metroplex

How about compared with the 16-19 Explorer low beams?

The Explorer forum had a lot of complaints about the brakes. Someone said if they vary the level of brake pedal pressure when starting/shifting, it wouldn't cause the issue (light pressure). If they applied heavy pressure when starting/shifting, it would cause the problem. These issues make me hesitant to buy the 2021 Explorer ST...

2019 Fusion (LEDs are same for ENergi Titanium and Sport): https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/ford/fusion-4-door-sedan/2019#headlights 2016-2019 Explorer: https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/ford/explorer-4-door-suv/2018#headlights 2013-2019 Taurus (SHO HID's): https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/Ford/taurus-4-door-sedan/2019#headlights Then the 2020 Explorer headlights (scroll down for the XLT/ST): https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/Ford/explorer-4-door-suv/2020#headlights

My Fusion Sport should have the same LEDs as your Energi Titanium. They're what I'd consider OK but they have a hard time illuminating far enough on the road especially in the dark with rain, ice, slush, and water-logged potholes. My 2014 SHO had factory HIDs that I always thought were garbage but couldn't fathom how HIDs could be so bad... until I pulled up the IIHS data for the SHO and sho'nuff, the headlights are garbage. I have no problems driving in the dark with my 18 Explorer LED headlights, and I do a lot of driving in the dark especially in bad weather. However, I'm not very confident with the Fusion headlight LEDs in bad weather conditions. The Fusion LED DRL/turn signals are nifty like you described. I've also had ice build up on my LED headlight lenses because they don't emit heat/IR at the lens like HIDs and halogens. Thanks to FMVSS, the US doesn't have a requirement for headlight washers like UNECE.

Aside from: engine oil pan leaks, sunroof glass flying off, 2 busted tires (1 bent rim) from potholes, driver/passenger door modules needing an update for the windows rolling down, driver's tweeter needing a good smack every morning to make it work, it's been a great car. The fitment is very good, only minor panel alignment issues. The doors close very very smoothly, smoothest I've had in any Ford. The electronic shocks and active noise cancellation make for a very quiet ride. The LED headlights need more light output though, and the LED foglights are worthless.

How do you like the Edge ST? I've been eyeing them as a next vehicle, but I did the math and even with that 2.7 fully tuned, the weight is too close to an Explorer and won't produce as much power as the Explorer ST's 3.0 with a tune. It'd be somewhat close. Yes the aluminum hoods on the 11-19 Explorers are prone to corrosion. There's a bunch of bubbling and aluminum oxide on the leading edge of my hood. The rear brakes are dragging so badly that my garage is filled with the smell of burning metal and the rear rotors/calipers are changing colors due to the heat. Apparently both are known issues with the 11-19 Explorers but I also live in Michigan with the extensive use of road salt during the winter.

I have the 401A on my Fusion Sport but the tail lights are still the SE style. it was just something Ford did by using the SE tail lights on the Sport (cost savings??). There have been some ingenious Sport owners that retrofitted the Titanium/Mondeo trunk lights and did some changes in FORScan. I hear the 2019-up Fords now come with LED puddle lights, and I was curious if the Ford versions would retrofit. Everyone seems to make them now (even Dorman). I am planning to turn in my Explorer at the end of the lease because the hood is already rusting and the rear brakes are rusted so badly that they drag. My garage gets filled with the smell of burning metal but i'm sure others might want to install those LED turn signal bulbs!

I agree! My 2017 Fusion Sport has the SE tail light config, so the trunk doesn't have the full set of lights that your Titanium would have. Ford does some weird stuff with LED choices... like how the Focus had LED license plate lights but the SHO, Fusion Sport, and other much more expensive Fords have incandescent plate lights. I put in white LED backup lights on the Fusion Sport and 2018 Explorer, so the backup camera has more illumination in the dark.

