Two Annoyances

[AlCan]

Despite my affection for Mondeos, there are a couple of things about them that annoy me. Does anyone know, can either of these be changed via OBC or other settings?

1. The Remote Locking Indicator Signals.

It seems to be a general thing that when you exit the car and lock the doors using a Single Press on the Remote, there is no visual indication that the doors have successfully locked. That is a PAIN. The only way to check is either Double Lock or physically pull the door handle, and, as I've just discovered via testing, even that doesn't prove the car is locked.

On the one I've tested, it's MUCH worse than that. In fact, to be sure, if you Single Lock, you'd need to check every individual door! You can leave any of the back three doors either wide open, ajar or on the first click of the catch, and the car will single "Lock". Pulling the front door handles only confirms that the front doors are locked. Not any of the others. So, if a lock motor dies or the lock gets stiff and the motor can't lock it, you'll get no indication. Considering the high standard of the car in so many other respects, this is substandard.

[That said, it may be an over-reaction to the situation I encountered a few years ago when it was impossible to lock a particular, small model Ford (can't remember which) if that battery was flat. That particular model had no interior manual locking buttons of any kind and just could not be locked in that situation.]

Try leaving a door ajar on a Toyota and the car won't lock at all. You don't get any lock motors running, nor any flashes. It completely ignores the command, so if you're paying any attention at all, you know something is up. And, if things are playing up, you can still lock it manually, albeit perhaps, with no Alarm.

Not so with the Mondeo. Only the front two doors have any lock feedback in Single Lock mode, and even that is not intelligently implemented. If you leave either front door open, all the doors will "Lock" then immediately Unlock. No indicator light action, just the sound. And if you're not paying attention, you could mistake that for Locked.

They flash once when you Unlock, and turn on the Park lights, and do a short double flash if you "Double Lock" the doors but this means it's extremely difficult to get into the car and open any doors at all, if you lose your keys at the beach.

To my mind, it's all backwards, almost the opposite of what Japanese cars do - single Flash on Lock, and Double Flash on Unlock. Maybe that's the same kind of issue as driving on the other side of the road and having the Wiper/Indicator controls reversed as well.

I could put up with that if there was some indication that the car was locked. I mean, you pretty soon figure out if the car didn't unlock, so if you had to lose one indication, that would be the one.

In fact, that's the one you shouldn't have anyway. If someone steals your keys (or finds them on the beach), it's dead easy to find your car as well, thanks to this handy car identifying feature.

So, I'd like to reprogram this feature to at least a Single Flash on Single Lock, and ideally, no flash on Unlock. Anyone know if it's possible?


2. The Headlight Switch

Again, this is poorly thought out, IMHO...

When you're on High Beam and another car suddenly pops up over a rise, you have to dive for the headlight stalk. (I often drive country roads at night.) That's okay, except for one thing.

The lights do not actually dip until you have pulled the stalk all the way towards you, and let it go back to its original position. This takes at least twice as long as the travel in just one direction (unless you "twang" your stalk and just let it fly back under the inherent spring tension, which may well have unexpected consequences).

I know this is worse for the opposing driver and doesn't really affect me so much, but I consider it poor driving and rude to blind other drivers any more than necessary. And I suppose, could lead to a nighttime head-on if the other driver is high on 'P' / meth and takes offence.

Technically, there is no problem with arranging the lights to dip the moment the dip switch contacts close on the back pull, instead of waiting for the contacts to close then open again, but that's not what happens. Why beats me.

Can this be reprogrammed as well?