Update Update: I had my tires & wheels rebalanced and rotated today. They've got enough life to make it through the winter. I asked my mechanic to check the rear brake shoes/drums in the process (this is a 2WD) and he told me they have plenty of life left, at least another 30k miles. The front brakes are still perfect after replacement with the full-spec Ford parts. Very smooth, no vibration or warping, good bite and I haven't seen much brake dust.

I also had the e-CVT fluid done with Mercon LV. The car is at 59,650 miles now. He charged me $62.50 for the fluid change including the fluid. I probably could have done it myself in the driveway but I thought to let him do it while it was on the lift.

The car is running great. It was a cold night last night, in the 20s outside, and I'm not having any problems. Battery SOC looks nominal on the SYNC display, but it was way too cold this morning to take out the laptop and run Forscan. I try to drive the car at least 10-15 minutes every day just to fully warm it up, even if I'm not really going anywhere. It's not garaged so that's the best I can do.

Mileage reported on SYNC system is 31.2 MPG over more than 500 miles, including a lot of relatively cold mornings.

 

Mileage takes a big hit in winter. It helps if you have a block heater and a low time-of-use rate to support it. I think the engine runs until it achieves a certain minimum temperature.

 

I don't know about replacing the tone rings. I didn't have it done on this job. When my mechanic got this car up on the lift he was amazed: "It looks like new." The rearmost muffler is getting a little rust around the edges but nothing serious. So maybe I'm an outlier here because even in the Northeast, this car was taken care of, including the undercarriage. This is kind of a strange used car, it was previously owned by a doctor who had it maintained at the dealership as an almost religious ritual. The brake lines on this car were replaced at 43,000 miles. I know the previous owner and they paid cash for the vehicle in full at the time of purchase and also paid whatever the dealer wanted for service on the car. Must be nice.

I may be wrong but I think the specialized bleeding procedure is the 2004-2009 cars with the system that pressurizes the brakes by itself.

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