New FFE owner in San Diego. Have mechanical+cosmetic questions :-)

[dc4all]

Hey folks!

 

First of all I LOVE this car!

 

I bought an off lease FFE last Tuesday. It's a clean, scratch free 2014 Pearl white Titanium with Ceramic interior, 48k miles and as far as I can tell it has every available option, or at the very minimum the ones I really wanted:

 

Adaptive CC, Lane assist, cooling seats and rear inflatable seat belts. Not that I wanted it but heated steering wheel and Park Assist to boot.

 

Questions:

 

1) It says oil is at 36%. The dealer has a $40 special for semi-synthetic with a check up and tire rotation and as I don't know the previous owner     I am planning to change it early. Last night I read the owner manual and it says the car will notify me when it wants an oil change AND that it       goes 20k miles or 24 months between them. I have never gone that far between changes, do you guys recommend following that? I drive           24k/year and I'd guess 14-17k of it will be on highway in hybrid mode vs EV. With these long intervals would you suggest going full synthetic?

 

2) Should I change cabin and air filter since I don't know when it was last done? Anything else I should consider?

 

3) EV battery range accuracy seems non-existent. First time I charged it on 120 it read 21 miles. Next charge on 240 said 24. Then it said 31 on     next 240 charge which I supposed could be because I drove frugally and regenerated fairly well ( I used to own a Gen 1 Honda Insight, yeah,     the funny looking one )

 

   Either way, once underway the projected EV range drops MUCH faster than the actual miles covered. Is that due to hills or might I have a          battery issue that needs attention?

 

4) It wont sync with the app yet but it is due for a recall/update visit for front seat belts, modem replacement and a sync update. I was told the         update is not free of charge, can I do that myself? Is there a thread for that?

 

5) What tires are people liking on these cars? I may change to 18"s soon and the ones I have now are Roadhuggers and from what I can tell are a pretty cheap tire put on by the dealer I purchased from. Also what tire pressure are people running? I used to go 45 psi on my Insight for efficiency and road feel.

 

 

I got a pretty good deal on the car and want to spend a few bucks sprucing it up a bit. Cosmetically I want to change the following: window tint, black out front grill and driving light chrome and wheels and de-badge minus the emblem on the hood. I picked up a near perfect pair of 2014 FFE 18" rims (mine has 17") and am looking for a place to do the work now. Has anyone done the same on a pearl white car? I think it would look even better on plain (bright) white but I'm not complaining as I dig absolutely everything else about the car. 

 

Has anyone done anything similar and have pics of the final result? Would you recommend anything else or different? I dig these wheels

https://jncwheels.com/collections/jnc026/products/jnc026-matte-black  but they show the rotor caliper a lot and these aren't Brembos with cross drilled and slotted rotors so I'm thinking that the stock rims in black MAY look better cosmetically but I would love opinions from others. I am going to try and attach a few pics of the look I am going for.

 

Okay, that's a mouthful. Thanks in advance for any input y'all might have.

 

Vic

Edited August 10, 2017 at 03:00 PM by dc4all

[murphy]

1. 2 years or 20,000 miles is what Ford says.  Ignore anyone that is trying to make money by needlessly changing oil every 3000 miles.  My car was new in April 2013.  The oil has been changed twice.  I am a low mileage driver, about 2000 miles per year on this car.  I have two cars.  The majority of the miles have been electric only.  The car will notify you when the oil reaches 5%.

 

2. Pull the filter.  If it's dirty, change it.  If it isn't dirty, "don't fix it if it ain't broke" applies.

 

3. 21 miles is the nominal value for the battery.  Heat or air conditioning reduces that value.  For me temperatures below freezing cut it in half.  It takes extra energy to climb a hill,  You get some of it back via regen going down a hill.  The range is an estimation.  There is no known way to measure the energy in a battery.

[Kgrover]

I was able to update the SYNC system in my wifes car myself.  Hers is a 2016 Escape, but she had a 2014 Focus before that.  I've updated both in the past.  You can go to the Ford Owners website and enter your information and it will explain how to do it and give you a link to the file.  You basically download a file to a USB drive, stick it in and turn the car on, then wait a while as it does it's update.  

 

https://owner.ford.com/tools/account/how-tos/keep-your-sync-up-to-date.html

[muzicman61]

5) My 2017 FFE was a factory exec fully loaded and came with the 18" rims.  I love those rims.  So much nicer looking than the standard 17" rims.  The tires were the standard Michelin Energy Savers.  They seem fine.  I've only got 11K miles so I haven't even thought about changing them yet.  I bought it in June so we will see how they handle this winter.

[jsamp]

The battery range estimate is based on your last trip(s).  I've noticed when I do my commute (95% freeway) it will read 21 miles on the next charge.  If I drive around town rather conservatively, it will read 25 next time.  As the saying goes: "past performance is not indicative of future results"

 

I would recommend full synthetic, but then I've drunk the kool-aid on that one.  All my cars are full synthetic Amsoil.

[muzicman61]

I finally got mine up to 29 miles today.  Of course the weather has been pretty nice the past couple days and I did not run the climate control.  And on the interstate I use EV Later mode.  My round trip is about 100 miles a day.

[Fat Fusion]

FWIW I changed my oil at 10k, 25k, 45k and 65k miles.  Car runs great.

 

I wish I had a heated steering wheel, but I'm in Nor Cal which has significantly cooler winters than Sandy Eggo !