LarryQW

Go to www.syncmyride.com Look here: http://www.syncmyride.com/Own/Modules/PageTools/ContactUs.aspx for messages and here: http://www.syncmyride.com/Own/Modules/PageTools/ContactInfo.aspx for phone and mail address Ford's SYNC software engineers often directly respond on the Owner to Owner forums there, using their own personal time. http://boards.synccommunity.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=fordsyncmb&listMode=0

I've never used my phone to navigate as I have the factory navigation by Ford/Pioneer. Yes, it's way more expensive than a Garmin or Google App, but it gives a much larger touch screen that's nicely integrated. For instance, it will lower the sound only on the front speakers whenever it needs to give instructions. And the Nav display also integrates nicely to the rear "Family Entertainment System", as well as display screens for setting radio, DVD, sound, phone, etc... . The only problem I have with Ford's navigation is its low number of Points of Interest. I often need to look up the business on my phone and manually input the address into the Ford Nav system. If you don't use something like SYNC to integrate the text communication into your car, you may still be pushing many buttons on your phone, even if the voice comes over the bluetooth. I worry the additional fidling with the phone could be dangerous. In the case of Pandora, I just set it to a station before I start driving and control it from SYNC once on the road. I found that with SYNC commands on the Nav screeen that I can pause Pandora stations, but that's about all. Maybe more will be possible with SYNC upgrades in the future.

Yes, this is a major bug in the system. Go look over at the Owner-to-Owner forums at syncmyride.com, and you'll see many long threads on this issue. The software engineers for SYNC will respond there and say they are limited in that the problem is the interface betwen the SYNC volume and the Radio volume. Basically, the SYNC engineers can't control what the radio does, as it's different hardware and a different group from SYNC. Nevertheless, it's been a BIG complaint from many people, and the SYNC engineers say they might have discovered a fix. See this thread, for instance, with 111 posts having the same complaint. Fixes for now: Try turning up the Bluetooth volume on your actual phone to the max. You can also adjust the radio, navigation, and phone volume separately, it just won't stay that way forever many say (although it seems to work for me). Mostly, just get ready to turn up the phone volume when you go into that mode, and turn it back down on exit.

I sure hope this helps SYNC advance their features at a faster rate. I just got a Droid and it now makes all the great new SYNC 3.0 features look like an old outdated B&W movie, just in space of a few months that SYNC has been out. For instance, forget just getting traffic, weather, movies, and the lowest gas prices. That's trivial old news. By opening up the system to developers on the Droid, there's lots new Apps available for free or a small price. I can get voice searches over the web, find info on anything, stream music off the web through my car, identify images and bar codes, see what stores are inside the local mall by looking through the camera at an overlay, look up lowest prices on anything, see satellite weather, get maps with layers for traffic info or satellite view or bus stops or store types or my wife & kid's locations or lots more, the navigation can show a street level picture of the final destination, directions directly from an address in an email or SMS, what a youtube video, get Chuck Norris jokes, take text or voice notes, translate speech or text from one language to another, .... It's totally amazing what happens with open systems. I sure hope Ford does this right. But I also believe that for car applications a strict control and approval system needs to be established, for safety of the driver in case of viruses taking over the car, or just bad distractions, even though it may slow down the advances.

SYNC had no trouble with my Droid on my 2008 Taurus X. Put phone in Bluetooth discovery mode. I started the SYNC pairing from the SYNC Bluetooth menu on my Nav system Enter the pairing number very fast before the Droid changes screens. Keyboard mode slows the Droid down and makes it easier. The contact list downloaded just fine. I download the contacts manually under the Advanced menu because of past issues. Others over on syncmyride.com Owner-to-Owner has a whole thread on how to pair Droids to SYNC. http://boards.syncco...syncmb&tid=1662

There's more threads here with the TSB number if they can't find it. I had it done on my Taurus X and it make a tremendous difference. My phone went from nobody understanding me to nobody realizing I'm in a car after the fix. You get an ugly black wart on the cieiling called a microphone (that's moved from the Rear View Mirror), but it's not too bad IMO, especially since few people look up, really.

