New Owner Questions

[aces_up]

Hey all, these forums have been very helpful so far but I haven't been able to find an answer to the following questions:

1. I've been taking the car to a touch free car wash but I chose an unlimited package that includes an undercarriage wash. Is this safe to be blasting the battery on the way in to the car wash bay? I mean I assume it gets dirty under there after a while and it would need to be cleaned at some point any way. I just don't want to be doing something to hurt the car.

2. I've found no benefit in the free AT&T wifi trial. It usually just connects to my Galaxy phone and launches Android Auto and uses my phone's signal. Whenever I've tried to connect to the vehicles hotspot, my phone says connected with no internet. Has anyone continued this ATT service beyond the trial?

3. After the car wash, I dry the car down with a super soft microfiber towel. When I open the trunk to get the towel, I notice quite a bit of water in the jams (no water in the trunk itself, just the jams on the outside of the rubber seal). If I didn't manually open the trunk and dry it off, I would expect that standing water in there to start stinking. Not a huge deal but it is annoying that I have to dry that down every time I hit the car wash.

4. The drivers side seat belt seems to get wedged on a perpendicular angle between the side and the seat when it's taken off. So when you go to grab the seat belt the next time, it rubs against the plastic side of the car and I now have some scuff marks there from it rubbing so often. Has anyone experienced this?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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[macchiaz-o]

Is this safe to be blasting the battery on the way in to the car wash bay?

Yes.

Has anyone continued this ATT service beyond the trial?

No. I've never even activated the trial. I have no use for it.

When I open the trunk to get the towel, I notice quite a bit of water in the jams (no water in the trunk itself, just the jams on the outside of the rubber seal).

Same. Water also collects in the spaces below/around the tail lights, and in the lower lip of the tail gate glass. I try to use towels to soak up the excess water from those areas. It takes a lot of patience.

The drivers side seat belt seems to get wedged on a perpendicular angle between the side and the seat when it's taken off. So when you go to grab the seat belt the next time, it rubs against the plastic side of the car and I now have some scuff marks there from it rubbing so often. Has anyone experienced this?

The belt buckle gets stuck in that spot sometimes. The clearances are just a little bit too tight. I haven't noticed scuff marks but I'm also never going to go looking for them.

 

[Kabish]

4. The drivers side seat belt seems to get wedged on a perpendicular angle between the side and the seat when it's taken off. So when you go to grab the seat belt the next time, it rubs against the plastic side of the car

My F150 did the exact same thing, drove me NUTS! Any small noise in my car that is not normal triggers me. When the seat belt gets to that angle it taps against the plastic. My daughter was in the car the other day and was rubbing her headset band with her thumb, was driving me crazy trying to figure out what it was till I tracked it down to her lol

The other thing that is extremely annoying is middle back set belt. Try putting down all your windows and drive faster than say 40ish. That middle seat belt will start slapping the shit out of your seat. Even with just the two front windows down I've had it do it, although its not as frequent. I refuse to drive the car with all the windows down.

 

[aces_up]

My F150 did the exact same thing, drove me NUTS! Any small noise in my car that is not normal triggers me. When the seat belt gets to that angle it taps against the plastic. My daughter was in the car the other day and was rubbing her headset band with her thumb, was driving me crazy trying to figure out what it was till I tracked it down to her lol

The other thing that is extremely annoying is middle back set belt. Try putting down all your windows and drive faster than say 40ish. That middle seat belt will start slapping the shit out of your seat. Even with just the two front windows down I've had it do it, although its not as frequent. I refuse to drive the car with all the windows down.

Thanks, I'm the same way. Sometimes my kids will have some weird game going on their phone and it will make a strange noise. Me = "WHAT IS THAT NOISE!!!??" Any way, I may have to roll the windows down and floor it just to see if my back middle belt flaps. I do know if my kid puts down his window in the back, the air flutter in the car (helicopter sound) is the strongest I've ever heard / felt.

 

[aces_up]

Yes.



No. I've never even activated the trial. I have no use for it.



Same. Water also collects in the spaces below/around the tail lights, and in the lower lip of the tail gate glass. I try to use towels to soak up the excess water from those areas. It takes a lot of patience.



The belt buckle gets stuck in that spot sometimes. The clearances are just a little bit too tight. I haven't noticed scuff marks but I'm also never going to go looking for them.

Thank you, glad to know it's not just me that has noticed the water. Other answers were helpful, appreciate it.

