2011 Explorer Bluetooth Noise

[2001Explorers]

I have had the rain noise fix done. Guess what? No wind noise. Seems like that works. You can also have them stick some insulation behind the mic. All it is is wind noise eliminate that and voila. No more wind noise. Has nothing to do with gain etc. On mine you could barely hear if someone was at highway speed. The fixed the rain noise and also did something with the mic. Works perfect now.

 

[2001Explorers]

All you complaining of wind noise. Did any of you have the rain noise fix. I'm thinking not because you didn't mention it.

 

[UCFGreg]

All you complaining of wind noise. Did any of you have the rain noise fix. I'm thinking not because you didn't mention it.

I have not had the rain noise fix, because I don't have rain noise in my 2012 MY. Still, the wind noise is terrible...guess I'll ask them to put some insulation behind it when i finally take it in....just find it hard to believe that all of the explorers are having the problem, and Ford doesn't have an official fix yet.

 

[HDJulie]

I'm getting the rain noise fix as soon as I have time to take the car to the shop during the week. I don't have the rain noise -- I'm hoping it will help with the bluetooth. I will also ask them to insulate the mic area.

 

[gcr33]

I have such little faith left in Ford for this product that I don't believe there is a fix. When I get ready for my next vehicle I will have to take a look at other brands despite 13 years and 5 Explorers owned.

It's now been long enough with these issues and they are still selling this product with the same issues. If it was a safety issue perhaps the Feds would have made them recall it. Perhaps in the 13s they will get it right but on this track there is little or no progress.

I have spent approximately 12 hours on 4 different days in 2 different dealers and now if they have a fix I have to sit in the waiting room for another 3 hours?

I really don't think they understand how much this issue has hurt their product reliability ratings.

 

[flaguy]

Amen

 

[vurb]

Amen x2

My wife doesn't have time to go to the dealer to try and get all these little different issues fixed, then have them say couldn't reproduce, then go to another dealer, another day etc. We have a newborn and a 2yr old, and our other vehicle cannot transport them both at once. We finally made all the arrangements to be able to take the Ex in, and after dropping it off the dealer calls back an hour later and says their MFT/IVT guy isn't in today, sorry please come back and get your vehicle and come another day. Now there's no telling when we'll be able to get it back to the dealer again.

I'm thinking about just doing the MFT update at home with the file from the internet, even though it said ours needs to be taken to dealer and we didn't receive a packet. Then I'll worry about the other ~5 warranty issues some other time. My wife is highly annoyed with the 2.11 software however I'm worried if I do a home install of the new software it may be even worse. At that point she'd want to get rid of the Ex. Torn on what to do.

All these issues are bad enough for a single person with plenty of free time, having to spend hours and hours at dealers hoping they will agree to fix their $40K vehicle to work as advertised. But for people that are very busy or can't make it to the dealer but once every few months, this is a nightmare.

 

[new to ford]

Has anybody had the bluetooth sound quality improved by the dealership? I took mine in, they found nothing wrong, the suggested they update my iphone to the V4.3 software, I explained them that is old info, from about a year ago, since iphones are now at V5.X
I was hoping the MFT update would improve the bluetooth sound quality, but it does not, every time I call my wife and she is in the car, sounds like a wind tunnel and signal is extremely choppy. My $100.00 garmin has much better bluetooth sound quality than the MFT. :thumbdwn:

 

[flaguy]

I'm afraid that the dealers are as much in the dark in this as we are. If there is going to be a fix, it will have to come from Ford. I'm not at all optimistic about that.

 

[UCFGreg]

Just got initial reports from the dealer yesterday. The notes from the tech said. "Compared to like vehicle. No issue found." Told the service rep that was not acceptable, that I should be able to make a call on the highway. He said he was going to work with the tech, but I am not hopeful. I have a 2012, so they are saying its not a-pillar related wind noise.

I explained that some folks on this board have had thier issues resolved with the a-pillar fix, and replacement seals around windshield, and the rain noise tsb fix. This is a wind noise issue, that the bluetooth speaker is picking up. I would much rather have no windnoise in my X than them putting insulation behind the mic.

Here's hoping they try and fix it!

 

[UCFGreg]

So...went to the dealer. Drove a 2013 with same specs as mine. Same issue, in fact, the person I called while on the road said my 2012 actually sounded a bit quieter than the 2013.

So the dealer is calling into the Ford hotline and are supposed to get back to me. Very sad to see that they havent fixed the issue in the 2013 models (also has the same issue of not having the passenger door panel aligned).

Not sure where to go from here. Can't believe they cant get handsfree to work without sounding like your are riding with the windows down.

 

[VinceL]

I guess I'll chime in here also. Our 2013 is pretty noisy when using the bluetooth to make phone calls. My friend's Edge is considerably quieter, though the interior of his car is not! How can the noisier car sound quieter when making hands-free phone calls?

The background noise in our Ex has a distinctly digital warble (for lack of a better term) to it, almost if it is being digitally processed, but done so in an ineffective manner. My wife's voice comes over very clearly, but the noise from the background is very distracting. I would also point out that the microphone has some sort of wonky auto-gain, that can't quite make up its mind. I think that may be a part of the problem, as when she is not talking, the background noise gets really loud, but calms down considerably when she is actually talking. Again, her voice comes through very clearly, but with considerable distortion of the background noise.

Rebecca, is this issue still being investigated? If it is not, it really needs to be. The hands-free calling implementation in the Explorer is barely functional in its current state.

If you have any questions about my experiences to clarify what it sounds like, or any other questions, please feel free to ask, either here, or in a PM.

Thanks!

 

[flaguy]

Welcome to the club, Vince. A lot of us have been asking Ford to fix this problem, but thus far our pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

 

[nitzer51]

I too am in the club w my 2013 limited that was built less than a month ago... People I call tell me to put the windows up....they are!!!

 

[sdm9465]

The background noise in our Ex has a distinctly digital warble (for lack of a better term) to it, almost if it is being digitally processed, but done so in an ineffective manner. My wife's voice comes over very clearly, but the noise from the background is very distracting. I would also point out that the microphone has some sort of wonky auto-gain, that can't quite make up its mind. I think that may be a part of the problem, as when she is not talking, the background noise gets really loud, but calms down considerably when she is actually talking. Again, her voice comes through very clearly, but with considerable distortion of the background noise.

That's a pretty well written explanation of the problem. It fits perfectly with my experiences. A fix would be awfully nice, but I'm not holding out much hope.

 

[flaguy]

Has anyone noticed how Rebecca and Cory have become silent on this issue?

 

[VinceL]

That's a pretty well written explanation of the problem. It fits perfectly with my experiences. A fix would be awfully nice, but I'm not holding out much hope.

Thanks, and nice to hear that others have a problem with the same symptoms.

I am holding out some hope (so far) that it will be fixed. Given the 'digital' nature of the noise, it sounds like the audio processing is off, and that should be something that can be corrected with a software update.

 

[UCFGreg]

Three model years have gone by...not looking good...

I was told to wait for the MFT upgrade and that would fix it....nope.

 

[hhahn4]

Bluetooth Noise

I recently (1 month ago) bought a 2013 Explorer and have had the issue with the wind tunnel noise with bluetooth calls. Has anyone found a fix? I just got back my car today and they said they drove the car and tested the bluetooth and "found no issues" but its still there....

 

[flaguy]

Don't you just love that: "found no issues." I guess the rest of us on here just don't know what we are talking about. Isn't it funny that customers "find issues" all the time and dealers can't find them? Puzzling!!