PSA Follow-Up -- How to go "Dark Mode" Ford Transit Connect 2015 XL

[DanDweller]

Ok, I went down the rabbit hole so you don't have to (for anyone looking at getting a 2015 XL model of the Ford Transit Connect).  There is no firmware update to be able to have the dealer reprogram the body control module in order to avoid the exterior running lights coming on every time a door is open, like there is with the 2017 model (and I don't know which other years).  And the integrated door switch does not allow an easy fix right there at the door as on older cars by bypassing the switch.  What you have to do is access the wiring harness that receives all the wires coming from all the door switches and connects to the body control module and which is found by the fuse box behind the glove compartment.  A mechanic helped my by printing off a schematic, and then I snipped five different color-coded wires (for five doors) a few inches back from where they come out of the harness.  Then I wired those five wires coming out of the harness (which connects to the control module) together and permanently grounded them to the car (there was already an empty bolt hole conveniently in the metal  a few inches away).  Since the door switches work by being grounded when the latch is shut and ungrounded when the latch is open, the control module now thinks the doors are always shut and those damn lights stay off except for when I choose to have them on by turning the running lights knob on the dash to the on position, like a normal car (or how a normal car used to be).  The wires coming from the doors are now just dead wires.  The keyless entry/power locks still work--different circuit. 

Now if I could just figure out how to disable the feature which makes the doors automatically lock after being closed for a minute....   Since the module now always thinks the doors are shut, that feature is likely to be even more of a pain in the ass.  (Did I mention I do not like excessive, pointless, overcomplicating automation?)  

Also, although in the long run, with the conversion, I will be disabling the cargo light and adding my own LED lights,  for now it is needed to have light on in the back while I am working on the conversion.  But opening the doors was the only way Ford provided me to turn that cargo light on and off (though annoyingly on a timer that made the light go off after ten minutes of the door being open so that I had to close and then reopen a door every ten minutes).  Now that I disabled the door switches, I can't turn it on and off by opening and closing the doors.  If I want to use the light, I'll have to turn the key to the on position then off again every minute (the light stays on for a minute that way), or wire a switch into the ground wire that I installed going to the control module behind the glove box (still, every time I flip the switch, that will give me only about 10 minutes and then the timer makes the light go off), or wire the light directly to the drive battery (I don't have a coach battery yet).  

Here is my new rendering of FORD:
Fail On Research and Design

Drives nice though.

 

[Trebor English]

My 1999 Ford Windstar has similar "Fail On Research and Design" features.  Opening or closing a door starts or restarts a 30 minute cycle that has 4 quarter amp relay coils energized.  What I have done is added a battery disconnect to keep the tiny starter battery from going dead.  Changing incandescent bulbs to LEDs was a waste of money as the inside lights don't work disconnected.  

Now my solar panel keeps the battery charged.  The inside lights still don't work when disconnected.  The battery still gets disconnected.  Opening a door, besides killing the battery 30 minutes at a time, also flashes the headlights.  

It seems that at every turn there is another issue.  I think the only solution is to disconnect the battery from all of the van wiring.  

Why does Ford do this?

 

[highdesertranger]

over engineering it's not just Ford. everyone is on the band wagon. the German's have been on it since before WWII. highdesertranger

 

[DanDweller]

Wow, what a pain regarding the Windstar!

Yeah, I'm afraid the technological hubris goes beyond Ford, and is in fact at the very heart of humanity's pathology. Icarus and the wax wings come to mind as I ponder how each generation sees too much change too fast, undermining any societal stability. I'm no Luddite, but I also am against revving up the engine RPMs destructively.

 

[StarEcho]

I found the same problem with my 2016 Ford F250. No way to turn off the not courteous courtesy lights.  The dealer tells me that if the trim was lariat there is a switch but the lowly xlt, nope.  The dealer also tells me that they are "not allowed" to flash the police dark mode to civilians and that it is determined by vin number.  Which I call bs to, but it doesn't matter what I think,  they won't do it.

The dealer did show me the fuse to pull,  and that works.  Sort off.  No courtesy lights but also no lights inside period without reinserting the fuse.  Which is a real pain because they used the low profile mini fuses and the fuse box is on the passenger door footwell.  It's difficult to see the fuses.  

The dealer won't give me a schematic or show me what wire in the wiring harness does the lights and cartoys would be happy to help spending several hours of installation time finding that wire...

What I'm going to do is add a fuse bypass switch, which is basically put a dummy fuse in the fuse holder attached to an inline fuse holder on one side of a switch and a wire back to the dummy fuse on the other side of the switch.  Blue Ox makes an expensive one that people who tow cars can use to turn off fuse in car without having to pull the fuse.

