I am working on installing an explorer overhead console into a ford escort. The one I have has green colored display on it. My wife wants to change the instrument cluster colors to blue, does anyone on here know what years had the blue clusters and instruments vs the green ones? Google isnt helping on this one as all it shows me is modified guages or EL overlay kits which will never tell me what stock was.
Isn’t it possible to just change the light bulbs to a different color? I have the 2020 model where they give you a color palette on the Infotainment screen. They say there are thousands of colors to choose from, and I suppose there are, but it’s just a palette where you have standard colors and then as you move the cursor around, there are slightly different shades of all colors. I guess that makes thousands. I took mine and picked red, and then moved it to the deepest red I could find without getting into a different color. It matches my airplane interior at night, which means it helps to maintain wide open pupils at night so you can see more clearly in the dark. One neat option these SUVs come with is automatic high beam headlights bright to normal and back. When I bought the car, I didn’t care about that and felt it was useless. I was wrong!! I wouldn’t buy another car without this feature again! I no longer worry about turning high beams on or off. The car does it automatically and it makes the adjustment before I even have time to do it myself. It’s THAT good. And it’s completely silent. I think back to previous Fords I’ve owned in he 80s with that round, metal button on the left side of the driver’s floorboard. You pushed it with your foot and “CLUNK!”, you turned the high beams on or off. The advance in today’s modern cars is nothing short of amazing!! The one negative I guess I can say about all of these hi-tech gizmos is that some are a bit too complex to remember. My previous car was an Infiniti QX60 and there were things it did that I never learned. The owner’s manual was definitely not written by someone with English as their primary language. (And if I’m wrong and it was, then WOW, they wrote one of the worst manuals ever.)
Here’s an example if you want to look at your 2020 Explorer manual:
First, assume that you know nothing about engines because you’re not a mechanic and you’re not a person who likes to tinker around under the hood. Let’s say your average housewife, or in my case, your average 50-something who used to tear apart engines and put them back together again for fun. I did that up until roughly 1989 when my spare time completely disappeared due to a promotion and heavy life/death Dr idioms every day as part of my job. Messing with engines was once a simple thing if you wanted to learn from a friend. But these days, forget it. You’re basically driving a computer on wheels. Even the turn signal relay clicking sound we hear is computer generated because the new solid state equipment does not have old-fashioned relays that make noise when they blink. So the mouse you hear when you put in your turn signal is coming out of a speaker. Want to try it for yourself? Do this somewhere safe, like a big empty parking lot on a weekend. Put your car in Drive, now put on a turn signal (left or right, it doesn’t matter), now start driving away with your seat belt off or a door not closed all the way. You will notice immediately that the turn signal sound turns off. The warning of your seat belt off is what you’ll hear instead. Now, put your belt on as you’re driving and the warning chim stops and suddenly, “click-click, click-click”, your turn signal makes a sound again. It’s all electronic coming through your speakers.
And for owners of the New Explorer ST (2020 and newer), find a safe location where you can really punch it from a stopped position. Keep all windows closed. The sound you hear is awesome!!! That roar of that mega-fast engine is……..fake. It’s easy to prove to yourself. Just do the same thing again, but put your driver’s window all the way down. Now when you punch it, put your head a little bit out the window and listen. That roar is gone and it just sounds like a normal engine.
I wonder if that’s done on the Limited? Anybody know? That 2.4 inline 4 turbo is like a little rocket ship when in Sport mode. It feels just like an ST to me. Inside the car it sounds very nice, but when that little four-banger is idling, to me it sounds like a riding mower if you get out and listen to the exhaust.
I never finished my Owner’s Manual quiz because I got off-topic. My apologies. I really enjoy talking cars, but specifically my new Explorer. (I still call it new even though I’m 2 ½ weeks away from owning it for a year. I got COVID right after I bought it—literally the next day. That turned into pneumonia and the doctor said I was minutes from passing away if I didn’t call 911 when I did. It’s well-known in the first responder industry that we are our own worst enemies. Cops, firefighters, paramedics, nurses, doctors, etc. We all rarely follow the advice we give because we all have this crazy sense of an inability to be sick. To get shot or run over by a suspect vehicle, yes. But something as boring as being sick at home in your underwear and t-shirt? Nope. We think we can handle it, and we are all wrong and we k is it. I said something so stupid to the fire crew that arrived here first. I said, “I’m so sorry to wake you up and make you get out of bed. I feel so bad for calling you”. Do you know how many people have said that to me over the years?? And my reply was always the same: “Hey, don’t be sorry. This is why we’re here. We are paid to do exactly what we are doing. It’s no big deal and I’m glad you called us”.