LED turn signals generally require another part for the signal to sync properly. So it is cheaper/easier to just use incandescents. If you watch the documentary a Faster Horse, the chief cost cutter has to shave pennies off each item to ensure everything stays in cost. An extra $5-$10 relay to make LEDs work is going to add a lot to the cost. Also consider this, these newer LED tail lights and LED headlights cost $500-$1000 EACH to replace. So those are already adding a lot to the cost of the vehicle.

Unfortunately just because they are LED doesn't mean they are good. IIHS is now testing headlight performance on a lot of newer vehicles. My 2017 Ford Fusion Sport has LED low and high beams, my 2018 Explorer XLT has LED low / H7 high, and the 2020 Explorer has LED low/high, and F-150 Lariat w/ 502A and higher trims have LEDs as well. 2020 Escape Titanium has LEDs as well. Out of these, the Escape Titanium has the most lighting performance for low and high beams. The Fusion Sport and Explorer are inadequate in many of the test criteria, and the F-150 isn't that great either. However the 2016-2019 Explorer low beams are very good. I can attest that the first day I drove off the lot with my 2018 XLT, the low beams lit up everything. I never felt the need for more lighting, and my 2018 does not have fog lights (the LED foglights are worthless on my Fusion Sport). So using the Fusion Sport and 2018 Explorer IIHS data as baselines, I'd say the 2020 Explorer and F-150 LED headlights aren't going to be as good as the 16-19 LED low beams. But the 2020 Escape Titanium should have really good LED light output.

Interesting! We've done 3 cross-country trips and usually stay at the speed limit or slightly over, so about 70 mph up to 80-85 mph depending on the speed limit. How much would the MPGs drop on the F-150 at those speeds? My 2018 Explorer XLT (3.5 N/A) gets really good mpg at 45-50 mph (like 30+ mpg) but as soon as I get on the freeway doing 70 mph, it drops a lot!

I was curious if anyone has done pure highway driving (e.g. cross-country road trips) with their F-150 4WD's and the various engines? The 36 gal fuel tank option is making them look very attractive to me. My girlfriend and I are big into road trip vacations and her 2015 Malibu with the 2.0L GTDI LTG engine gets 32 mpg highway and has a 18 gal tank so we can easily squeeze out nearly 500 miles between fill-ups. My leases for the 2018 Explorer XLT AWD and 2017 Fusion Sport are coming up, and I was thinking of buying a F-150 SCAB or SCREW 4WD, but wanted to know if the 2.7, 3.5 and 5.0 get considerably different MPGs in pure highway driving? Car and Driver said the 2018-up Traverse had a 25 mpg EPA rating for highway but they actually observed 27 mpg. With a 22 gal tank, that makes the Traverse a vehicle I'd consider if the F-150s are not getting anywhere close to their EPA highway ratings.

I rotated my tires every 5k-6k miles and check tire pressure on a monthly basis, etc... At 20k miles, the PTU oil was sludge with a huge bulb of metal shavings attached to the filler plug, with a lot of metal shavings mixed in with the black thick oil. It may be "ok", but it resembled gear oil out of a rear differential that saw 100k+ miles.

I know gear lube turns black and has that nasty odor (resembles onions to me) but usually after 100k+ miles on a rear differential. But the gear lube that came out of my PTU at 20k miles looked worse with a lot of metal filings and particles in the gear lube, completely black in color and extremely thick compared to fresh 75W-140. The smell was about the same for gear oil.

Kev-Mo: How does the Lubegard and Amsoil fare in the Ford PTU's? I've been trying to find after action reports of those who have changed the PTU oil with something like Amsoil or Redline to find out how those oils lasted after 20k miles. I also used some Lubegard Gear supplement with Redline 75W-140 in my PTU.

Wow, I rotate my tires every oil change and the PTU oil was still toast at 20k miles.

