[360alaska]

Update: 5/10/21

Clarifications based on feedback:

• To be very clear, your forscan adapter must support MSCAN.
• You must clear your DTCs after programming all modules.
• Added separate values for Hybrid Vehicles.

Lane centering assist is truly amazing technology, when I got my titanium escape I thought it was the coolest feature. It makes highway driving truly effortless when combined with ACC. In order to complete this mod you must already have ACC with stop/go. For a 2020 escape, the IPMA(camera) is exactly the same whether you’ve got a SE or a titanium. (LJ6T-19H406-CD) It's just a matter of turning it on, the only part that is needed it the lane center buttons and even with that, you may be able to activate lane center without the lane center buttons. Feel free to test it by enabling it in forscan without changing the SCCM settings.

Here is a basic idea of how to access the steering wheel buttons by removing the airbag:


1. It is recommend to disconnect the 12v battery and wait 20 minutes ensure the supply to the airbags is drained.
2. Remove the upper steering column shroud by prying with a trim tool between the upper and lower column shroud.
3. With the steering wheel in the 90 degree position insert a flat blade screwdriver and pry up to release one side of the airbag. Rotate the wheel to the left to 270 degrees and do the same for the other side.

4. Disconnect the horn connector
5. Disconnect the two airbag connectors by prying up on the orange clips and then remove the connectors and set the airbag aside.

6. Disconnect the electrical connectors to the left and right button packs and gently pry the trim surround out with a trim tool.
7. Swap the button pack by removing and replacing two torx screws.

Parts needed:
LB5Z9C888H (Lane center buttons)

Forscan Asbuilt mods:

IPMA:

706-01-02 XXX6-XXXX-XX (Enable Traffic Jam Assist)
706-02-07 XXXX-XF8X-XX (Enable Lane Center Assist)
IPC
720-10-01 XDXX-XXXX-XX (Enable Lane Center Assist)

SCCM
724-02-01 x390-xxxx-xx (Lane Center left buttons) (Only if and When you change your left button on the steering wheel.)

PCSM (enable Lane center and traffic jam assist)
730-02-02 XXXX-FFFF-XX


Here's what it looks like on the SE Instrument Cluster:

 

[RapidPickup]

That's incredible.

Have you experimented at all with traffic jam assist? The one thing that kills me about the ACC on the titanium is that it times out if the car is stationary for too long. I'm wondering if traffic jam assist would help?

 

[360alaska]

That's incredible.

Have you experimented at all with traffic jam assist? The one thing that kills me about the ACC on the titanium is that it times out if the car is stationary for too long. I'm wondering if traffic jam assist would help?

Unfortunately it does that by design. As they say it's not a bug it's a feature, escapes with lane center have TJA enabled, LCA does not function without TJA enabled.

 

[RapidPickup]

This "feature" drives me crazy 🤯

Here's to hoping an update (or my next car) let's me zone out completely in traffic.

Anyway nice post - ACC is otherwise a dream

 

[jpohlman]

This might be the first Escape "factory" feature add mod that didn't require things like replacing the BCMs (such as adding fog lights).
Wonder if Ford's engineering staff got reminded that saving a $1 on the build cost of a car could easily cost $2 a car due to having to maintain inventory of multiple similar parts where the only difference was say a single added wire in a harness.

 

[gimlithepirate]

Well this is awesome. I may try enabling it without the button this weekend. The one issue I can see is that without the button, how would you engage it? I would probably leave it on most of the time, so I'd be interested to try it, but this would be huge for long dreary drives to Texas. I wanted to by a titanium for this feature but the wife wanted a more fun color .

 

[360alaska]

Without the button set it enables by default. So to disable it you'll have to turn off cruise control. At first when I was discovering the correct settings I thought it wasn't engaging because I didn't have the buttons, but then I discovered that I had missed a bit to enable Traffic Jam Assist.

Anyways, here's what it looks like with LCA and TSR/IACC. Yes the European style speed sign is normal, that's how it looks on 2021 factory iacc Fords. At some point i'd like to get a 6" or 12" cluster into this car.

 

[null]

Great job! It's annoying that Ford charges you premium for these assist features while Toyota or Hyundai has it the same across all trims

 

[360alaska]

I suspect they wanted to sell my first year titaniums? Or maybe there was a chip shortage on the self driving chips in 2019 ? You can get cp+ on a SE for 2021.

 

[jpohlman]

More likely it was a way to make more profit out of a trim level.
The hardware difference between NAV & no-NAV in the 2013-2015 was a bit change in the APIM and cluster and I doubt they paid $140 a car to NAVTEQ for a map SD card.
Even if they did it was an extra $600 profit on each car.
They do it on parts also, the difference between a clock spring for car with heated steering wheel and one without is four wires and a 2 pin connector and $40.

 

[360alaska]

Here's another one, why did the Corsairs have TSR enabled but the escape titanium does not?

 

[Matth825]

Thanks for figuring this out! This was on my list but I got sidetracked. Going to give it a try today. Glad it works without the buttons as I need to wait to change them out. My escape has to go in for a IPC replacement so I want to leave everything alone hardware wise until that’s done. I’ll probably take all the involved modules back to factory config as well just to be safe.

 

[360alaska]

Oh man! I wish it was higher on your list, it took me a lot of time to get it figured out! Anyways, enjoy the feature.

 

[Matth825]

Oh man! I wish it was higher on your list, it took me a lot of time to get it figured out! Anyways, enjoy the feature.

I greatly appreciate your time and effort! I broke out the laptop and made the changes! It’s working great without the switch! Makes me want a full blown self driving car now!

I’m going to order the buttons later today. With all the component shortages who knows how long it will take to arrive. The dealer ordered the new IPC last week and couldn’t get an ETA. I bet it will be 3-6 months!

 

[360alaska]

I know what you mean, I've tried to convince the openpilot team to port over openpilot, George Hotz said he would if I gave him an Escape. I offered to lend mine to him, but he was not interested.

 

[Aaron2616]

So I am looking to do this on my 2020 Ford Escape SEL. But I don’t want to mess with the steering wheel. Will the lane centering activate when I enable ACC? And then turn off when I turn off ACC? Or could I possible replace the lane keep assist with the lane centering? Thanks

 

[360alaska]

Exactly! It comes on and off with ACC, otherwise you have LKA.

 

[Aaron2616]

Great! Thanks for your help, going to try this on Tuesday. I’ll post how it goes thanks !

 

[360alaska]

Curious, Does your sel have the digital cluster?

 

[Aaron2616]

Curious, Does your sel have the digital cluster?

No it doesn’t it just has the regular gauge cluster. I believer only hybrids and the titanium come standard with it