ruteger

Well, my radio quit working for a while tonight. It appeared to turn on but locked onto frquency '106.5' and couldn't be tuned to anything else no matter what I tried. It would turn on and off, but that's it Turned the car off, let it sit for a few minutes, then it came back on.

Crap, built on 08/10/12 (a Friday). I guess that explains that.

You got that right: 06/25/12 = Monday 06/29/12 = Friday I guess the old adage, "Never buy a vehicle built on a Monday or Friday" still applies (well, for domestic vehicles, anyway).

As it turns out, it 'was' on manual. No adjustment available, whatsoever. However, when I put it on 'auto', in addition to (apparently) adjusting automatically, the dimming can also be adjusted manually. So, what's the point of the 'manual' setting? It does nothing but lock the lighting to it's highest setting.

Besides the afrorementioned A/C which rarely keeps the same previous setting upon start-up (either turning off or reverting back to 'recirculate'), the instrument panel rheostat doesn't seem to work. I wouldn't mind so much but the brightly lit instrument panel gauges are rather dangerous because, at night, it looks like the headlights are on (don't have the auto-lights). Also, the power windows seem inordinately slow to raise/lower. I guess maybe this is the price to pay for going with a bottom-feeder 'S'.

Is there any storage underneath the rear cargo area? If so, any chance of photos? It's a major bummer that they couldn't get the rear cargo area flush with the bumper.

Thanks. I had read 18-19 ft-lbs for the plug in earlier Escapes. I really didn't want to debate the benefits of using a proper torque spec on the oil drain plug and filter. Other manufacturers do, indeed, list torque specs for both, and I would hope that, somewhere, in a Ford Escape service manual (hopefully for a 2013), the torque specs are listed and was hoping someone had this info at hand.

You wouldn't happen to know the factory torque specs for both the oil drain plug and filter, would you? I'm kind of anal about using the right torque for that kind of stuff.

Good enough. It's more of just a minor annoyance at this point. So long as it's not a problem that degrades and gets worse and/or affects other systems, and you'd be willing to post any future developments, I'll just keep checking the thread and deal with it at that time. Thanks, again.

Thanks. Got the TSB # for the manual climate control system? My experience has been that service department personnel (of any manufacturer) are woefully ignorant of most TSBs and it's best to be able to provide a printed as proof that there is, indeed, a TSB that addresses the issue.

I just bought a Frosted Glass 2013 Escape 'S' (the strippo 'rental special' with the 2.5L engine) with Sync the only available option. With only 800 miles on the odometer, I've noticed that the A/C seems unable to consistantly remember the last setting when restarted. 1/3 of the time, it remembers the last setting, i.e., only A/C 'on'. Another 1/3 of the time, it reactivates 'recirculate' (no, it's not on the 'Max A/C' setting, either) which takes two (2) presses of the recirculate button to turn back off. The final 1/3 of the time, it completely turns the A/C off so the fan is blowing nothing but warm air. It's seems to have been doing this from the first day I drove it off the lot. Is anyone else having this issue? I can't say it's something I'll take back to the dealer for, but it's irritating. Another problem that recently cropped up (but only once) was that the rear wiper decided to start wiping intermittently when the front wiper was on the same, intermittent setting. On top of that, it wouldn't shut off! While it only happened once (it was the first time I'd driven the vehicle in the rain), combined with the A/C issue, is this indicative of more electrical problems to come? I mean, the thing only has 800 miles on it. I'm not particularly impressed with the gas mileage, either (under 24 on the highway).

Man, that sucks. 3.31 should be available at least on the Premium as a stand-alone option. Don't much feel like coughing up $2k for the Performance Package (esp the 'summer only' tires) just to get the 3.31. I'd have been interested in a strippo base 2013 (which isn't that stripped, with the now standard HID headlights and smoke LED tailights) 3.7L / six-speed combo with the 3.31 as the only option for a nice, budget hotrod.

Wasn't the 3.31 axle ratio previously (like 2012) available as a stand-alone option in the base Mustang?

Are the 3.31 gears available as a stand-alone option on the base 2013 Mustang 3.7L?

The 4.6L and 5.4L V8 engines are scheduled to be discontinued entirely in 2011, to be replaced by a 5.0L V8 and the 3.5L 'Ecoboost' V6. While anything's possible, I can't imagine either one of those engines being used as the base F-150 engine. That pretty much leaves the 3.7L Duratec V6 as the engine that matches up closest with the outgoing base 4.6L 2V V8 in hp and torque. With the 3.7L V6 vs. the 4.6L 2V V8, torque is decreased, but hp and (presumably) fuel mileage would be increased. Logically speaking, it would then be the 3.7L V6 in the base F-150 XL regular cab, 6.5' box for 2011. I don't know when GM is going to get around to updating the Silverado but, when they do, I would imagine that the ancient, base 4.3L V6 will be replaced with the Camaro's 3.6L V6 as the base engine. I'm guessing that Ford is anticipating this change and preparing the F-150 engine line-up accordingly.