DTX2023Tremor's Money Pit Build and other miscellaneous topics

[Modman]

Well, got the truck back from the dealer today. Ford had them re-program the computer. We'll see if that fixes the problem or if the error comes back.

The dealer also replaced the left side mirror assembly as they had scuffed-up the base with a buffing wheel when they repaired a chip. I was surprised that it required replacing the entire assembly, not just the plastic cover for the base, but that is what it is. They were able to transfer my paint matched mirror cap over (which likely required them disassembling the old and new ones to remove them without breaking any tabs). Fortunately the new mirror works fine.

Unfortunately, I'll have to take it back into the dealer on Monday. The keyless entry - locking and unlocking - on both driver and passenger doors is no longer working. There's a way to enable/disable the feature by holding the lock+unlock buttons simultaneously for four seconds on the key fob. Tried that and I get a flash acknowledgement from the lights on the mirrors, but no luck getting it work. Wondering if they disconnected something when replacing the mirror. Hopefully it's an easy fix that doesn't keep my truck in service for the whole week.

Long shot, but our 23 Escape was doing this and I read that a low battery charge would shut this feature off. I had recently received the "features disabled to preserve battery" warning so it seemed to correlate. After a longer drive they worked again.

 

[DTX2023Tremor]

Long shot, but our 23 Escape was doing this and I read that a low battery charge would shut this feature off. I had recently received the "features disabled to preserve battery" warning so it seemed to correlate. After a longer drive they worked again.

Thanks... I'm hoping it is something that simple. It was a pretty short drive home from the dealership (about 10 - 15 minutes).

Looking at the logs from my GPS tracker, there's a couple of stretches where the truck was on for 20 minutes at a time (followed-by a low battery warning for each instance) while they were likely reprogramming it (followed by the battery being disconnected for 20 minutes). The GPS tracker can't tell the difference between the truck waking-up when you approach it with a key, being in Accessories on mode, or is actually running so I'm assuming those 20 minute stretches where with the engine off since they were both followed by the low battery warning.

Device shows batteries are still in the "green" with a 12.4v charge, so not terribly low (I believe 14v is the upper limit).

 

[DTX2023Tremor]

@Modman Ok, so it seems to be working again. Thinking that I needed to take it on a drive to get the batteries charged up, the wife and I took the truck out and the keyless entry worked as we went to get into the truck. Worked at the store and working since. Kind of a head scratcher.

This did raise a question for me... is the keyless entry lock and unlock sensors pressure sensors or are they capacitive sensors. Capacitive sensors can be impacted by anything that reduces or inhibits capacitance (e.g., moisture). I have found the door handles to unlock work less effectively when wet. There's also a phenomenon coined as Zombie Finger where people with really dry skin or thick calluses have less ability to conduct electricity. My hands we're cold, but haven't seen anything to indicate that reduced blood flow to the fingertips has any effect on the capacitance of the fingertips.

 

[BroncOh]

@Modman Ok, so it seems to be working again. Thinking that I needed to take it on a drive to get the batteries charged up, the wife and I took the truck out and the keyless entry worked as we went to get into the truck. Worked at the store and working since. Kind of a head scratcher.

This did raise a question for me... is the keyless entry lock and unlock sensors pressure sensors or are they capacitive sensors. Capacitive sensors can be impacted by anything that reduces or inhibits capacitance (e.g., moisture). I have found the door handles to unlock work less effectively when wet. There's also a phenomenon coined as Zombie Finger where people with really dry skin or thick calluses have less ability to conduct electricity. My hands we're cold, but haven't seen anything to indicate that reduced blood flow to the fingertips has any effect on the capacitance of the fingertips.

They're Capacitive.

 

[DTX2023Tremor]

Today I decided to do a couple of mods, starting with adding the Bushwacker Black OE Style 4 Piece Fender Flare Kit. The kit is pretty straight forward to install, and once you figure out one front and one rear, the other side gets done in less than half the time. It is helpful to have an extra set of hands to hold things in place, especially for earlier steps for the rear that require marking the fenders with a grease pen (I used a sharpie and that worked fine, but I was also marking on my PPF). With how these install, I don't see how mudflaps would be possible to add, and bummed that I had to take mine off. Overall, really happy with the look and how it gives the side of the truck a more finished look.