[img=600x400]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S...6415da72._CR0,0,350,175_PT0_SX350__.png[/img]


The picture above is from amazon.  From a fuse socket connector kit.  Can't get just the one connector (what I think of as a dummy fuse or fuse placeholder)

Anyway my point of posting is to maybe help someone with my skill level.  I don't have the skill to find the proper wire to add the switch there so this is the best I can do.

 

[DanDweller]

StarEcho, sounds like a good solution. My original idea was to find the fuse and do the same thing, but on my model it is integrated into the body control module, inqccessible.

 

[JD GUMBEE]

Dan, why not run two small switches mounted where you like that would put those wires into either "dark mode" or "normal mode?"
Would that not provide the best of both worlds??

Also...if you wanted to, I could contact my ham radio buddy here who made a working-cheap light activated switch/relay.
When the sun is out, it would be "normal mode" all by itself. Sun goes down...it would enter "dark mode."
The sensor for it is a 1/8 inch round thing that looks like a pencil eraser...but made of glass.

Just an idea. At least you would never forget the thing and have to flip the switches???...???

 

[Trebor English]

StarEcho, sounds like a good solution.  My original idea was to find the fuse and do the same thing, but on my model it is integrated into the body control module, inqccessible.

In the Windstar there is the rear body module and the front.  They talk to each other over the network.  Front doors connect  to the front module, rear doors connect to the rear.  The rear lights, inside and outside, connect to the rear module.  Front inside lights, head lights, horn, etc connect to the front body module.  Opening a rear door causes the headlights to flash.  Two of the 4 relays that power all this stuff are controlled by the front module, two are controlled by the rear.  

The only single point to disconnect is the battery.  My suggestion for your Transit Connect is to figure out what you really want to keep working when the battery is disconnected.  I have taken the direction you are using.  Try to keep it all and just disable what is a problem.  As you have found, each bypass of one issue just gets you to the next issue.  The only thing that bugs me now is that the radio clock is always wrong after disconnecting the battery.  The radio remembers the frequencies of the stations it was set to just not the time or which station was being played.

 

[JD GUMBEE]

PS...
THANK YOU for sharing this thread.

Many people post here, get a ton of ideas...and then when they figure out their issue...the vanish without a word about it.

Maybe a mod could link this thread at the end of the other one and close it...???
(This is likely to be an issue for a while. TC's are out there for the next ten years or so...)

 

[tx2sturgis]

When the sun is out, it would be "normal mode" all by itself. Sun goes down...it would enter "dark mode."
The sensor for it is a 1/8 inch round thing that looks like a pencil eraser...but made of glass.

Just an idea. At least you would never forget the thing and have to flip the switches???...???

If the OP installs a solar panel and solar controller (and battery of course) with daytime-nighttime load control, it would only require a small (low current) 12v relay wired to the load output to 'invert' the control signal. Reed relays (and DIP relays) use very low current.

When the panels are receiving sunlight (daytime mode) the relay will be off, but the N.C. terminals will be closed. Using the N.C. terminals would engage the ground on the desired door switch wire.

At night, when all the dark is 'shining'...the relay coil would engage, and the relay contacts will open (on the N.C. terminals). This would open the circuit so dark mode is now active.

There would need to be an 'override' switch to change the operation when desired.

Ah....the future complexities baffle the mind. Ford and the K.I.S.S. principle are apparently strangers to each other.

:s

 

[JD GUMBEE]

Ford and the K.I.S.S. principle are apparently strangers to each other.

This has been their main issue since the introduction of the OHC V8's in vans and trucks.
To be fair though, every maker is loaded with it.
Ford just happens to spread new on top of previously screwed up..."new" before they first fixed the broken new "new."

Still, all that said, were I in the market for a cube mini, TC would still be on my short list.
Instinct says "RUN AWAY" to me...but others with large numbers of them tend to be pleased.
They run pretty damned close to other options in cost per mile.
(Wish they made a model 24 inches longer, though.)

 

[Doubleone]

Great work-around!

 

[DanDweller]

Great ideas. Makes me wonder what else the solar switch could control for me. I could see using it to turn the vent fan off once its dark and cooler outside--if I'm not going to be around to do it myself--and save the batteries. Will be using the vent fan pretty non-stop.