The clutches are by the RDU, not the PTU. And yes I do see the rear wheels getting power in varying degrees at all times, but it seems to be a different case than the torque on demand 4x4 transfer cases on the trucks. The PTU with coolant hoses are found on the police vehicles, performance package, and hot climate vehicles... but supposedly the police vehicle PTU are still failing at 30k miles? The Fusion and Escape seem to use the same type of transfer case that is different from the D3 PTU units, and it has a proper drain plug and fill plug. Still uses 75W-140 though.

I don't quite buy the argument about uneven tire wear contributing to the PTU overheating. The reason being is that the PTU is constantly working (100% of the time) spinning that driveshaft. The helical cut gears are churning that oil whether you need power to the rear wheels or not, plus you have the catalytic converter and both exhaust pipes running underneath the aluminum casing. Coupled with the fact it has only 18 oz of oil for cooling and lubricating. I think plain and simple is that the PTU design/placement is flawed on the Ford AWD system. They could have installed drain plugs and fill plugs (like every other PTU/transfer case on the market) to help with the maintenance, but chose not to probably for cost cutting reasons. After watching the Netflix documentary, A Faster Horse, I can understand where that cost cutting guy is coming from - but sometimes you have to step in with a maintenance perspective as well. A drain plug with a remote fill port would have been nice. Allow us to drain it, then fill it with 0.56 qt of fresh 75W-140. It'd be simple enough to do every oil change, rather than have us finagle a suction hose between all of those gears inside the PTU, try to suck out molasses, then get our arms covered in gear oil while some of it drips onto the exhaust. Nevermind that even running the engine for 2 minutes will result in my arms getting burned on the catalytic converter. The Cadillac ATS/CTS uses a Borg Warner 4474 transfer case that looks like the transfer case from a pickup, but understandable given the ATS/CTS platforms are RWD-based, so the driveline is longitudinally mounted. Ford chose to cut corners by using the same transverse setup on the bulk of its platforms.

What heat shielding is there? The rear cat and downpipe sits right below the transfer case. I was burning my arms after driving the car onto ramps, all of 2 or 3 minutes after a cold start at 60F. I think Ford knows about this issue. They are specifying a 75W-140 when other transfer cases with hypoid gears (not the chain transfer case from pickups which generally use ATF) are using equivalent to 75W-90 or 75W-85 gear oil (Borg Warner 4474 in the ATS and CTS, as an example or the Mitsubishi Evo).

Just wanted to add that the PTU on the D3 (Taurus/Explorer/MKS/MKT/Police Interceptor Utility/Sedan) is apparently the same used on the Edge/MKX and CX-9. The PTU is working 100% of the time, always spinning the driveshaft. There's a JTEKT electronic coupler mounted at the Rear Differential Unit (RDU) that controls whether power is sent to the rear wheels or not. If you look at the AWD intelligent monitor on Fords that have it enabled, hard acceleration basically sends almost 100% of the power to the rear wheels - and by hard acceleration I mean like 30% or more throttle not necessarily WOT. Once you're at speed, the power is almost all to the front. On deceleration, I notice power going to the rear wheels, with nothing or low power to the front. My guess is that the helical cut gears inside the PTU, combined with the low fluid quantity, and the proximity of the catalytic converter probably shears the fluid very quickly and then overheats it, causing it to thin and then thicken within 20k miles. Looking at the transfer cases on other AWD systems, their designs aren't much better and use about the same amount of fluid. The transfer case on the pickup trucks and truck-based SUVs are a chain based system, looks like the timing chain setup on an OHC engine, and generally use something like transmission fluid (Dex VI, Mercon LV, etc...)

My 2014 SHO has trunk alignment issues (trunk is rubbed down to bare metal where it rubs against the fender and a hole in the bumper fascia), and the hood and right front fender don't line up. The passenger door and front fender aren't aligned either. I saw several 2013s, 2014s, and 2015s with the same issue. Chicago Assembly has the worst quality assurance department at Ford.