 

[DTX2023Tremor]

The second mod I had planned to do today was to install the Lund Smoke Aeroskin Hood Protector. I test fitted it on the hood and the wife really didn't like the look. Plus it would cover up the Tufskinz letter inserts that I have. Since I have full PPF on the hood, I'm rethinking this mod. It is so low profile that I also don't see it preventing things from hitting the windshield by altering the aerodynamics of the hood. Anyone in the DFW metro want this part?

I also took some time to make a few changes in Forscan:
- Enable police secure idle
- Add temperatures to engine and transmission gages
- Disable honk when exiting vehicle with keys
- Enable fogs stay on with high beams
- Add average speed to trip menu
- Set TPMS to 40 psi all the way around

I also attempted to disable the triple dig at startup, but the setting must be different for 2023 than what's on the 2022 spreadsheet. It didn't work so I reverted the code back to the original value as I wasn't sure what I had actually changed.

Also attempted to adjust the turn signal flash count value. It had the 2nd value as "C" as built so need to check to see if the factory set it for 6 flashes or if that is 3 flashes and is another difference between the 22 and 23.

 

[Dzlbudman]

Are you going to paint the flares or leave them Raw?

 

[DTX2023Tremor]

Are you going to paint the flares or leave them Raw?

I'm planning on leaving them black/raw... I'll eventually change the door handles to paint matched and black out the side badges.

 

[Alpoba]

also took some time to make a few changes in Forscan:

Theres one simple but rather useful mod thats on my radar to enable the compass on the dash. One would think Ford would include it there by default but for what ever reason it is not there. Just haven't gotten around to firing up my old ass pc with forscan to do it.

 

[Alpoba]

I also attempted to disable the triple dig at startup, but the setting must be different for 2023 than what's on the 2022 spreadsheet. It didn't work so I reverted the code back to the original value as I wasn't sure what I had actually changed.

Are you using the right spreadsheet? The change worked fine for me using 23 code.

ForScan 2020-22 Super Duty

docs.google.com

 

[DTremor]

Love the rear platinum plaque on your truck. I’ve been looking to make some mods to my exterior as well. I have a 2024 platinum antimatter blue. Mirror caps and door handles will be antimatter blue. Grill would be paint match or gloss black or swap out for gloss black lariat sport package grill. Undecided if I should just paint match all around in blue. Any opinions or pictures appreciated to help.

 

[DTX2023Tremor]

Are you using the right spreadsheet? The change worked fine for me using 23 code.

ForScan 2020-22 Super Duty

docs.google.com

Thanks for the link! I was using the 2022 spreadsheet linked at the top of the 2022 Forscan thread.

 

[DTX2023Tremor]

Love the rear platinum plaque on your truck. I’ve been looking to make some mods to my exterior as well. I have a 2024 platinum antimatter blue. Mirror caps and door handles will be antimatter blue. Grill would be paint match or gloss black or swap out for gloss black lariat sport package grill. Undecided if I should just paint match all around in blue. Any opinions or pictures appreciated to help.

I've seen a few trucks that have everything paint matched and the look doesn't work for me. To me they look a little odd. I like the way a second color, whether black, chrome or something else provides accent and contrast to the painted portions.

I bought the tailgate panel and the paint matched mirror caps from BFN Truckshop. They're easy to work with and the pricing isn't bad. I am planning to order the door handles and side badges from them.

That said, I did have someone who had years of automotive paint experience question the quality of the work though, mostly the longevity of painted panel. He said it looks like they didn't fully prep the surface (i.e., sand it down, prime it) and rather sprayed it with a solution that helps the paint adhere. Concern is that I could have paint come off over time. One thing is that paint protective film will take the paint off if it is applied on or near it before the paint has cured for 30 days... had that happen on the edges of my panel and had to get a touch up paint kit to fix it.

 

[TARZAN]

The second mod I had planned to do today was to install the Lund Smoke Aeroskin Hood Protector. I test fitted it on the hood and the wife really didn't like the look. Plus it would cover up the Tufskinz letter inserts that I have. Since I have full PPF on the hood, I'm rethinking this mod. It is so low profile that I also don't see it preventing things from hitting the windshield by altering the aerodynamics of the hood. Anyone in the DFW metro want this part?

