Advice

[LouG]

I spoke to my dealer about enabling continuous gear display and mentioned forum chat about it. It turns out they also use Forscan for that sort of thing.
Now, I'm cautious about using aftermarket software myself on my cars and I'm not sure my OBD 2 adapter is compatible. They will charge an hours labour to do it ($NZ160).
What do you reckon?

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[Sainty]

Is your dealer an actual Ford dealership!? Sounds odd they wouldn't use FDRS!
I've used FORScan extensively and even have a paid for licence. Ensure you use a recommended adaptor and you'll have no major problems

 

[goodlettjr]

It’s the only way you are going to get it. Unless you want to learn how to use Forscan or find a forum member to assist. It is a fairly straight forward modification. The price isn’t bad as you are just paying for the time (labor).

@Sainty FDRS wont do this. It will only update modules.

 

[smurfslayer]

Now, I'm cautious about using aftermarket software myself on my cars and I'm not sure my OBD 2 adapter is compatible. They will charge an hours labour to do it ($NZ160).
What do you reckon?

If you read up on FORSCAN, they tell you up front to back up ALL of your modules FIRST. If something goes south, you can restore from the backup. For simple updates, ones you can do in FORSCAN “easy mode” and that only deal with a single module, it’s pretty safe. It’s when you get into multiple module changes that have to occur at once or mess with DRL that you run the risk of trouble. Even so, as long as you have backups, you can always restore.

For CGD, in easy mode, you’re changing a minimal number of characters, it would be pretty difficult to screw up. I don’t know anyone nor have I heard of anyone bricking their car/truck/suv/minivan with FORSCAN. I’ve read about the person who knew someone who knew someone who bricked their vehicle with FORSCAN changes, but have never actually found the 2nd person who actually had the bricked vehicle.

The real trouble comes in when people get lazy, and try to put on all the common FORSCAN changes at once. In the truck world, Lincoln fold mirrors, heated/cooled seats and wheel on main sync display, delete sound enhancement, delete the double honk (sync3 doesn’t make this a menu option), gauge numbers over the display, and a few more I’m forgetting. Lazy users make multiple changes at one time, then whine and cry about the problem online, and respond no when asked if they have module backups.

Don’t be that guy and you won’t be the one with one headlight working, one common symptom of messing with the DRL FORSCAN settings.

 

[LouG]

Is your dealer an actual Ford dealership!? Sounds odd they wouldn't use FDRS!
I've used FORScan extensively and even have a paid for licence. Ensure you use a recommended adaptor and you'll have no major problems

They have both apparently. He said something about Forscan being easier for this sort of thing.

 

[roadpilot]

If you read up on FORSCAN, they tell you up front to back up ALL of your modules FIRST. If something goes south, you can restore from the backup. For simple updates, ones you can do in FORSCAN “easy mode” and that only deal with a single module, it’s pretty safe. It’s when you get into multiple module changes that have to occur at once or mess with DRL that you run the risk of trouble. Even so, as long as you have backups, you can always restore.

For CGD, in easy mode, you’re changing a minimal number of characters, it would be pretty difficult to screw up. I don’t know anyone nor have I heard of anyone bricking their car/truck/suv/minivan with FORSCAN. I’ve read about the person who knew someone who knew someone who bricked their vehicle with FORSCAN changes, but have never actually found the 2nd person who actually had the bricked vehicle.

The real trouble comes in when people get lazy, and try to put on all the common FORSCAN changes at once. In the truck world, Lincoln fold mirrors, heated/cooled seats and wheel on main sync display, delete sound enhancement, delete the double honk (sync3 doesn’t make this a menu option), gauge numbers over the display, and a few more I’m forgetting. Lazy users make multiple changes at one time, then whine and cry about the problem online, and respond no when asked if they have module backups.

Don’t be that guy and you won’t be the one with one headlight working, one common symptom of messing with the DRL FORSCAN settings.

No, you don't need to back up "all" modules first. You only need to back up the one you're modifying.

Next: "For CGD, in easy mode, you’re changing a minimal number of characters". Incorrect. You don't change ANY of the hex values if you are using easy mode. You're simply switching between pre-defined settings (often just 'Enabled' or 'Disabled'l using a drop down. That's why it's often referred to as easy mode.

FDRS isn't used for things like this (e.g., enabling CGD). It's used for diagnostics and for updating module firmware.

Been using FORScan and an OBDLink dongle on multiple Ford vehicles for ~10 years. Unless you're a total Luddite, it's not difficult at all. FDRS and a VIC is more complicated, but it's not rocket science, either.

 

[smurfslayer]

No, you don't need to back up "all" modules first. You only need to back up the one you're modifying.

My first experience with FORSCAN was from ’17 on my Rap. The backup all modules is generalized advice because people are lazy, get inspired to make a change and don’t make an immediate module backup before they start trying to modify <cough> DRL settings <cough> and end up with some crazy light outage or worse. Or, they attempt multiple module changes affecting several functions and when it doesn’t work, it’s usually a lively discussion. But hey, they don’t need a backup before updating with FORSCAN because they’re a Red Hat certified linux sysadmin. Hold their soy latte and watch this...

I’ll stand by backup all the modules first, module backups are like a backup piece. Two is one and one is none.

Next: "For CGD, in easy mode, you’re changing a minimal number of characters". Incorrect. You don't change ANY of the hex values if you are using easy mode. You're simply switching between pre-defined settings (often just 'Enabled' or 'Disabled'l using a drop down. That's why it's often referred to as easy mode.

This is a more precise description. Agreed.

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