Hello everyone, 

I have a general gearbox question. Why did Ford change from a rotary knob to a very long gear lever in the facelift mk4?

Was the rotary knob problematic?... and is it powershifter or torque converter? It's not just curiosity... I want to buy one (mk4 1.5 eb 150-182ps automatic). Thanks in advance.

7 hours ago, Ivan.de said:

Why did Ford change from a rotary knob to a very long gear lever in the facelift mk4?

I've no idea !!

7 hours ago, Ivan.de said:

Was the rotary knob problematic?

Never had any problems with it on my present car or any of the previous cars that i've had with the rotary knob gear change.

The rotary dial is on the torque converter and I'm pretty sure the stick/Tbar is only on the DCT Powershift.

The thing with the torque converter I don't like is that when switching between R and D you don't always get an obvious 'nudge' when the gear engages.

So for example, when you turn the rotary from R to D, you feel a nudge when it comes *out* of R - and you might think that D has engaged but it takes another part of a second before D is engaged. And when D does engage you might only feel or hear a slight groan - because it comes in gradually - not with a reassuring nudge.

In practice this makes fast 3-point turns a little more stressful because you just have to estimate when you think the gear is engaged. You might sometimes roll slightly if you take your foot off the brake too early... or have to wait a little longer when you press the accelerator for the car to move.

I eventually got used to this and it's not a deal breaker for me but it is the most annoying quirk of the car for me.

Further - on early models before a module software update (PCM or TCM, I can't remember) this problem was much worse and the gears would take even longer to engage. My 2021 Jan build never had this problem though.

I also know people in Australia who have always had other transmission issues with the torque converter like occasional rough changes but I have never has this problem. Frankly I think if you get a torque converter one you'd be better off getting one from 2021 onwards (I don't know if the mechanics in this forum would agree).

Other than that I quite like my torque converter transmission with the 1.5L, but note also that the paddle-shifting is slow on it (especially upshifts).

I suspect the rotary dial was not popular because together with a new type of feel with this particular torque converter transmission (and the original TCM or PCM software version) it caused some anxiety and confusion.

You def have to have your foot on the brake when you change between R and D - which I think you are supposed to do anyway with all autos... but I used to be able to do more confident 3-point turns on my old 2000s and 1990s cars with less braking in between.

Thank you so much for the help. 

It will help me a lot.

It's a shame that they don't offer mk4 with the 1.5 ecoboost anymore.