I also took some time to make a few changes in Forscan:
- Enable police secure idle
- Add temperatures to engine and transmission gages
- Disable honk when exiting vehicle with keys
- Enable fogs stay on with high beams
- Add average speed to trip menu
- Set TPMS to 40 psi all the way around

I also attempted to disable the triple dig at startup, but the setting must be different for 2023 than what's on the 2022 spreadsheet. It didn't work so I reverted the code back to the original value as I wasn't sure what I had actually changed.

Also attempted to adjust the turn signal flash count value. It had the 2nd value as "C" as built so need to check to see if the factory set it for 6 flashes or if that is 3 flashes and is another difference between the 22 and 23.

How can I enable the fogs t stay on with the high beams?

 

[MiTremor906]

How can I enable the fogs t stay on with the high beams?

Forscan.

 

[DTX2023Tremor]

How can I enable the fogs t stay on with the high beams?

It is under the body control module in Forscan. If I recall, you can do this in the simple version rather than going into the As Built version of the module

 

[DTremor]

I've seen a few trucks that have everything paint matched and the look doesn't work for me. To me they look a little odd. I like the way a second color, whether black, chrome or something else provides accent and contrast to the painted portions.

I bought the tailgate panel and the paint matched mirror caps from BFN Truckshop. They're easy to work with and the pricing isn't bad. I am planning to order the door handles and side badges from them.

That said, I did have someone who had years of automotive paint experience question the quality of the work though, mostly the longevity of painted panel. He said it looks like they didn't fully prep the surface (i.e., sand it down, prime it) and rather sprayed it with a solution that helps the paint adhere. Concern is that I could have paint come off over time. One thing is that paint protective film will take the paint off if it is applied on or near it before the paint has cured for 30 days... had that happen on the edges of my panel and had to get a touch up paint kit to fix it.

That’s the shop I was looking to buy from. Such a bummer. If I go forward I guess I should hold on to all my parts.

 

[DTX2023Tremor]

That’s the shop I was looking to buy from. Such a bummer. If I go forward I guess I should hold on to all my parts.

I sent my original panel back to them. Robbie at BFN is super responsive and he did mention to me when i reached out about the risk of paint removal with PPF when the paint is less than 30 days old. He otherwise said he hasn't had any issues with adhesion. Will be interesting to see how long the paint job holds up. I figure I can have it repainted down the road if there is an issue, but so far it looks good and haven't seen any issues. I am careful when I wash it to not get close with the pressure washer to avoid the risk of it removing the paint. Good thing is the tailgate generally doesn't have any caked on dirt or dead bugs that have to be blasted off.

If you send your original tailgate panel back to BFN, they'll give you a $400 credit. Just be sure to clean it before you remove it and be careful not to damage it on removal. They anticipate that you'll break clips removing it and that's fine. There's no way to get the bottom row of clips out without breaking them. I just repacked it using the box and packing materials I had received the painted in and sent it back. Be sure to put your order number on a piece of paper in the box to help them identify who to credit.

 

[DTremor]

I sent my original panel back to them. Robbie at BFN is super responsive and he did mention to me when i reached out about the risk of paint removal with PPF when the paint is less than 30 days old. He otherwise said he hasn't had any issues with adhesion. Will be interesting to see how long the paint job holds up. I figure I can have it repainted down the road if there is an issue, but so far it looks good and haven't seen any issues. I am careful when I wash it to not get close with the pressure washer to avoid the risk of it removing the paint. Good thing is the tailgate generally doesn't have any caked on dirt or dead bugs that have to be blasted off.

If you send your original tailgate panel back to BFN, they'll give you a $400 credit. Just be sure to clean it before you remove it and be careful not to damage it on removal. They anticipate that you'll break clips removing it and that's fine. There's no way to get the bottom row of clips out without breaking them. I just repacked it using the box and packing materials I had received the painted in and sent it back. Be sure to put your order number on a piece of paper in the box to help them identify who to credit.

Thank you for all the information. Much appreciated. Hopefully they prep/paint the door handles and mirror caps better. Has anyone seen a platinum grill swap out for a lariat sport grill (waffled look). Or maybe I should price out OEM Ford Part for the Sport appearance package grill which is the same as Platinum but black.

 

[BroncOh]

The magnets I got were too weak, so now waiting on some thicker ones. Maybe Amazon has B grade crappy rare earth magnets or something. They were unusually weak for a Neodymium magnet.

Following up on this, I think I've come up with the design I want, but won't know until later tomorrow how well it pans out; no reason why it shouldn't be good! Shoud be slick and can't wait!