New Fiesta Pinging

[rallyboy77]

Our Fiesta has just passed 1000kms! :

I noticed the engine occasionally pings even though its not laboring, has decent revs and not much throttle. I wouldn't expect this normally. Has anyone else noticed this?

[trento]

Are you running it on 91RON/E10???

[robjh80]

As trento said .. you need to run Premium Unleaded in Euro Cars like the Fiesta.

If your using standard unleaded that will cause the pinging.

[GoesLikeAZetec]

yep on 91 i noticed a little bit of pinging.. ive never had it since we started using 98

[trento]

Even 95 is ok, although all the servos down here only have E10 and 98RON

[dannyhilton]

As a previous 98RON supporter, I say use 95RON. Ford said it themselves, unless your car is tuned to run a high octane fuel, it's a waste to put it in. 98RON gives me no better economy, it's not smoother or faster and more expensive. 95RON is the minimum in the UK so run that I say. Works a treat.

[vegabass]

What about intake temps? The hotter the temp the higher the ron needed to combat pinging. Remember in the UK its cold, hence the crap intake design, they simply don't need to much design in that area. Its not only the fiesta, I had a 97 MG-F which had a air-box in the engine bay as usual however the intake pipe to the box as about 30cm long and inside the engine with no access to outside air it was actually sitting over the exhaust. It was useless to drive on a hot day, that's until I made a CAI which transformed the car 100 fold.

[Dustproof]

Originally Posted by rallyboy77

Our Fiesta has just passed 1000kms! :

I noticed the engine occasionally pings even though its not laboring, has decent revs and not much throttle. I wouldn't expect this normally. Has anyone else noticed this?

There is no problem, the WS Fiesta is in constant state of tuning. It often looks at how much Ignition advance and fuel the engine is using, occasionally it will give a pinging rattle and it goes away pretty quick. The new model Focus does the same thing, I asked Ford and they advise this is not damaging the engine.

Noel

[StrokedXT]

my wifes sometimes pings, told her to start putting better fuel in it.

As mentioned only does it on hot days under heavy throttle in 2nd it pings its head off.

[greenfoam]

We just completed a 5000km trip in the Fiesta to QLD and back. There was a substantial difference in fuel economy depending on what fuel was put in it. Shell 95 seemed to be the good stuff in NSW, Caltex was the winner in Victoria. BP ultimate was rubbish on the tank of that we used, less power and used alot more fuel. We used about 6 tanks I think and you could often pick the difference between them after driving 700ks on one then filling up with a different fuel. Some were better than the last some worse. The tank in NSW with the shell 95 got a "wow" from my wife after the previous tank of BP ultimate. It's only had 91 octane in it once and it pinged. It says in the manual you need 95 anyway. Overall the maxxis tyres we have on the front now do use quite a bit more fuel than the oem hankooks. At 110 (gps) we were using 5.5l/100 and about 5.0 or high 4's at 100. Thats on good smooth roads. On more typical country roads it was using 5.4 ish at 100

[dannyhilton]

How do you find the grip on the Maxxis tyres Greenfoam?

[greenfoam]

The grip is good on them, pretty similar to the hankooks, They are a good tyre for the money but my wife has allready decided to go back with the hankooks or something with even a bit less rolling resistance. As she rightly says an extra 50 bucks for a tyre is nothing if you can save 10% on fuel

[Piotr]

Originally Posted by vegabass

What about intake temps? The hotter the temp the higher the ron needed to combat pinging. Remember in the UK its cold, hence the crap intake design, they simply don't need to much design in that area. Its not only the fiesta, I had a 97 MG-F which had a air-box in the engine bay as usual however the intake pipe to the box as about 30cm long and inside the engine with no access to outside air it was actually sitting over the exhaust. It was useless to drive on a hot day, that's until I made a CAI which transformed the car 100 fold.

1: The car is designed in GERMANY not the UK,
2: The car is designed for the global market not just the UK,
3: All cars are tested in BS conditions that 99.99% of consumers will never see (think cold starts in Siberia and heat testing in the Sahara)