I just got the Motorola Droid from Verizon. It paired fine with SYNC 2.1 in my 2008 Taurus X LTD. No fuse pulls or master resets were required. It all went smooth for me. I read the warnings here, and typed in the SYNC password number fast. I had maybe 20 seconds to enter the number in horizontal mode using the slide out keypad. Just to make sure I had my teen daughter "texting-expert" work the keys. It took a couple tries only because we didn't understand the Droid keypad at first. The phone book transfer to SYNC worked just fine with the 4 contacts I first entered manually. I also later entered 15 more phone contacts via my PC using a gmail account on the web, and they automatically went immediately to my Droid phone through the Verizon wireless network. Amazing! On downloading the phone book to SYNC, these contacts that were entered via gmail also downloaded fine. It seemed to take forever though, maybe 30 seconds to a minute? Fortunately I only do this phone book download manually maybe once every couple months. Overall the Droid phone is amazing. I thought I wouldn't need a smart phone because I don't browse the away from home. But it does so much more with web connection. Especially fun was using the free Pandora application to create a couple "personalized" radio stations to access from the Droid. Then I used the Bluetooth Audio in SYNC to play the Internet stations in my car as I drove around. I'd never want to do this before Droid, because of the extreme data charges. But now I got an all-you-can-eat data buffet for one 'low' price ($30/month extra).

Verizon disables texting via bluetooth on all their phones. I think it's because they want to charge for any digital communication to the phone. Maybe they want to prevent low speed computer tethering or something like that. It's almost made me want to go to AT&T. But I mostly use my phone as a phone, and Verizon does have great coverage.

I use the rear tone disable button frequently, especially when I have a bike rack on the car. You only need it press it once each time you start the car, not matter how many times you back up. I find the tone is NOT redundant. If you're looking at the rear view screen other than for a quick glance, then you're not seeing all the other cars, pedestrians, or kids about to go in harm's way behind your car but not yet in view. If you're properly looking around for other problems coming your way, you're not looking at the rear camera. So I would say it's the other way around. The camera is useless. I'd say just don't look at it, listen for the tone while looking all around, and your redundancy problem is solved. Personally, I think the rear view cameras are very dangerous and will soon be outlawed as worse than text messaging while driving. It'll just take a few dead kids and major crashes first.

Verizon disables all text via Bluetooth on all their phones! They don't want people to bypass their high cost options for data transfer in other applications.

This sounds like my problem after upgrading to SYNC 1.3. I found if I didn't open my phone and accept the PBAB(?) Phonebook download, the phone would disconnect itself. This was usually about a minute after starting the car. I solved it by going into the Advanced settings and disabling the Automatic download of the phonebook. Now the phone doesn't disconnect after starting. My car keeps all the phone's numbers from the last manual phonebook download, which I do only when I change something on the phone. The problem is that the SYNC 1.3 started using an advanced (more secure?) form of Bluetooth protocols not supported by all phones, especially not my Verison LG5200.

I don't know anything about Droid. But on most Bluetooth pairings, the SYNC system will give you a 6-digit(?) code that you input into your phone. Usually you set your phone to Bluetooth pair mode through one of your phone's menus. Then ask SYNC to discover Bluetooth devices to initiate the pairing. Then your phone will usually ask you to enter the code SYNC provides. Are you asking for something else? I can't imagine any other code that would be needed for the Bluetooth pairing.

After another three visits, Ford finally fixed the lost power in my overhead lights and garage door opener. It was a couple separate problems - a misaligned 14-pin connector and a fuse. The new microphone is working GREAT! The main menu wasn't recognizing my "Phone" request much of time. Oddly, the voice recognition even got a little worse after the new microphone!! So I retrained my "Profile" with the new microphone. The voice recognition is now 100% on most all my commands, including "Phone". I can even whisper, or talk without clearing my throat, and it still works perfect. That never was close to working before!

