Hello,

I recently purchased a 2011 1.4 Zetec with 27000 miles on the clock and generally loving the car.

It drives great around in the low gears, picks up fast as it should in gear 1 & 2, but if I'm on a slight up hill and joining a dual carriage way, from 30mph when I put it into 4th it can barely crawl up the hill with really slow acceleration..

I'm just wandering if anyone else has this?

Maybe it something I need to get used to and put it into 4th gear in a higher rev range..3 gear can be like it too sometimes

The car engine bay was really dusty/dirty when I bought it, dealer cleaned it up before I picked it up so I'm thinking about putting a K & N filter in it and giving the MAF sensor a quick clean, any thoughts?

Hi Pandadog15, I have 1.6 diesel and that's the same. I even took it back to ford and they just said it was turbo lag and I need to change gear at higher revs.

I find 2nd and 3rd gears for me are the issue. I was even thinking about getting it mapped....maybe

Not sure if you see much of a difference with a k&n filter, I thought about that too. Tempted to get an induction kit.. 

3rd is better for accelerating from 30, cruising in 4th at 30 is fine but if you want to get a move on you'll need to drop a gear. 

 

Just sounds to me like the revs are too low. I find in our 1400 fiesta mk7 that you feel the power come on at 3500rpm to about 4500rpm the best if you're after swift progress

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a turbo'd engine with a lot more torque and yet I'll still drop it down to 2nd if I want to really accelerate from 30mph.

It does depend on the gearing of your engine, but 4th is a cruising gear at 30, you can't expect to make much progress accelerating, even more so on a small displacement N/A engine.

As others have said, try dropping to 3rd if you want to accelerate, or even 2nd if it will take it, your engine should produce most torque higher in the rev range. Don't do that unless the engine is warm though.

Thanks All much appreciated , I'll adjust my driving style..