StreetMedic
New Member
- Joined
- January 14, 2019
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2017 Ford Explorer XLT
Hey there, gang,
First poster, here, so "hi." Been browsing around for a bit, and it seems like a nice community you have here. I've been concentrating my reading/searching mostly around Sync 3 topics, getting a sense of what the general vibe is. I'm a bit over a year with my XLT, and while I am in love with it, I've gotta say, the Sync 3 execution just does not impress me very much at all. I'm very sensitive to coming out of the gate negatively in my very first post here, but truth be told, it's the niggling issues I've had with the vehicle's tech that has often driven me crazy and finally got me browsing these forums in the first place.
I'm not sure if I'm encouraged or alarmed that I thus far haven't found many similar complaints here, but I'm still reading. Some things seem like "issues," while others just seem to be design decisions I don't particularly agree with.
Here are a few recurring things I have been experiencing, in no particular order:
The Blue Tooth is not stable at all, and drops often, regardless of which/whose device is connected to it. Oddly, directly jacking in with a cable is somehow actually *less* stable than Blue Tooth. Devices regularly just stop playing media, won't restart, and the only way to get them breathing again is to unplug the cable and reconnect. Trying different cables never resolves the behavior. At least once a month, the audio system just vapor-locks entirely and won't do anything until the vehicle is shut off and restarted. That's great when it happens at the beginning of my typical hour-long commutes.
Lately, in the past few weeks, all of the "smart" USB slots will frequently just vanish from the display, and not recognize anything plugged into them at all -- once again -- until the vehicle is restarted, and sometimes even doing that doesn't work the first time.
The GPS can be similarly flaky. Yesterday morning, I got the Ghostbusters "no GPS signal" icon about ten miles into a road-trip, and it failed to reacquire a signal for the ensuing 75 miles, often being as far as five miles off, showing us following railroad tracks, cutting through people's yards, and at one point apparently motor-boating across the middle of Lake Winnipesaukee. All the while, my Waze fallback on my phone chugged along without issue or loss of signal.
Related to the GPS, it's maddening how much functionality is hobbled when the vehicle is moving, including (most glaringly) the way the keyboard is greyed out. Come on, guys, really? I usually have adult passengers in the car with me, and they can't use any of the functionality because Ford evidently insists on being more worried about deflecting liability than they are with permitting reasonable usage. The airbag can tell when there's a butt in the passenger seat; why can't the GPS? There's no reason one of my teenaged kids or adult girlfriend shouldn't be able to search, program, connect a Blue Tooth device, or use Travel Link. So someone winds up just using their cell phone anyway, to accomplish the same tasks.
And please, can we stop with the constant reminders/admonishments to "obey traffic laws," etc. Every. Single. Time. I. Begin. A. Route. Who is this warning for? Anyone who actually needs to actively be reminded by their car to not drive like a jerk should probably hear that warning as soon as they start the engine or put it in gear, not when they first fire up the GPS.
One of Sync 3 and Travel Link's favorite tricks is to just forget certain things they have been told time and time again. It forgets little things like my saved sports teams and "weather places" over and over again. Big deal? Nah. But in all fairness, they're features that are *supposed* to work, and yet I have finally just chalked it up to poor implementation and for the most part pretty much just ceased using them altogether. But the one comparable malfunction(?) that is mind boggling to me is the way the vehicle constantly erases the emergency contact info in the 911 assist "feature." Again, am I losing sleep over that? Of course not. But what gives? What is the point of going to the trouble of inputting emergency contacts if there is zero persistence for any of it, such that it's gone again in only a matter of a few days? That renders yet another "feature" completely useless. After a while, you reach a point where you're having to shrug and say "oh, well" to far too many things that don't work in the way in which they are intended.
The hill descent is another great feature...when it works, but there is clearly some wonkiness with activating it that I have yet to decipher. The usual scenario for me is getting the warning that I need to slow to less than 20 mph for that feature to work...usually when I'm already doing about 15 mph. So I usually wind up dragging the brake waiting for it to "catch," and by the time it collects its thoughts, I'm at the bottom of the hill, anyway. I'm not sure what's up with it, but evidently it's okay to futz with all that while the vehicle is moving, but not use most navigation features. In this particular case, though, I'm not entirely convinced it's not just operator error on my part. Maybe I need to come to a complete stop first, or something...
And would it be so hard to keep the daylight sensor active in accessory mode so your retinas don't get burned out by a suddenly brightening display when you're stopped in the car at night?
Also, I wish they had designed a more-easily-accessible play/pause button into the steering wheel controls, so you don't have to fumble with the touchscreen, especially since they (selectively) seem to want to minimize such screen tapping while driving.
Anyway, as I said, I do really love my Explorer -- really. I sincerely worried about coming off like an old grump here, but these things I've listed are only as frustrating as they are because I love the vehicle so much, and they seem eminently avoidable.
Anyone have any thoughts, similar experiences, or workarounds for these things?
I look forward to chatting with the crowd here in the future, and maybe gleaning some wisdom from Explorer vets.
Be safe out there.
