I can’t believe that I’ve had my 2020 Ford F-150 for five years and I still haven’t gotten the windows tinted. After moving to Southern California, I knew I would definitely need the windows tinted to block out the UV rays and to keep the heat out as well. Adding the window tint will also be able to balance out the odd look of the front windows being clear and the rear ones being colored or darkened glass.
In this post, I will first show you how to get that sliding door closed so you can continue driving where you need to get going. And next, I’ll guide you through some steps towards addressing the issue so that it will close properly in the future. This post is focused on the issue where the automatic sliding door won’t close at the last minute and will re-open on its own. This leaves you with the issue where the automatic sliding door just won’t close by itself.
On this post, I’ll show how to install and use a Fumoto Oil Drain Valve on the 2015-2020 Ford F-150. The install is pretty easy to do and the subsequent oil changes are a lot cleaner of a job to do. The oil drain valve takes the place of your drain plug and it has a ball valve that you can open and close with the valve handle. I was concerned about this potentially being knocked into an open position and the oil draining out and damaging the engine, but the valve is designed to keep this from happening. There is even a little plastic clip that further prevents this from happening.
Replacing windshield wipers on the 13th gen Ford F-150 is easy and straightforward–just like pretty much any other vehicle out there. I wanted to put a post together as a quick reference to the windshield wiper sizes on these trucks, and to document the various windshield wipers I’ve tried out on the truck to see which ones work best.
On the 13th generation Ford F-150, you may have this felt under cover installed under the transmission. This part is commonly referred to as a “diaper” rather than an under cover due to it being made of a fabric-like material and commonly soaking up fluids in the undercarriage. A popular addon that will give you some protection to the undercarriage is to install a steel Raptor Skid Plate in its place.
We were looking for a 360 camera, which gives a lot more views all around your vehicle in case anything happens. Vantrue is a pretty popular brand that gets rave reviews, so we opted for this one: the Vantrue N5 (Nexus 5) 360 Dash Cam. I’ll be going through the install process of this dash cam, which has both a front and a rear camera. Both cameras are connected by wire and will be installed so that the wiring is hidden.
Rough Country sells two different folding tonneau covers that costs between $650-$700, and they both seem comparable to the Bakflip MX4. I went with the one called the Tri-fold Tonneau Cover, which is similar to the Bakflip cover in that it folds out of the way for full use of the bed. I paid $700 (at time of this post) for the bed cover.
A common, but relatively minor issue on the fifth generation Honda Odyssey is the inevitable deterioration of the molding on the rear tailgate trim. This becomes evident when you see the molding either cracking, or even breaking off in pieces where the rear trim meets the tailgate glass.
If you own a 5th generation (2018-2023) Honda Odyssey and you don’t own any CR2032 coin batteries, you should probably stock up as it will only be a matter of time before the batteries in your key fob remotes run out. At that point, you might be stranded if you’re trying to start your vehicle because your key fob’s immobilizer chip is not being detected by your vehicle.
