TDCI Focus

[Turbodiesel]

Originally Posted by NAOS

hey
let us know how it is, i am also keen know know about it

Well the place I went to were fantastic, I had a listen to the car just without the rear muffler and it wasn't actually that much louder. So then I had the resonator taken off and I went for a drive around with no exhaust pipe just to see how it sounded.

In the end I thought what the heck and went for a full 2.5" cat back straight pipe, and all I can say is

There is quite a bit of turbo chatter but I figure it just makes the car sound more alive.

[Franco Cozzo]

Whats it drive like now?

How much did it cost too?

[Turbodiesel]

Around $300 so far, but I'm not finished yet as it is a tad droney on the highway so may have to put a resonator back on.

I had a quick fang up Mt Kembla yesterday and it appears to pull even harder and there's power pretty much all the way to 5000RPM now.

[Franco Cozzo]

Are the engines/engine bays of the previous model to the LV the same?

[Turbodiesel]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Are the engines/engine bays of the previous model to the LV the same?

Most likely.

Well I can't see any reason why they would be any different

[byanka82]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

All I do is cruise on the highway, my driving is 95% 100km/h country highway. I'm doing about 6.7L/100km in my Fiesta at the moment with its pathetic aircon on most of the time.

I'm not considering any autos as I don't like them.

I may be wrong, but I read that the Focus TDCi only comes in auto (but has the 6 speed power shift where you can manually change gears)

The auto may only apply to the Titanium model though.

I'm not normally a fan of Autos but I'm really happy with the 2012 Ford Focus TDCi that I've been driving for the last 5 weeks.

If you want to see reviews from myself and 11 others, head here:
www.bit.ly/votebianca

My original thread is here if you're interested:
http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11339101

If you have any questions, fire away.

Bianca

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by byanka82

I may be wrong, but I read that the Focus TDCi only comes in auto (but has the 6 speed power shift where you can manually change gears)

The auto may only apply to the Titanium model though.

I'm not normally a fan of Autos but I'm really happy with the 2012 Ford Focus TDCi that I've been driving for the last 5 weeks.

If you want to see reviews from myself and 11 others, head here:
www.bit.ly/votebianca

My original thread is here if you're interested:
http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11339101

If you have any questions, fire away.

Bianca

Thanks Bianca, I ended up buying an LV TDCI Focus, in manual ;)

[jandj]

My partner bought a LV TDCI, but with the 6 speed auto. We have had some problems with the auto not doing its job properly . So hopefully ford have some answer, but apart from that great little car.

[Dustproof]

Originally Posted by jandj

My partner bought a LV TDCI, but with the 6 speed auto. We have had some problems with the auto not doing its job properly . So hopefully ford have some answer, but apart from that great little car.

I have the 6 speed DSG (Auto) gearbox, what sort of problems have you been experiencing? There are a couple of funny/quirky things with this Gearbox, things like if you don't have your foot planted on the brake it takes forever to swap from Reverse to Drive. It has some issues when going down hill, it will hold a gear and then upchange for no real reason and you loose engine braking all of a sudden.

All in all the Gearbox is a solid well sorted system that will get some refinement as Ford adjust the program, I tend like it better than VW's version.

Noel

[jandj]

The problem that we have had is on take off, where it starts off in gear then when it goes to change up the engine will just free rev and not engage into gear. It took ford 2 days to find the problem and replaced a switch to the gearbox, now the same problem is occuring since last service 15,000 ago. And a funny thing when dropping off kids to school today, when i had it in manual mode and come to a stop. If your foot is not firmly on the brake it will not go back to 1st gear and stay in 2nd gear on take off (could be my driving style ). All in all great car, really good on fuel for the driving it does. I do agree with what you are saying Noel in regards to to the gearbox, overtime just needs that refinement from ford.

[Dustproof]

Originally Posted by jandj

If your foot is not firmly on the brake it will not go back to 1st gear and stay in 2nd gear on take off (could be my driving style ).

Hi Jandj,

I know what you mean with the foot firmly on the brake, I figured that there must be a two stage switch on the brake. If I use light pressure the clutch will be in creep mode (no not me!! ), if I press a little harder it will disengage - interesting hey. Mine won't go back to 1st unless I am at a complete stop and good peddle pressure, one thing I did find is that if you are in manual mode, push the leaver forward to engage 1st.

I am sorry to hear that you are having problems with the free revving, that is a bad problem that could prematurely wear the clutch packs. I would be chatting to Ford about this, I would imagine that it would not be a cheap fix down the track. When did this problem happen?

I would be interested in finding out what the longevity of the clutch packs with these DSG's would be like, if anyone has some higher K's on theirs might let us know how their car is going.

[jandj]

Dustrpoof it started doing this problem around 10,000k, about 6 times this occured. Car got serviced at 25,000k, thats when the dealership found the problem. Car now has 40,000k on it, and gets serviced torromow. I must take my hat off to the dealership , they keep the car until they found the problem at 25,000 service. So i hope to have some answer friday.

[T.M]

Just fitted a tuning box from tdi-tuning.co.uk to my LT TDCi and must confess to being a wee bit dissapointed.
Definitely gave the car a load more power at the top but also meant that nothing happens below 2k with your right foot in the carpet and that low down torque was the main reason i enjoyed driving it in the first place.

Anyone else have experience with any other of these ecu tuning type things or remaps?
Would definietely be interested in finding one that wasnt going to kill the best feature of the duratorq engine

[Franco Cozzo]

I've been hanging around on the TDCI UK Forums and they reckon not to even bother with them and get someoen to retune the standard ECU, who can do that though?