First poster, here, so "hi." Been browsing around for a bit, and it seems like a nice community you have here. I've been concentrating my reading/searching mostly around Sync 3 topics, getting a sense of what the general vibe is. I'm a bit over a year with my XLT, and while I am in love with it, I've gotta say, the Sync 3 execution just does not impress me very much at all. I'm very sensitive to coming out of the gate negatively in my very first post here, but truth be told, it's the niggling issues I've had with the vehicle's tech that has often driven me crazy and finally got me browsing these forums in the first place.
I'm not sure if I'm encouraged or alarmed that I thus far haven't found many similar complaints here, but I'm still reading. Some things seem like "issues," while others just seem to be design decisions I don't particularly agree with.
Here are a few recurring things I have been experiencing, in no particular order:
The Blue Tooth is not stable at all, and drops often, regardless of which/whose device is connected to it. Oddly, directly jacking in with a cable is somehow actually *less* stable than Blue Tooth. Devices regularly just stop playing media, won't restart, and the only way to get them breathing again is to unplug the cable and reconnect. Trying different cables never resolves the behavior. At least once a month, the audio system just vapor-locks entirely and won't do anything until the vehicle is shut off and restarted. That's great when it happens at the beginning of my typical hour-long commutes.
Lately, in the past few weeks, all of the "smart" USB slots will frequently just vanish from the display, and not recognize anything plugged into them at all -- once again -- until the vehicle is restarted, and sometimes even doing that doesn't work the first time.
The GPS can be similarly flaky. Yesterday morning, I got the Ghostbusters "no GPS signal" icon about ten miles into a road-trip, and it failed to reacquire a signal for the ensuing 75 miles, often being as far as five miles off, showing us following railroad tracks, cutting through people's yards, and at one point apparently motor-boating across the middle of Lake Winnipesaukee. All the while, my Waze fallback on my phone chugged along without issue or loss of signal.
Related to the GPS, it's maddening how much functionality is hobbled when the vehicle is moving, including (most glaringly) the way the keyboard is greyed out. Come on, guys, really? I usually have adult passengers in the car with me, and they can't use any of the functionality because Ford evidently insists on being more worried about deflecting liability than they are with permitting reasonable usage. The airbag can tell when there's a butt in the passenger seat; why can't the GPS? There's no reason one of my teenaged kids or adult girlfriend shouldn't be able to search, program, connect a Blue Tooth device, or use Travel Link. So someone winds up just using their cell phone anyway, to accomplish the same tasks.
And please, can we stop with the constant reminders/admonishments to "obey traffic laws," etc. Every. Single. Time. I. Begin. A. Route. Who is this warning for? Anyone who actually needs to actively be reminded by their car to not drive like a jerk should probably hear that warning as soon as they start the engine or put it in gear, not when they first fire up the GPS.
One of Sync 3 and Travel Link's favorite tricks is to just forget certain things they have been told time and time again. It forgets little things like my saved sports teams and "weather places" over and over again. Big deal? Nah. But in all fairness, they're features that are *supposed* to work, and yet I have finally just chalked it up to poor implementation and for the most part pretty much just ceased using them altogether. But the one comparable malfunction(?) that is mind boggling to me is the way the vehicle constantly erases the emergency contact info in the 911 assist "feature." Again, am I losing sleep over that? Of course not. But what gives? What is the point of going to the trouble of inputting emergency contacts if there is zero persistence for any of it, such that it's gone again in only a matter of a few days? That renders yet another "feature" completely useless. After a while, you reach a point where you're having to shrug and say "oh, well" to far too many things that don't work in the way in which they are intended.
The hill descent is another great feature...when it works, but there is clearly some wonkiness with activating it that I have yet to decipher. The usual scenario for me is getting the warning that I need to slow to less than 20 mph for that feature to work...usually when I'm already doing about 15 mph. So I usually wind up dragging the brake waiting for it to "catch," and by the time it collects its thoughts, I'm at the bottom of the hill, anyway. I'm not sure what's up with it, but evidently it's okay to futz with all that while the vehicle is moving, but not use most navigation features. In this particular case, though, I'm not entirely convinced it's not just operator error on my part. Maybe I need to come to a complete stop first, or something...
And would it be so hard to keep the daylight sensor active in accessory mode so your retinas don't get burned out by a suddenly brightening display when you're stopped in the car at night?
Also, I wish they had designed a more-easily-accessible play/pause button into the steering wheel controls, so you don't have to fumble with the touchscreen, especially since they (selectively) seem to want to minimize such screen tapping while driving.
Anyway, as I said, I do really love my Explorer -- really. I sincerely worried about coming off like an old grump here, but these things I've listed are only as frustrating as they are because I love the vehicle so much, and they seem eminently avoidable.
Anyone have any thoughts, similar experiences, or workarounds for these things?
I look forward to chatting with the crowd here in the future, and maybe gleaning some wisdom from Explorer vets.
Be safe out there.
I have had this happen but not to the point where it bothers me. There is a brightness control for the dash display and I believe for the Sync 3 screen as well. Have you tried turning it down a little?