And the fire Captain’s reply to me was the exact same thing that I had said so many times. It’s weird when the roles are reversed. And after years of taking people to hospitals and doing CPR in an ambulance or driving it there or whatever, that was my first time in the back of an ambulance as a patient. Talk about weird! That whole night was bizarre but they did save my life, literally. So I have a little more pep in my step now and I appreciate people and things more than ever. It’s something to think about if this has never happened to you, just think if you weren’t here tomorrow, how would things/people around you react? I know this has nothing to do with Ford Explorers, but it’s an invaluable life lesson. Treat each day as a gift, treat others with kindness, and try to do one or two random acts of kindness a week. You’ll be amazed at what you see, in a good way.
So, my question to folks who have no knowledge whatsoever about what’s under your hood, here is the big question:
Find your Explorer’s battery.
That’s it. Sounds pretty simple. If you know right off the bat where it is without looking, then this question is not for you. This little question is something I encountered and I could not find it!! I’m no fool, I had a career where being observant and seeing the small details kept me alive. But I couldn’t find the battery anywhere under the hood. So I turned to my 2020 Explorer Owner’s Manual that came with the vehicle, as required by Federal Statute. I looked up “battery” in the table of contents. It says stupid things and if I recall correctly, the solution to a dead battery was to try to jump start it. They give instructions on jumping it, however, nowhere in that #+%{%^ manual does it tell you where it is. No diagrams, no pictures, no drawings, NOTHING. Firs assumes that we know where it is. I don’t consider myself an idiot lol. I’ve made plenty of idiot mistakes over the years because I’m only human. But I couldn’t find it. I called the Ford dealership and talked to a Service Advisor. I asked him where it is located, and he said it’s under the car near the back, adjacent to the spare tire so that if there’s an impact, the tire will help prevent an explosion of the gases. No wonder I couldn’t find it! So I went back out to my car and as most of you already know——no battery. (That Service Advisor was gone when I had my car towed in 48 hours later. I asked where “Joe” (not his real name) was because I need to have a little discussion with him. I found out he had just been fired for severe lack of knowledge of the products, so he made up answers and gave lots of people wrong info.) He was also my advisor on my first visit the week before this when my new car was towed in the first time. (Car wouldn’t start—-just fast beeping and very fast headlight flashes). It turns out he didn’t put in a new battery like the paperwork said. They just charged it and put it back out for pickup. The third tow job is when they put in a new battery and that fixed everything. My lesson in all of this that might be useful to you guys is this: Take pictures of under the hood before you bring it in. Use a smart phone so that the date, time, and location are captured. I found out on the fourth visit that they did not do what the paperwork said. I was in there for a simple oil and filter change, which includes topping off all fluids and making sure tire air pressure is correct. I took before pics of everything, including the tire pressure measured cold in my garage after sitting overnight. They all measured 30 (and it matched the dashboard amounts as well!).
I picked up my car and specifically asked about fluid and tire pressures. He told me oh yes sir, that was all done. See? It’s right here in the paperwork. I said well s**t dude, I don care what the paperwork says. I care about what IS. So I showed him some pics on my phone and said, “I took these this morning before leaving to come here”. And I kept scrolling through all of them. He looked at me like, so what? I don’t care what it looked like before here. I said well, I’m not really being honest with you. Just as you’re not being honest with me. All of those pictures, if you look at the date and time at the top of every photo, we’re taken in the last 5 minutes just outside your door. And here’s a picture of the air pressure reading in the tires: 65 PSI on all four!! I then said, what are you people trying to do, kill me!!? If I had a blowout on the freeway, my beneficiaries will OWN this dealership and they will come after you personally in civil court, making sure my family receives a big chunk of every paycheck you ever receive. And they’ll take your house and cars. Is killing a customer and ruining your entire life worth what you did? You lied 100% to my face and you didn’t even crack a smile, knowing you were BS’ing me big time. I think you might be psychotic. You don’t belong here. Shortly thereafter I think he was let go. I might have the order of things m seed up because of all of the towing and other problems with my car. Fingers crossed that the bugs are worked out now. I know I could have reported all of this to BAR, but honestly, that guy was not worth turning my life upside-down.
Once again, I’m way off-topic. Sorry! So let’s see if anyone can find the battery on their 2020 or newer Ford Explorer with the 2.4 turbo engine. Please don’t ruin it for those who truly don’t know. I want them to see how difficult it is to find. The bonus is, once you know, you’ll be able to easily jump your car anytime with a little handheld power pack. They sell them in auto parts stores and online with Amazon. The little battery lasts a very long time in-between charges (1.5 years for me, and that’s with 2 jump starts for strangers at SFO (Airport). If I’m allowed to link to it, please let me know and I’ll show you what I mean. Prices are very cheap for what you get.
Happy Daytona 500 Day everyone!!