I don't ever want the van not to be in dark mode, ie, I don't ever want the doors controlling my interior or exterior lights. Again, the exterior running lights I can control normally with the standard dash switch. But I do need to decouple the cargo light from the inane circuit and install a simple switch so I can temporarily use it until my rear battery and LEDs are installed. For that, I think I just need to find where it's wire connects to whatever timer it's on--presumably at or near the control module, downstream from the now permanently grounded door-switch ground-wires--
and then bypass that somehow. Regarding its original setup, I wonder if, when the timer or door switches result in the cargo light going on or off, it is done by the ground being connected/disconnected (as is the case with how the door switches themselves work when triggering the control module sensor) or would it be the that the positive line with voltage is what is being connected/disconnected?

If I recall correctly from when I first started looking at my door, one of the five wires in each of the sliding doors always has voltage, so maybe I can rig the light directly to that lead for now--if the other idea doesn't work--and with a switch.

Today I noticed the doors did not automatically lock themselves, so no problem there.

I'll post an update about what I find out.

 

[DanDweller]

Cargo light problem solved!  I popped the cargo light out to look at it and tested the two wires that go to it with a voltmeter.  In doing that, I found that they aren't simply positive and ground but both have voltage, and there is an integrated circuit in the cargo light (must be the timer?). Even though there is voltage, the cargo light doesn't just come on; it needs to be told to come on with the fancy-schmancy control module mumbo jumbo, however that works.   Screw all that!  So I went to the auto parts store and just got a new, and simple, LED light to install in its place, and I also grabbed a switch.  The new LED light I simply screwed on top of the original LED's plastic, pop-in holder so I that I wouldn't have to drill any new holes in the metal of the car. (Again, this is a temporary fix to have light in here while designing and working on the conversion. When I install a coach battery and a ceiling, I'll decide where to put my permanent LEDs.) For mounting the little toggle switch, at about a foot below the light--conveniently right at arms reach if you are standing outside reaching in through the sliding door--the metal body had a hole exactly the right size for the switch to mount to.  Another foot below that is where another electronic control module is grounded, so I just grounded my light there on the existing bolt.  Now the light comes on when I want it to and is not controlled by doors.  And the exterior running lights are also controlled by me, a sentient being, not by dumb doors.  


I'm sure someone smarter than me could figure out a way to do it using the existing cargo light, and doing a snip-snip or snip-and-ground or something up by the body control module under the glove box, but this works great and is for beginners.


I would post a picture, but figuring out how to resize pics so that they will upload is a project for another day.  I don't tend to use a computer; this is all from a cell phone.  Tried an app once, didn't get anywhere.  Anyway, I think there's enough info in this thread for someone to figure out how to go dark mode.  


One more thing to add is that the wires I cut and grounded a few inches from the harness that goes into the body control module behind the glove box were the following:

1) Rear passenger side, pin#25, yellow wire
2) Rear driver side, pin#44, green wire
3) Driver's door, pin#45, green with violet stripe
4) Passenger front door, pin#46, white wire
5) Rear cargo door, pin#47, yellow with orange stripe

The harness I'm talking about is the one that connects to the control module (a square white box behind the glove box) on its top left corner and, out of the six or seven harnesses/connectors, it is the one that has the highest number of wires connected to it (around forty wires).

 

[DanDweller]

To clarify: I said both the wires going to the original cargo light had voltage. One measured 3.5v, the other measured 12v--that's the one I connected to. The other wire I left in the connector harness and also wrapped some electrical tape over it just in case.

The light stops getting voltage around maybe half an hour to 45 minutes after turning the key off. I think it might stay on indefinitely if the key is turned to the radio-on position, but I didn't time it, and now it's too late and I'm too tired to sit here another half hour or so and check it. Anyway, it's long enough not to be a nuisance.

 

[BinDerSmokDat]

How dare Ford introduce features that are incompatible with the desires of the 0.05% of customers who want to live in a tiny van!
I'm shocked, outraged and irate at their lack of consideration.

 

[Tim_Gold_Van]

DanDweller,
I know this is a couple years old so I hope you receive this.  I own a 2014 Transit Connect XLT.  I would like to do the same thing to my van with respect to rewiring.  Is there anyway to could share that schematic with me?  I\'d appreciate it. -TimDanDweller

 

[maki2]

Oh wait, they are designing those lights for idiots like myself who once in a while turn on the tailgate light switch to the stay on position and then forget to turn it back off. More complaints about that happening than there are about the light coming on when you open the door. Sorry folks but the larger percent of idiots rule these things. Engineers do what they are asked to do by the people in marketing. Their job is not to make the decisions, their job is to make it complex enough to justify asking for a raise because when it goes wrong the shop mechanics at the dealers can charge more to fix it.