I don't think theres many people around who know and work on these sorts of cars here.

Also apparently the whole siemens injection system is a massive limit and sucks ***.

[Turbodiesel]

Respectfully Damo, I don't know why you're being so hesitant. I did find it a bit difficult being the only person doing proper modifications to my TDCi around here, not to mention the rest of the country. But you know what, it is just another engine in the end and will behave very similar to a petrol when modified.

I am absolutely in love with my car and have no idea how I put up with it stock for three years. I've played around endlessly with intakes and whatnot to get it just right, but you just have to quit thinking and start doing buddy

[Chicka]

Originally Posted by timace

Chicka, I know I'm quoting a rather old post, but how much did the DP chip set you back? I'm interested in getting more power out of my LV MkI TDCi... and Berrima is only an hour or so away from me.

Hey, sorry to get back to you all this time later....! Been busy !!!
The DP chip was $ 1450.00 ....flamin' expensive, but I,m very happy with it !!
Hope you get a chance to try one ....
Chicka

[Chicka]

Originally Posted by kevino

Talking about TDCI,s-I have been running 30 front psi and 33 rear psi on my stock 205/55/16,s. I had them balanced rotated aligned today and the tyre guy told me I should run at 36 psi all round.

Any comments??

Same with mine TDCI, My tyre guys in Cairns recommend 36psi ( no less)
Chicka

[Chicka]

Originally Posted by Focus_TDCI

haha someone got to you first but here is where i got my info from http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/other...ord-focus.html

I have had the car for one year now. what motor oil are you guys using and what rating? the ford service handbook doesnt give much details other than SAE 5w-30. i heard that it needs low ash (low sulfur or other chemicals) oils so that the DPF doesnt get prematurely clogged. so far (without much knowledge) iive been using 15w-40 Diesel Motor Oil =S

Hi there, don't want to concern you, however, I don't know if 15w-40 oil is a good idea in the TDCI. My Ford dealer charged me for Rimula x 15w-40 on my 30.000k service ( by mistake, they say).I contacted Shell , and they said that if this oil was actually installed by mistake, I should immediately drop it and replace with the appropriate 5w-30...
Chicka

[marg99]

MY Ford service people always said they used 15-40 oil when servicing my TDCI even though everyone else recommends fully synthetic 5-30 (No particulate filter thank heavens in the early LT diesel)

[T.M]

Turbodiesel, i notice you've got a bluefin remap on your tdci.
how much of a difference did you find this made? does it make the car a lot keener towards to top end as opposed to the low down torque of the standard tune?
cheers

[Franco Cozzo]

Is the Diesel Power chip remappable with custom tunes?

[Turbodiesel]

Originally Posted by T.M

Turbodiesel, i notice you've got a bluefin remap on your tdci.
how much of a difference did you find this made? does it make the car a lot keener towards to top end as opposed to the low down torque of the standard tune?
cheers

When the rest of the car is stock, yes it really is only noticable at the top end after 3000RPM which, in my opinion is exactly where it needed more grunt. I was very happy with the difference it made.

[marg99]

Turbodiesel your comments are very interesting as I rarely drive my diesel over 2500 rpm because the torque is 1850 rpm upwards and 2000 rpm in 6th gear is the max legal speed of 110KPH.

[Dustproof]

Originally Posted by Turbodiesel

The TDCi is the same spec as the LX, you pay a premium for the diesel engine so don't expect to make any savings on fuel.

Other than that it's a top car and would probably still buy one today.

I don't know about not saving money, when you buy your new car it looses money anyway, I got $18K for my LT TDCi when I traded up to my Mk2 LV auto TDCi. A Diesel will always give you a better tradin over the petrol models so it is all relative. It is not like you loose all the money you put in to get the Diesel option, then you get better fuel consumption than a lot of smaller cars. So as you can see a Diesel makes more sense at the bowser and resale value well apart from the fun factor of all that torque.

[Franco Cozzo]

I bought an OEM oil filter from Ford for my TDCI Focus on Friday, cost $24 from Ford.

A bit more expensive than the $7 for my WS Fiesta haha.

[T.M]

Originally Posted by Turbodiesel

When the rest of the car is stock, yes it really is only noticable at the top end after 3000RPM which, in my opinion is exactly where it needed more grunt. I was very happy with the difference it made.

Did you find that you had to sacrifice your low range torque for these top end power gains?

[Turbodiesel]

Not at all, everything I've done has only made the car more powerful and more efficient. The only sacrifice is more noise.

It'll actually pull pretty decently below 1500RPM now and the turbo lag is less noticable.

[T.M]

Interesting.
Maybe the tdi-tuning one is just a piece of crap, i've tried several different maps and they give a bit more pull at the top but mean you lose all of that low grunt.
might send it back

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Turbodiesel

Not at all, everything I've done has only made the car more powerful and more efficient. The only sacrifice is more noise.

It'll actually pull pretty decently below 1500RPM now and the turbo lag is less noticable.

Mine has a tendancy to want to stall and it'll try to pick up speed if you come up to an intersection in second and fall below 1500 RPM, you can't crawl around in second gear without it picking up speed itself, or if you touch the brakes it'll stall.

I'm forever going back to first at just under 20km/h to keep it from stalling, its quite annoying.

[Turbodiesel]

Even stock I only went to first below 10km/h, any higher and second is fine. It'll happily pull the car along at idle speed in fourth.

When it hits idle speed there is a bit of a jolt that feels like a stall but it actually isn't, try it Damo. Leave it in second or third and drop to idle revs