"reflashes'

[exar]

are you guys quoting the 'on the fly' readings or the average of fuel used over the course of a tank reading?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Both. Mostly I look at the average, which, at it's worst, climbs to the 13's around town, but if I reset it before a trip, will sit, often, below 10 for the trip.

I also did some experimentation on the high way, watching the instantaneous fuel consumption, to see what difference there is between using 3rd and 4th gear at speeds like 80 to 100 k. It read about 10, and there was barely 1 k/l difference between the gears (hard to tell as any unevenness in the road can make the readfing swing about)

[Paradoxx]

On flat road at 90km/h (about 2 grand in 5th) it should sit between 8 and 9ish L/100km (instantaneous)... with the cruise control on. Any more than that it is running too rich.

You might find that there is a difference when you change fuels. I notice that when I use Ulitmate or Vortex my fuel consumption goes higher (lose about 50km per tank), yet when I use Shell premium (not optimax) I get the best economy, and still get decent performance. My best time down the quarter was with Shell premium.

[Andrew50]

Car booked in next week for several warranty issues:

- Power steering shudder (since new, was told "normal")

- Driver's window bottoming out too hard

- Check rear suspension for tightness (low speed knocking over bumps)

- Scores on 3 out of 4 disc brake rotors (no shudder)

- Poor fuel economy, average approx 17L/100km. Has deteriorated from approx 15L/100km in the last few months.

- Rough idle, progressively gotten worse over last few months.

- Power inconsistency.

The first 3 should not be a problem to fix/ check. Brakes still OK but want issue of scoring reported on. NOW to fix the the last 3 the service "team leader" told me that a flash has been released for only about a week that will address poor fuel economy and idle by leaning the air/ fuel mixture. Also the dreaded turbo reflash that has been receiving so much press is going to be done to address my power inconsistency that I complained about at the 3000km service. The car has done just over 10,000km and is well and truely run in.

Will keep forum informed of my experience with the re-flashes since this is obviously the hottest topic at the moment.

Andrew50

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dealer experience relatively good, noted all concerns and made genuine effort to "fix" items listed:

- Dealer conducted part power steering TSB, bled system but wants feedback on this first before changing out hose listed in TSB.

- Window clunk was a dislodged rubber stop (probably from actuator c/ out @ 3000kms).

- Checked rear end tightness and found fuel filler pipe had been dislodged, re-afixed, seems OK.

- Could not determine source of brake rotor scoring so they machined all 4 rotors, who knows? Addresses symptom not cause, we'll see.

- Fuel economy, was told by technician that 17l/ 100km is expected/ normal for an average speed of 31kph as shown on trip computer. Advertsied fuel economy for a city cycle is a lot less, must be a different city cycle to the one I'm using!!

- After re-flash idle seems a little smoother with no "miss" feel to it and I can't tell at the moment if power is substantially different, too few kms since done. Seems to be a smoother power delivery which is what I was told the re-flash also addresses, particularly 3000 - 4000 rpm. Have resigned myself to the fact that while stock my T will display inconsistency of power feel probably for a variety of reasons: fuel type/ quality, environmental factors and probably more to the point - imagination! Since I drive it 5 - 10% of the time I'd say imagination is a fair bet! It's a hell of a lot better than the Kia Carnival I drive to work all the time!

[AMoffat]

Mine has done 50K now- two weekends ago we drove from Coffs to Sydney then return (the car has done this quite a bit) the overall average was 11.2 l/100 klms (includes the inner city bits as we stayed with friends in Alexandria) the highway at 110 we averaged 9.4 l/100 klms.

Auto with aircon on. Down on one tank, plus running around in Sydney - filled up on the Pacific Highway in Chatswood then went home on that tank. Car was run in by flexing the muscle but is usually driven by my wife in limp mode.

[Andrew50]

Last instalment in feedback from Service/ Warranty visit to dealer:

- Idle same as before, will see if deteriorates further, just slight annoyance factor at the moment.

- Power delivery is definitely different! The car is an auto, June 2004 build and stock. When kicking down from top gear back to 2nd, the car used to go on boost really hard giving you that grin inducing power surge initially. It would taper off a little then continue to pull hard. Now it doesn't give you quite that huge boost rush but pulls hard all the way to the next change point. Power delivery appears to have been refined and evened out. Because of this I felt that it had lost power on first impressions after picking the car up and decided to get a dyno readout for my peace of mind (I suppose in case I needed something to backup a claim on Ford). I can't scan the printout at the moment but power peaked at 188 rwkw (accounting for approx 30% transmission/ drive train loss, that's about mid 240's fwkw). What impressed was the steep linearity of the power curve (no bumps/ dips) and the equally sharp rise in torque (matching the slope of the power curve) up to 470Nm and then flattening out at 460 Nm right through almost till end run. You don't realise how flat the torque curve is till you actually see it for yourself! I didn't have a pre-flash dyno done but can't complain about the readout I now have. Dyno was done at Dalton's in Geelong, I have no reason to doubt accuracy.

[YOOT]

Last instalment in feedback from Service/ Warranty visit to dealer:

- Idle same as before, will see if deteriorates further, just slight annoyance factor at the moment.

- Power delivery is definitely different! The car is an auto, June 2004 build and stock. When kicking down from top gear back to 2nd, the car used to go on boost really hard giving you that grin inducing power surge initially. It would taper off a little then continue to pull hard. Now it doesn't give you quite that huge boost rush but pulls hard all the way to the next change point. Power delivery appears to have been refined and evened out. Because of this I felt that it had lost power on first impressions after picking the car up and decided to get a dyno readout for my peace of mind (I suppose in case I needed something to backup a claim on Ford). I can't scan the printout at the moment but power peaked at 188 rwkw (accounting for approx 30% transmission/ drive train loss, that's about mid 240's fwkw). What impressed was the steep linearity of the power curve (no bumps/ dips) and the equally sharp rise in torque (matching the slope of the power curve) up to 470Nm and then flattening out at 460 Nm right through almost till end run. You don't realise how flat the torque curve is till you actually see it for yourself! I didn't have a pre-flash dyno done but can't complain about the readout I now have. Dyno was done at Dalton's in Geelong, I have no reason to doubt accuracy.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mine made 195rwkw with the old flash installed nearly 8 months ago, and the power curve was very smooth and steep. I wonder what the new one would look like.