[JasonACT]

Thanks, to all of you, for the support. Yes, this thread already has solutions to this problem... but, I also recognise it's a tough situation to have to pull your car apart to fix Ford's misjudgement on installing throw away (within 3-8 years) components. Just read about Tesla's 6 year estimate on their in-built car-puter's life expectancy...

What I'm trying to do now is get to a point where you can do your own fixes with a USB stick and a OBD2 dongle. No disassembly required. Though I have to admit, getting the SD card reader working on these units (which needs an SD socket soldered in) is eventually going to be what keeps it working long-term. All my units (4 of them) run the software off an SD card now.

If I can crack the protection (with or without Ford's help, and I would really appreciate it if Ford chimed in!) which is what I'm doing now, so your can run crowd-sourced software, then cheap (or free!) fixes are on the horizon.

Don't expect any businesses to help though :(