Even with the new battery in the Taurus, I kept getting the "System shutting down to save power" message during the winter repeatedly, even after driving the car on a daily basis. I believe it was the San Disk USB 3.0 flash drive that was draining the power, but the original battery died without warning and I had a different San Disk drive in there at the time. I've stopped using the USB ports now. I ran FORScan on a co-worker's Fusion which is about the same age as my Taurus, and he's had the original battery in there. The Ford BMS showed the state of charge at 77% (versus the 35% I was seeing with the replacement battery in my SHO) even with nearly 3 years of service. A note on 2011-up Fords, if you replace the battery, the dealer has to reset the BMS or you can do it using FORScan. Or, you can hook up a charger with the negative attached to chassis (not the negative terminal) and leave the car alone for about 12 hours for the BMS to reset the SOC. The BMS uses a hall effect sensor on the negative cable to monitor the current going in/out of the battery. If you replace the battery without resetting the BMS, it won't charge correctly. What I ended up doing was using a Pulsetech XC100P whenever I wasn't driving the SHO, and using a 5W solar charger panel whenever there was sun outside in the parking lots. I'm pretty sure Caterpillar didn't make those batteries. There are only a few manufacturers that produce batteries in the US under a variety of different brands/labels. I've never had any factory Motorcraft batteries last more than 2-3 years, and the only exception was the one in my 2007 Mustang GT where I had a Tender on it whenever the car wasn't driven. The one time I forgot to put a tender on it for a week, the battery was dead and was 5 years old at the time. I've used a variety of replacement batteries, ranging from Advance Auto's Autocraft Gold, Meijer's Pro Cell Silver (8+ years going on strong), to Sears Die Hard Gold with great success. The OEM Delco factory battery is still in my Cobalt SS Turbo and is about 7 years old (it is labeled as a 6 year battery). I've kept a Tender on it whenever it was in storage, so we'll see how long it lasts. I've also replaced my 800mA Battery Tenders with desulfating chargers like Pulsetech's XC100P (2.5A) and the BatteryMINDer (1.5A) which are all smart chargers but have a pulsing desulfation circuit to help extend the service life. Don't bother with CTEK, NOCO, Battery Tender, or Schumacher other than for basic "smart" charging, because none of them have the full-time desulfation circuitry. NOCO and CTEK claim to have some type of desulfation mode or repair mode, but from what I have researched they either don't work or don't work as well as the Pulsetech and BatteryMINDer.

Ford must have really paid attention to quality with the first SHO's since they were first pushing EcoBoost. Now it's like they don't care and want us to buy Fusions.

The 100% highway MPG pretty much rules out a lead foot since it was entirely just highway cruising at 70-75 MPH with zero shenanigans. I was able to get 23 MPG during that one trip. The battery died suddenly without warning, and this is a car that was driven every day. One of the cells was completely shot and I wasn't able to revive the battery. I don't know if you were insinuating that I didn't drive the car much, or if I had a lead foot. I could see past the terrible quality issues from the Chicago plant and just change the PTU oil every 20k-30k miles. The cramped interior makes it easy to brace myself during turns. There aren't any other interesting Fords (aside from Mustang) that I could use as a daily driver year-round in Michigan. They won't accept A/D/X/Z plan on the Focus RS or Raptor, so I'm not paying sticker or anything above sticker.

