Ford Fiesta driving problems

[Unicornfarts]

Hi there , I have bought a 2018 Ford Fiesta 125bhp Titanium Ecoboost recently and I have concerns about the driving experience . Firstly i must say I love the interior and the gizmos inside the car however my concerns start when I'm driving ! Firstly the brakes are very 'jerky' , it is a lottery if I stop smoothly or am shot through window screen . Secondly the general driving experience is very rough , the car never feels like it's running smoothly. There is a lot of vibration and juddering  when driving and when I change gear it feels right for a couple of seconds then it feels like it's in the wrong gear . This problem is particularly noticeable in town when you are changing gear/stopping starting a lot . 

If I'm honest it feels like an old car that needs a service not a nearly new (I am the first owner , It was the ex demonstrator car ), I have had Fiestas before and this is the worst one I've had .

The garage have had it back once , they greased the brake disks and brake chains (their words not mine ) and it was ok for a couple of day but now it is back to how it was previously .It is booked in again but they cannot take it for 3 weeks !

Anyone got any previous experience with this or ant ideas ?

[Blatto]

The 3 Cylinder ecoboost can feel a little bit rough at low rpm but it's certainly not much worse than a 4 cylinder. Are you sure you aren't changing up too early and running in a higher gear than is required for the situation.?

I sincerely hope they didn't grease the brake disks, that would be dangerous, and I've never heard of brake chains before so I have no idea what that is referring to.

The brakes on my 2019 Fiesta are fine and consistent.

I'd suggest finding another mechanic/dealer to look at it or maybe book yourself in for a test drive of a similar model to yours and see how that feels.

 

 

[Eric Bloodaxe]

Unless trying to get the engine to pull low revs in too high a gear, I find mine very smooth indeed. The 140 has lower overall gearing than the 125 but I don't normally go below 20 in 2nd, 30 in 3rd, 40 in 4th, 50 in 5th and 60 in 6th. I would recommend keeping revs at 2,000 or above in normal driving, though obviously you can't do that when crawling along in traffic in 1st.

Braking - I've never heard of brake chains either (maybe they meant handbrake cable) and as Michael says hope they didn't grease the actual discs! They may have put copper grease on the back of the disc pads? Anyway, my brakes are also quite sensitive even after 9,000 miles and require a delicate touch to come smoothly to a standstill at lower speeds. A lot of cars are like this nowadays - bit like an on/off switch in some cases.

[Unicornfarts]

Thanks both for the replies , I have been back to the garage today . At first they didn't have a record of the visit but after some searching a record was found and It appears that not very much at all was done on the day. I did check the 'work' that said was done and the garage are backtracking like mad, the upshot is managers are contacting me on Monday to bring the investigation appointment forward . 

i have had to alter the way I drive , having gone from one make to another but I still do think the brakes need looking at, they feel vastly different to other Fiestas I test drove at the time .

[Blatto]

23 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Anyway, my brakes are also quite sensitive even after 9,000 miles and require a delicate touch to come smoothly to a standstill at lower speeds. A lot of cars are like this nowadays - bit like an on/off switch in some cases.

Can't say I find them that sensitive, they are a bit more servo assisted than my MK7 St-Line so require less force to stop at the same rate, but I've driven many cars with much more aggressive brakes than the MK8's. That said I'm a very light Braker, my MK7 left me with just over 30,000 miles on the clock and the service record showed the front pad wear at 10%.

If that was correct I would be getting well over 250,000 miles out of a set of pads. Thinking back I've only ever had two sets of brake pads replaced on a car, My Citroen C4 automatic at 60,000 but it was my fathers car for 30,000 of those miles and he was pretty poor at braking, seemed to be fully on the brakes at every stop . And a MKII Toyota MR2 which I bought 2nd hand with 40,000 on the clock and I had them changed at about 130,000 miles.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

25 minutes ago, Blatto said:

Can't say I find them that sensitive,

This can be a snag with attempting to answer queries such as Jean originally posted - differences between individual cars, even the same make/model, can make it hard to distinguish what is a fault or just a characteristic. Mine is definitely more sensitive than some I've tried, though obviously you get used to your own car and adapt your style to suit. I just need to make a mental adjustment when driving my Mrs's car, for instance, which needs a bit of a firmer touch.