Although the acoustic soundscreen greatly reduces noise over the previous windshield, sound conduction through solids is still better than air. I'm not sure which wins. Either way, the microphone is just that much quieter when moved to the roof, with all the reduction effects compounding. EDIT: Just saw Madlock said the same thing. I had a break in the middle of my editing and missed it.

Sound can transmit through solids even better than air - like in the kid's can-and-string transmission that works better than air. The rear view mirror is on a hard post firmly attached to the solid windshield, which acts as giant microphone conducting all the wind noise right into the rear view mirror via the mount. It's a horrible place to put the microphone from a noise stand point - just convenient for the designer. With the microphone on a soft surface away from the windsheild, the wind noise pickup should be reduced dramatically, even though it's only a few inches away in air. After seeing the black microphone installed it doesn't bother me at all, with it's small shape and fit into the decor. I also don't look at the headliner very often. Only now, when taking the above pictures, did I notice our headliner had become a new thick "mud" color in back, due to a camping trip two months ago. The microphone will match that just fine too... I just discovered a little issue - a lot of the overhead lights including the ones on the sun screen mirror and my garage door opener are dead. I guess it's a trip to the dealer on Monday to fix the fuse or whatever they hit installing the microphone.

Here's my pictures. I was pleasantly surprised that the microphone is smaller than I thought from the other pictures. It's not too bad as the black wart microphone blends in with the black wart buttons for the "Homelink" garage opener and the black mirror. Also, it was placed far forward, which blends better, but may not pick up sound quite as well. My wife says I sound infinitely better (through the SYNC microphone) when I call her from the car while moving. The Pioneer voice recognition didn't improve much, unfortunately. It still doesn't like the way I say "Phone" and still asks sometimes if I'm corrrect. I finally found my success went from 30% to 90% if I put a little more emphasis on the 'F" sound in 'Fone'.

I haven't had the work done yet. But I got a card saying the part arrived, and the number is 8T4Z19A391A. This is the same number given out before, so the dealer must have been confused. Sorry everyone's hopes got raised that Ford was finally fixing the ugly wart. Mine too. For now, I'll just be glad to finally have a good microphone. Oh well - function over form wins out for me. Hey, I bought a wagon-like Taurus X and love it for all the functions it offers.

Thanks for the good advice. I went back to the same dealer in Santa Clara, but this time to a different service advisor - one who I've dealt with nicely in the past. I took your approach, asking them to look at the microphone along with my 30K service being done. I also gave him the TSB. After examining the issue he agreed to fully warranty the microphone repair. Interestingly, he said the TSB now shows an updated kit part, different from the number given out. I'll find out what that's all about once it arrives later this week.

Thanks for the TSB number (in your next post). Up to now, I wasn't even sure there was a TSB. This same dealer also treatened to charge hundreds of dollars for the SYNC 2.0 upgrade, but in the end decided to only charge me $50, which I didn' think was too far out of line considering the hours they put in to learn the procedure and the problems I had. Other local dealers wanted even more! My service rep couldn't find the TSB number for this microphone repair. I gave him the kit number, which I had from the postings, but it wasn't enough to provide them a repair procedure and cover the warranty repair. On the other hand I had to call this service rep maybe 4 times over 3 days before I got hold of him only by complaining to the service desk. I'll probably find another dealer and report my experience to Ford. I just hope the next dealer I try doesn't get any worse.

Maybe I should go to your dealer. My Ford dealer in Santa Clara, CA will only sell me Ford's microphone upgrade kit for $50. They're refusing to pay for the repair. In fact, they said they're not sure they want to do the repair at all, even if I pay them. This is especially infuriating as I have multiple overlapping bumper to bumper warrantys with Ford. I also have a full service plan in effect that's supposed to pay for everything. So much for all that! Anyone know of a TSB number? My ford dealer said he'd only do this service if he had a TSB to charge.

