Hi there,

recently bought a 1.0 ecoboost (125 PS) fiesta titanium X Registered in early 2017.  Now a side note I’ve downgraded from a 2.0 diesel to 1.0 petrol (thanks to ULEZ).

anyway choose this as my main driving these days is short town journeys, however I have just driven from London down to Devon at the weekend and literally I’m scared for my life doing motorway driving, the acceleration is awful, trying to join motorway traffic at a reasonable speed is one thing but going up hill on a motorway is another, I had my foot to floor and literally the car starts to decelerate and I just see the speed dial start going down on one hill I was had gone down from 70mph to 50mph…….

This even happened when I was in cruise control, set it to 70mph, and any incline the car couldn’t keep to 70mph and I would see the speed dial just start to go down…….. surely that shouldn’t be right

So coming home When I saw inclines coming, I was increasing my speed and praying that the car would still be at 70mph by the time the incline had stopped.

I was a bit dubious about the engine when buying but thought it was the top of the range car, and as the majority of my driving is urban and motorway driving is few and far between (at least 4 times a year minimum) I could live with a smaller engine as a modern car these days with all the modern technology you should be able to quickly get yourself out of trouble on a motorway if needs be but apparently only if you are potentially on a flat road, and not going up a hill.

Does anyone else have this problem or are my expectations from a modern 1.0 engine just to much…….. seriously considering if I have to do motorway driving I’m going to have to hire a car as this loss of power/speed on the motorway is really dangerous……….

TIA

Hi, I think you need to recalibrate your expectations a little. The 1.0 ecoboost has perhaps only 60% of the torque of a typical 2.0 turbodiesel.

I've just swapped from the 140ps version which has lower overall gearing than the 125 as well as more power, but it wouldn't pull up inclines in top like a torquey turbodiesel. 

I'd suggest forgetting cruise on hills and get working that gearbox.

I was working the gears, as soon as speed dial started to go down, I was changing gears, at one point I was in 3rd gear doing 50mph to try and get back up to 70mph and was getting nothing…….

 

No, that doesn't sound at all right, then. What you describe would be more typical of a non-turbo petrol, not the ecoboost which is pretty lively once you get the hang of getting the best out of it. It does sound down on power.

If a recent purchase, I'd be inclined to get back to the seller (assuming it's a dealer purchase).

 

 

Have you double checked that it is a 125ps model?  Wouldn't take the dealers word for it, have seen a few 99's advertised as 125 over the years.

I’ve driven my grandparents 100ps b max with 3 adults and luggage on the motorway and had no problem keeping up with traffic and the speeds limit. I was quite surprised how well it did tbh. Coming from my ST which drives like a diesel at low revs, of course you have to downshift more but it never felt dangerous or underpowered for the motorway. It does sound like you aren’t getting much in the way of the turbo boost. 

55 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Wouldn't take the dealers word for it, have seen a few 99's advertised as 125 over the years.

Have even seen the 1.25 n/a petrol confused with the 1.0 125ps but that shouldn't be the case with a Tit X.

My 1971 Morris Marina 1.3 (quite a big car) with 60 BHP could always maintain 70 mph on motorways. I think there's something wrong with your car. 

I had a 67bhp 106 (non turbo diesel) that couldn't maintain 70 uphill.  Had to flat-foot the half mile prior to the Orwell Bridge to give it enough of a run up!  Trying to join dual carriageways from a short slip road was terrifying.  Also had virtually no brakes when coming downhill, useless tiny solid front discs...  Easily the most dangerous car I've ever owned!

My sister also sold her previous car due to lack of power on hills, again around 68bhp iirc.  Was fine around town and not too bad in Suffolk but dangerous on holiday in hilly areas.

Having said that, a 125bhp Fiesta should be able to cope better than either of those.  Either there's a fault with this one, the clutch is slipping, or the gears aren't being used effectively.  Coming from a 2.0 diesel, it can be difficult to get the gearing right.  It's too late dropping to third time you're half way up the hill for example.

Yes, the OPs car sounds seriously not right to me. When I was talking about changing down for hills you need to bear in mind I am often dealing with 20 or 25% (or worse) gradients in my neck of the woods. On major A-roads or long M-way gradients 6th to 5th would usually do the trick in my 140, I doubt a 125 in good order would be much different.

NB not sure whether the OPs car is a 5 or 6 speed - 2017 being a changeover year I assume it's a late Mk 7.5 (5 speed) but a very early Mk 8 (6 speed) is possible I guess.

9 hours ago, alanfp said:

1971 Morris Marina 1.3 (quite a big car)

As time goes past we remember things with nostalgia. The Marina which was a mid sized car at the time is by modern day cars only fractionally longer than a Fiesta and not even as wide !

 

19 minutes ago, unofix said:

The Marina which was a mid sized car at the time is by modern day cars only fractionally longer than a Fiesta and not even as wide!

And it weighed a heck of a lot less as well. About 925kg or approx 200kg less than a Mk 8 Fiesta.

Sounds poorly to me.

Check the vacuum pump outlet to the vacuum diverter valve, they collapse or separate and block the vacuum to the turbo. You don't get fault codes for this issue normally.

Cheap £7 fix and you get all your boost back

I stuck to the three year change point for spark plugs too, but they were totally knackered (and you don't notice the power dropping off so much when you've had the car for a while) changing the plugs helped

After that, pray it's not the dreaded cam belt blocking issue

Yes, certainly sounds like lack of turbo.

It could indeed be something simple, let's hope so.

(Back in the mists of time my new Rover company car (with the 2.0 L series diesel) was delivered to my work. Driving off, I immediately thought "where's the power?" and called Rovers breakdown service (which turned out to be the AA) as soon as I got home.

AA guy said there was nothing wrong and that all diesels were like that! So I had a quick poke under the bonnet myself and found a thin air line from the turbo to the MAP sensor was disconnected, pushed it back on, power restored.)

 

8 hours ago, unofix said:

As time goes past we remember things with nostalgia.

 You make it sound like I was fond of my Marina 😉 (which I wasn't).

But interesting stats. Mine was the 4 door, so actually about 7" longer than a 2017 Fiesta. I believe there are other forums on the web where a lot of us could debate whether 7" is a lot or not! 

In my mind, of course, I was comparing the size of it with the 1979 Fiesta that my father had at the same time and it was 22" longer than one of those. But I'm still convinced that it was way bigger inside than a current Fiesta, especially in the rear ..... it had an ENORMOUS boot.

3 minutes ago, alanfp said:

it had an ENORMOUS boot.

so pleased that your car was an "it" and not a "she" or that enormous comment could have landed you in trouble 🤣

1 hour ago, alanfp said:

. But I'm still convinced that it was way bigger inside than a current Fiesta, especially in the rear ..

I think that's true of many cars back in the day. A lot of room nowadays is eaten up by airbags, crash bars etc, plus all the technology (ICE, HVAC, etc). 

Of course, we may be deluding ourselves and modern cars just seem smaller 'cos of all the pies we've eaten since the days of the Marina!😃