten years, if she wants one this year.... we'll get one. Happy Wife Happy LIfe.... Between now and July 4th it gives the wife time to look, and should be some good sales coming leading up to the july 4th holiday, and we still might be able to find 2017's still sitting on the lot that the dealers will want gone.

I doubt I could ever get my wife into a plugin, unless its got a couple hundred mile range... I would have bought the energi but the loss of storage in the back was a deal breaker.. We have chargers at work and with a 20 mile range I could have done my entire commute on volts.... I think the Kona will be too small