Go over to owner to Owner forum section of syncmyride.com and look at the "Road Noise" thread currently active in the Mobile Phones category. This link might work: http://boards.synccommunity.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=15&nav=messages&webtag=fordsyncmb&tid=1311 The SYNC engineers are finally talking on the threads, and engineer Mike said there's a TSB to improve the microphone quality by moving it from the mirror to the roof by the lights. For this SYNC Microphone upgrade kit ask your dealer for part number 8T4Z19A391A More information from the syncmyride thread: The Ford SYNC Team has acknowledged this customer concern. Some future Ford products will implement a new microphone design and location. For current customers, we recommend that you insure you have updated to the latest available software, as we have made improvements to the Noise Suppression Algorithms in the software. Also, we recently released a Microphone Service Kit to address the Call Sound Quality concerns at highway speeds, which will relocate the microphone. Please visit your local Dealer for details.

What you want just isn't possible until both systems are made by the same company. Ford has two entirely different systems from two manufacturers magically linked into one VR interface. The VR software is very different between the two (like one works a lot better, for instance). For obvious reasons, you always start in Pioneer's sytem main menu with the Nav system. The only way for Pioneer to recognize what you want with the USB and transfer those commands in software to SYNC, is to effectively do what SYNC already does with a major cost and effort by Microsoft and Ford. As such, Pioneer now instead takes the simpler step of having you step over the next desk and talk the different company representative, having to repeat almost everything you just told the other team. Hopefully, SYNC will control more and more of the system as time go on. And Ford needs somebody besides Pioneer to do the Nav system, which completely sucks relative to Garmin and any other modern GPS system, for a fraction of the price as well.

Ford's Navigation systems use Pioneer's lower quality voice recognition system for the top menu, as well as for control of the radio, CD, Satellite Radio, and display. You get Microsoft's better quality SYNC voice recognition system when you get into the things it controls: User Device or Phone. Unfortunately, you always need to start at the top menu and it takes a slightly longer time for those items controlled by SYNC due to the transfer in the first command at the main menu. You'll even hear the voice and volume change as the SYNC lady takes over. However, if you're going to a subsystem also controlled by Pioneer, you can concatenate commands such as "Audio System Satellite Radio Channel 19" into one command. In fact, I can often shorten the commands and still work, such as "Audio System SR1" or even just "SR1" or "Channel 130" while in Satellite Radio mode and it will frequently work (but not always, so I go to the more detailed menu command).

I got the same error with my LG VX8350 phone when I upgraded from SYNC 1.1 to SYNC 2.0 in my 2008 Taurus X. The basic problem is that SYNC is trying to download the phone book from the phone. I must open the phone and click the "Yes" button each time I get in the car, otherwise the phone won't pair and disconnects. It's incredibly annoying and even dangerous if I try while in traffic, since I don't get the verbal warning for a couple minutes. Everything worked fine with the old version of SYNC on the same VX8350 phone. The dealer doing the SYNC 2.0 upgrade tried lots of fixes with no help. I read somewhere it's because the new SYNC 2.0 uses the advanced Bluetooth protocols with more security. Are your SYNC versions different in the two cars? After a month of pain, I finally found a work-around. I disable the the automatic phone book download in the Advanced phone menu. Then no attempt is made to download the Phone book each time I get in the car. Instead, I manually download the phone book again when I change any number in my phone, maybe every couple months. Fortunately, the phonebook is retained in my car so I can still call my phone numbers using SYNC voice control. The only thing I'm missing now is the phone's call history. The phone's history transfered properly before the upgrade to SYNC 2.0, but now it doesn't. That's not a major loss to me, and I'm sort of OK with this fix I found.

I agree. The black box is part of the engine contol system in most modern cars. For example, a drunk driver ran a red light and killed a local kid in a crosswalk late at night. A witness (friend?) in the car behind him said he wasn't speeding. But after a court order weeks later to read the black box, it said he was going over 70 MPH in a 45 MPH zone. The data and impact was recorded and kept 20 minutes after the impact, which was also recorded, when the police found him hiding with his smashed GM SUV in local steets. Most significant, I saw the reading of the black box in your car took a court order. So it's no more "big brother" than a search warrant of your home for good cause. And the black box has nothing to do with SYNC, which only tells the court what radio station you were listening to. You think they care?