jhawkr

It's happened twice now. Just rolling down the road in my 2010 GT listening to satellite radio and minding my own business when SYNC cuts in and asks me if I want to run a Vehicle Health report. The last time, it had only been a couple of days since I had run one. And it makes no sense to ask when I'm driving because you have to be sitting still to do it. When I do run a report it says everything is fine. I've had no other issues. Anyone else have SYNC with a mind of its own?

Norm Peterson

Exactly what does it check when you make it run the check? Have you changed anything that it might be monitoring since? I think I have seen this mentioned before, but I have no idea when or where.


Now with your above recent experience in mind, remind me again how this extra layer of technology is a good thing, when all you want to do is just drive the damn car????


Norm

jhawkr

The car is totally stock, totally unchanged. It usually does a total system check and even checks windshield wiper fluid level. It kind of a more advanced "Check Engine Soon" thing except you normally decide when to run the report. It uploads the results and you can access them on-line. It's not hurting anything by asking me but it's a different question than it normally asks. Usually it just says "Please run a vehicle health report soon". The last 2 times it has asked "Did you want to run a vehicle health report". The thing is, I was just driving normally and don't know why it asked me.

As to whether or not technology is good or not, I think it is. For instance, variable cam timing. Not possible without computers and advanced technology. Enables car to run on regular gas and get near 25mpg and still run high 13's at the track on premium without ever touching the engine.

wilkinda

I believe there is a way to change the interval on when to run the report or to turn off notifications / request.

tekzilla41

FYI, if you run it with the ebrake on the report shows a brake system fault. My guess is since the ebrake lights the brake light on the dash it just assumes there is an issue since that is the same light that would illuminate if you actually had a brake issue.

STANGmole

You can turn the prompts off in the settings (set it to NEVER run) which is highly recommeded since the Vehicle Health Reports are pretty-much useless anyway.

jhawkr

I think they are pretty much useless except that maybe there is a permanent digital record of operating parameters @ Ford. But if I can turn the request off, I will.

Norm Peterson

Some technology is good. But too much is, well, . . . just too much.

I could probably live with it if it could never ever run on some internal schedule of its own (or bring its own bugs to the table - keep in mind that SYNC is a Microsoft product). To have such a tool available might be nice. But I'd need for it to stay in its toolbox until I want to use it (which could be at any interval up to and including 'never'). If my torque wrench started pestering me by following me around the car because it thought I should check lug nut torque - I'd probably throw it away.

Along with what some people view as 'convenience', these new things that aren't needed in order to actually drive the car also bring needless complexity, and with complexity can come unexpected results (such as what you are experiencing here). If you've ever try to build "error-trapping" into a spreadsheet macro application, you'd have found that there can be a near-endless supply of unanticipated conditions, and that you can trigger messages that should be totally unrelated to the actual 'fault'.

Technology in the engine control area is not the same thing. That is a basic layer of technology with the primary job of making the engine run cleanly and efficiently while making good power, and it doesn't get in your face about what it thinks you should be doing unless it has good reason to believe that something really is amiss.

FWIW, I'd far rather tune fuel and ignition maps than open up carburetors and distributors mechanically, and like you say there are things that can be done via electronic control that would be difficult to accomplish either purely mechanically or by constant direct operator action. Way back when - make that in my grandfather's day - ignition advance was done by the driver (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_T). I wouldn't be surprised if you'd gain a better understanding of an engine's octane requirement at any given instant if you still had to do that. But in today's traffic you'd never be able to keep up with it even if you were willing to put that much effort into it in the first place.


Norm

jhawkr

I suppose we could offer differing opinions of what is good technology and what is not. But, that would just be opinion and you know what those are like. (Hint: Everyone has one). I could have bought a bottom-of-the-line Corolla for a lot less money that would get me around just fine. But, that wasn't quite the point of buying what I bought.

I was just trying to see if anyone else has experience my issue or one like it to ascertain whether or not it is "normal behavior" or maybe a glitch. I'll bring it up at my next scheduled maintenance visit. The electronics package is the sole reason I bought full Ford extended warranty to 84 months. After that, it's someone else's problem, or not...

potman

Thanks for confirming this for me. First time I ran a report the car was parked and it showed a brake issue. I hoped that this was what it was.

As far a the SYNC...it's never come on unbidden at all for me. But it's very good at finding songs on my nano....