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Hi all... New to the forum

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Location
NC
#1
Bought a used 2016 FiST back in Nov '20. So far it's been a very love/hate relationship πŸ˜‚

I absolutely love driving the car, but I have also had my share of issues, some of which I know many others have dealt with from my time poking around the forums. Just thought I'd share my issues/solutions in case they can help anyone else...

Obviously, the blend door actuator. This was an issue even on the test drive, but I was aware of this beforehand and not concerned. I haven't bothered to fix this yet.

My first major issue was my clutch pedal dropping to the floor, but so far that seems to have been remedied by adding some DOT4 to the reservoir. 🀞
(This was suggested by the transmission shop that I brought it to, they noticed immediately the reservoir looked low, potentially causing air to enter the system)

My second major issue was the driver door latch getting stuck in the open position, not allowing me to close the door. I noticed a small clicking sound from the handle when it happened and after disassembling the entire door and putting everything back together I believe the cable for the door latch had become disconnected from the interior handle. After putting everything back together it works like it should 🀞

My third major issue involved the battery clamps. I went to start the car and it tried and failed and then the electrics all went out. I waited, the electrics came back and I tried again, same thing. I remembered seeing some corrosion around one of the battery terminals that was there when I bought it and this turned out to be my problem. The ring going around my positive battery terminal was pretty severely corroded and I had to take it all apart, clean it all and then I actually had to use some copper wire to clamp the ring tight around the battery terminal because it was so corroded the bolt had nothing to grab anymore. PXL_20210218_040436480.jpg Eventually I will purchase a new ring to fit around that battery terminal.

My last major issue is ongoing, I have water getting in to the vehicle, seems to be around the rear hatch like most other people with this issue have experienced. I plan to check all the obvious places that other people have noted in the forums, but for right now I have been lucky...for the time being I have been able to park it under a roof. I will provide updates if/when I get the water issues solved.

If anyone in the Raleigh/Durham/chapel hill/carrborro area ever wants to meet up or needs any help working on their FiST, I'd be happy to lend a hand or offer what little knowledge I've gained. I came from the Subaru world (06 WRX), so I'm no stranger to dealing with car issues πŸ™„
 


Dpro

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#2
Welcome. Did you inspect this car before purchase. That battery looks terrible. How many miles are on the car? All of this sounds like bad maintenance on the part of the previous owner. Good luck and hope you. don’t have a lot of other problems..
 


M-Sport fan

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#3
That battery terminal pic above is enough motivation for me to keep on buying AGM batteries from now on, even considering how much costlier they are over most flooded lead acid deals. [wink]
 


OP
haansoolo
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Thread Starter #4
Welcome. Did you inspect this car before purchase. That battery looks terrible. How many miles are on the car? All of this sounds like bad maintenance on the part of the previous owner. Good luck and hope you. don’t have a lot of other problems..
Nah I didn't get it inspected like I should have. 🀷
It's at ~52k miles currently. I too suspect some poor maintenance
 


OP
haansoolo
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Thread Starter #5
That battery terminal pic above is enough motivation for me to keep on buying AGM batteries from now on, even considering how much costlier they are over most flooded lead acid deals. [wink]
Yeah I'll def be going that route after dealing with this. I always ran deep cycle batteries on my subie and had no issues whatsoever
 


OP
haansoolo
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Thread Starter #6
Oh...forgot to mention the low idle after refueling issue. Threw a P1450 code today that reminded me 🀦
 


XR650R

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Eerie
#7
Welcome! Just curious, was it a leased vehicle? That might explain the poor maintenance.
 


OP
haansoolo
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Thread Starter #8
Welcome! Just curious, was it a leased vehicle? That might explain the poor maintenance.
Not sure if it was leased. Bought it used from an Alfa/Maserati dealership
 


Intuit

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#10
That battery terminal pic above is enough motivation for me to keep on buying AGM batteries from now on, even considering how much costlier they are over most flooded lead acid deals. [wink]
Yip, N-E-V-E-R going back to the open vent design. OMG what a difference. Having a high refresh-rate volt meter plugged into the vehicle outlet, I can see the charging system has gotten sophisticated. It's not the on/off switch that it used to be in the old days. Maybe it was charging the Pb/Acid battery differently than the AGM, but I have no idea why that Motorcraft battery puked so much. Maybe all the tossing around we do in these has something to do with it?
 


Intuit

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#11
@haansoolo - Note, have plenty of time on hand after pulling up that battery tray. Ford seems to have a nasty habit of placing an unprotected ground wire connection beneath battery trays. If it is trashed, add a new one to augment the existing, rather than attempt R&R existing.

There is a computer attached to that battery tray. I just removed the entire tray with it attached. NOT damaging the connectors on the ECU is important and there are videos that cover that. Here's one example...
View: https://youtu.be/xnaZJClZedk?t=420
...and removing the crap he does is unnecessary. Just remove the obvious stuff.
 


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