Like you, I'm not heavy on brakes - down to anticipation, and leaving sensible gaps from the vehicle in front I suppose.

[Blatto]

I noticed the manual says during the run in period avoid heavy braking in town for the 1st 100 miles or so, and 1000 miles on the freeway, which I interpret as try and avoid braking too heavily from high speeds. I've deliberately used the brakes more often so far as I think my normal lack of braking would mean I'd be taking a lot longer to bed them in.

1 hour ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Like you, I'm not heavy on brakes - down to anticipation, and leaving sensible gaps from the vehicle in front I suppose.

 Yep, with a bit of luck with the traffic and anticipation I rarely touch the brakes on my 64 mile round trip daily commute. If I can miss any traffic at the T junction out of my road I can often do the first 20 miles without ever using the brakes. The final 10 miles or so there's a few busy roundabouts and then into town where you often have to stop.

Traveling up the A1M with all the other Muppets sitting about 2 cars lengths behind each other at 70mph I'll often see them on the brakes more in 1 mile than I do in the whole 64.

Really cannot understand why  90% of people follow so close, makes no sense, wasting the brakes, fuel, tyres and being ***** dangerous.. 🙄

[cjay1]

I too am a big believer in one pedal driving. Giving yourself a bigger gap and anticipate the traffic slowdowns saves fuel, brake and tyres not to mention reduced vehicle emissions.

[Bobr]

I quite often get the brakes grabbing when I first start off in the morning. Once they're warmed up they're fine though.

[Blatto]

When you say grabbing Bob, do you mean feeling like you are braking too suddenly or just a Graunching sound?

I never had any harsh braking from cold on my MK7 but often had a graunching noise due to rust formation on the disc surface if it had been raining/damp overnight.

This would wear off after a couple of applications of the brake but you could feel it a bit as a regular pulsing as the rust areas passed through the pads.

 

[brains_t]

Can you get hold of a similar courtsey car or book a test drive of another. That should give you some of the answers you're after

[Bobr]

On 10/14/2019 at 7:23 PM, Blatto said:

When you say grabbing Bob, do you mean feeling like you are braking too suddenly or just a Graunching sound?

I never had any harsh braking from cold on my MK7 but often had a graunching noise due to rust formation on the disc surface if it had been raining/damp overnight.

This would wear off after a couple of applications of the brake but you could feel it a bit as a regular pulsing as the rust areas passed through the pads.

 

It feels like I've suddenly jammed my foot on the brake.   Usually get it when I first start off.   After about 300 yards I have to turn left and it happens when I brake for the turn.   Doesn't always happen though.

[Blatto]

57 minutes ago, Bobr said:

t feels like I've suddenly jammed my foot on the brake.   Usually get it when I first start off.   After about 300 yards I have to turn left and it happens when I brake for the turn.   Doesn't always happen though.

Doesn't sound right, did you get it checked out by a mechanic?

[Bobr]

I parted with the car today and part exchanged it.   I told the dealer about it.

[Blatto]

56 minutes ago, Bobr said:

I parted with the car today and part exchanged it.   I told the dealer about it.

That's one way of dealing with grabbing Brakes Bob 🤣. Hope you enjoy the new Automatic, saw the pic in another thread, very nice 👍

[Bobr]

Thanks Michael.   No problem at all with the brakes in the new car.

 

[Brownie27]

On 10/12/2019 at 4:45 PM, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Unless trying to get the engine to pull low revs in too high a gear, I find mine very smooth indeed. The 140 has lower overall gearing than the 125 but I don't normally go below 20 in 2nd, 30 in 3rd, 40 in 4th, 50 in 5th and 60 in 6th. I would recommend keeping revs at 2,000 or above in normal driving, though obviously you can't do that when crawling along in traffic in 1st.

Braking - I've never heard of brake chains either (maybe they meant handbrake cable) and as Michael says hope they didn't grease the actual discs! They may have put copper grease on the back of the disc pads? Anyway, my brakes are also quite sensitive even after 9,000 miles and require a delicate touch to come smoothly to a standstill at lower speeds. A lot of cars are like this nowadays - bit like an on/off switch in some cases.

I had the first issue and was pulling low revs in high gear, is there any way to turn off the arrows that the car shows when to change gear? Mine is 2016 fiesta ecoboost. Thanks.

[Guy Heaton]

No it is an EU mandated feature. Stick some black tape over it.