 

[John_C]

2. I've found no benefit in the free AT&T wifi trial. It usually just connects to my Galaxy phone and launches Android Auto and uses my phone's signal. Whenever I've tried to connect to the vehicles hotspot, my phone says connected with no internet. Has anyone continued this ATT service beyond the trial?

Hi there @aces_up and welcome to the perpetual funland that is Mach-E ownership

The only first-hand experience I have with any of your questions is the one about AT&T. I have an AT&T data plan for my iPad (the only Apple device I own) and have had great success with it, so I bought the AT&T plan for the Mach-E as well. I use it all the time, and I've found the connectivity to be much more reliable than my phone + Android Auto (I have a Google Pixel 4a 5G on Google Fi).

I stopped using Android Auto about 2 weeks into my Mach-E ownership. I found the interface between my phone and the media system was completely flaky. So I'm waiting until the full transition to Android Automotive happens down the road. Thus, as of now, I'm using the Ford Sync & AT&T system for media / navigation etc. Great success with it so far. Very happy to be using it and keeping Android Auto on the side for now.

 

[aces_up]

Hi there @aces_up and welcome to the perpetual funland that is Mach-E ownership

The only first-hand experience I have with any of your questions is the one about AT&T. I have an AT&T data plan for my iPad (the only Apple device I own) and have had great success with it, so I bought the AT&T plan for the Mach-E as well. I use it all the time, and I've found the connectivity to be much more reliable than my phone + Android Auto (I have a Google Pixel 4a 5G on Google Fi).

I stopped using Android Auto about 2 weeks into my Mach-E ownership. I found the interface between my phone and the media system was completely flaky. So I'm waiting until the full transition to Android Automotive happens down the road. Thus, as of now, I'm using the Ford Sync & AT&T system for media / navigation etc. Great success with it so far. Very happy to be using it and keeping Android Auto on the side for now.

Thanks for that input, appreciate it! I'm just curious, if your phone isn't part of the equation, what kind of media do you get on the Mach-E screen with the AT&T connectivity? Navigation works independently from the AT&T service. I was really hoping that we could watch some streaming apps like Netflix, as Tesla allows it's users to do. I have the AT&T trial active but I don't really see what I'd be losing when the trial ends.

 

[John_C]

Thanks for that input, appreciate it! I'm just curious, if your phone isn't part of the equation, what kind of media do you get on the Mach-E screen with the AT&T connectivity? Navigation works independently from the AT&T service. I was really hoping that we could watch some streaming apps like Netflix, as Tesla allows it's users to do. I have the AT&T trial active but I don't really see what I'd be losing when the trial ends.

Sorry--- I should have been clearer on this. I do use my phone for media, but I only use the Ford-to-phone Ford Sync functionality and not Android Auto. This has proven to be 99 percent trouble-free compared to trying to use the Android Auto app. Among other issues, Android Auto has very bad Bluetooth reliability with the Ford media system for some reason.

Hope this helps...

 

[timbop]

Sorry--- I should have been clearer on this. I do use my phone for media, but I only use the Ford-to-phone Ford Sync functionality and not Android Auto. This has proven to be 99 percent trouble-free compared to trying to use the Android Auto app. Among other issues, Android Auto has very bad Bluetooth reliability with the Ford media system for some reason.

Hope this helps...

That might be phone dependent, I guess. My pixel 5 is stellar with my Mach E over AA with Waze and media like overdrive (audio books) or podcast addict running. I do not have PaaK configured, though.

 

[LNFitz]

Hi there @aces_up and welcome to the perpetual funland that is Mach-E ownership

The only first-hand experience I have with any of your questions is the one about AT&T. I have an AT&T data plan for my iPad (the only Apple device I own) and have had great success with it, so I bought the AT&T plan for the Mach-E as well. I use it all the time, and I've found the connectivity to be much more reliable than my phone + Android Auto (I have a Google Pixel 4a 5G on Google Fi).

I stopped using Android Auto about 2 weeks into my Mach-E ownership. I found the interface between my phone and the media system was completely flaky. So I'm waiting until the full transition to Android Automotive happens down the road. Thus, as of now, I'm using the Ford Sync & AT&T system for media / navigation etc. Great success with it so far. Very happy to be using it and keeping Android Auto on the side for now.

Good to see this comment about Android Auto as my streaming, no matter what service, is pretty bumpy. Will try the ATT wifi option but spend quite a bit of my time in rural areas and have kept away from ATT because of coverage. Maybe it has improved.

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