My 2014 Taurus SHO has abysmal gas mileage, about 15-16 mpg in the city and an absolute lifetime max of 23 mpg with 100% highway driving from Southeast Michigan to Grand Rapids. The interior is cramped, I'm 6 feet 150 lb and it is a chore getting into and out of the vehicle, especially more so with the surgery I had. The trunk is good, but not as good as a 1981 Ford Thunderbird. I can fit my golf clubs and a Clic Gear golf cart - and that's about it. Had I known exactly what the Performance Package included (namely the PTU, engine oil, and additional trans oil coolers), I would have ordered it with that package. Instead, the factory order guide, brochure, and sales person just mentioned the suspension changes (basically a thinner front anti-roll bar, springs, shocks, brakes) and some stuff like tires, but I later learned that the brake pads and rotors are the same. The ability to turn off AdvanceTrac is nice, and the 3.16 final drive would have been good as well - but the PTU cooler is by far the single reason to get it. It seems the Police Interceptors with AWD are able to burn out the PTU in 30k-60k miles. The official reason seems to be uneven tire wear from the fronts, causing the PTUs to overheat the 0.5 qt of 75W-140 they use. And the PTU is used across the D3/D4 platform, and Mazda as well - with similar complaints from the Mazda crossovers. There's only a fill plug on the PTU's without the cooler (PTU's with the integrated cooler have a drain plug for regular maintenance) so you have to suck out the 0.5 qt of gear oil, and pump in fresh fluid. The Performance Package essentially gives you the Police Interceptor Sedan AWD 3.5 EcoBoost trim: revised steering knuckles, revised front hubs, revised brake dust shields (for additional cooling), and etc... But no one told me any of this up front. I knew it came with summer racing tires, and I had to pick up the car in January with about 6 inches of ice and snow in the subdivisions. Here's what the Ford Ordering Guide said about the Perf Pkg: Sport Tuned Suspension Performance Brake Pads EPAS Calibrated Steering ESC Track Mode/True Off 3.16 Final Drive Alcantara steering wheel 20" wheels with summer tire compound and mobility kit Here's what it actually comes with: stiffer shocks and springs, 27mm front anti-roll bar vs 29mm bar, the pads are the same across the board, the steering is recalibrated, AdvanceTrac can be shut off, the 3.16 final drive and steering wheel cover, summer tires, 20" wheels, revised brake dust shields, revised front knuckles, revised front hubs, 141 mph speed limiter (vs 131 mph, Police is 150-151 mph), unique PTU with integrated cooler and drain plug, engine oil cooler (routes coolant to the oil filter housing, similar to what is found on trucks), an additional transmission oil cooler that sits on the lowest spot behind the grille area. Based on my estimates, the stock trans cooler is 18k GVW (the top portion of the A/C condenser) and the additional cooler provides an added 18k GVW capacity. There is a thermostat unit that opens up the ATF to the coolers at around 180F. So far with ambient temps below 80F, the ATF has never exceeded 180F in normal driving conditions. The battery also died in the car, completely drained. I think it is because of a San Disk USB 3.0 Fit flash drive, so I stopped using a flash drive for music. The trunk is rubbing a hole in the rear fascia and the trunk is rubbed down to bare metal due to contact with the rear fender (trunk misalignment from the factory). The front right fender sticks way up above the hood line. Closer inspection shows that the fender is probably not stamped correctly, and sticks out past the side door and above the front of the hood. The rear of the hood sticks up about 5 mm over the fender. I looked at other SHO's made between 2013-2015 in the parking lot and most of them exhibit similar conditions (also on SEL/Limited) especially with the trunk rubbing. The overall quality is astoundingly terrible, even for a Ford especially one that MSRP's over $40k. I've had cheaper factory ordered Fords that had much better quality. My 2000 Crown Vic after all these years is still running solid. That said, my lease is up in January 2017, but there's absolutely no word on whether a 2017 SHO will be available or a solid last day to order a 2016 SHO. I would order a 2017 SHO with the Performance Package and Navigation, then proceed to add a 3-bar MAP and tune it for more boost, faster shifting, and higher revlimiters/shift points - only if they existed in MY 2017. I am not enamored enough with the 2017 Fusion Sport to consider ordering one, they look too normal and the 2.7L V6 doesn't make enough power. Most of the dyno's I've seen for the 2.7L EcoBoost show the torque is on-spec, but the horsepower is overrated by about 20 hp (engine actually produces about 304-305 hp when it is advertised for 325 hp, the wheel horsepower is about on-par with the 4.6L 3V V8 in the S197 Mustang GTs).