[RishikeshK]

All - I purchased a Ford Ecosport TDCi BS6 in March 2020. It has run about 7.5K km till now. I’m facing a peculiar issue with the car since about a month. Following are the details.

Observation #1 : With medium/high load ( 4 adults in the car + luggage ) and AC on and upwards slope, the car fails to accelerate and gain speed. It sort of bogs down. I have to turn the AC off to make some acceptable progress. This is not observed on flat roads.
Observation #2 : With low load and flat road, the car shakes at higher speeds ( 80 kmph to 90 kmph ). If I hold onto that particular speed, the vibrations continue and can be felt in the cabin too. I can accelerate past this speed eventually though and vibrations disappear.

There are no warning lights on the dashboard.

Self troubleshooting -
1. This doesn’t look like related to wheels as vehicle goes well past 120 kmph easily on flat without any odd behaviour.
2. Doesn’t look like related to clutch as well because the vehicle is just 7.5K km run and I don’t see any typical clutch shuddering at launch / clutch slippage behaviour. Revs well past 3K RPM on flats.
3. This does look like related to the exhaust, but there is no indication on the dashboard about the need for DPF Regen or Regen happening automatically.
4. As per some articles on the Internet, such behaviour could also be related to fuel pump. But I doubt that since the vehicle is pretty new.

This issue doesn’t occur at city speeds on flats even with high load with AC on.

I’m yet to visit Ford service centre for this. I plan to do that in coming weeks. I wanted to have some data handy before they try diagnosing it.

Please help me understand the cause of this and possible resolution.

TIA

[arjab]

Originally Posted by RishikeshK

Observation #1 : With medium/high load ( 4 adults in the car + luggage ) and AC on and upwards slope, the car fails to accelerate and gain speed. It sort of bogs down. I have to turn the AC off to make some acceptable progress. This is not observed on flat roads.
Observation #2 : With low load and flat road, the car shakes at higher speeds ( 80 kmph to 90 kmph ). If I hold onto that particular speed, the vibrations continue and can be felt in the cabin too. I can accelerate past this speed eventually though and vibrations disappear.

Get the diesel fuel injectors checked up. The injectors are roughly in two parts. The mechanical bits and bobs below and the electronics sitting on top of it. The vibrations at low loads is a possible indication of injector calibration gone awry. I have faced this problem in old Skoda Rapid and VW Vento 1.6 Diesel's. Yes, these injectors can be repaired, but as your's is a new vehicle, and if this remote diagnosis turns out to be the actual problem - you should be getting a free replacement.
Best.....,

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by RishikeshK

...

Observation #1 : With medium/high load ( 4 adults in the car + luggage ) and AC on and upwards slope, the car fails to accelerate and gain speed. It sort of bogs down. I have to turn the AC off to make some acceptable progress. This is not observed on flat roads.
Observation #2 : With low load and flat road, the car shakes at higher speeds ( 80 kmph to 90 kmph ). If I hold onto that particular speed, the vibrations continue and can be felt in the cabin too. I can accelerate past this speed eventually though and vibrations disappear.

For issue 1, the Ecosport does need to be revved a little when going up a steep slope. Additional load will add to this. If it was not like this before, then do get it checked.

Issue 2 sounds like a wheel balancing issue. You will get vibrations only in a certain speed band exactly as you are experiencing. Try getting the wheels balanced and see if it's resolved.

[RishikeshK]

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

For issue 1, the Ecosport does need to be revved a little when going up a steep slope. Additional load will add to this. If it was not like this before, then do get it checked.

Issue 2 sounds like a wheel balancing issue. You will get vibrations only in a certain speed band exactly as you are experiencing. Try getting the wheels balanced and see if it's resolved.

Issue#2 indeed was because of incorrect wheel balancing. I got wheel balancing done at Sai Krupa Wheels and Tyres, Wakad, Pune (link) and it seems to have addressed the 'vibrations at 80-90 kmph' issue. Thank you for the tip Tarun

Issue#1 is still there. I didn't face any such issue on my old Figo 1.4 TDCi so expected it to be the same with the better engine on the Ecosport. I plan to raise it during the second service (Mar '21 timeframe). Before that I plan to try out the Italian Tune-up once to see if it takes care of any clogs in the exhaust. I sincerely prey that it is not related to faulty fuel injectors !!!

[gotiyaa]

Originally Posted by skarthiksr

I am not sure on what could be the reason for the car to remain unsold for so long. Will leave it to experts to comment on that.
But, note that the FlyAudio head unit in the Ecosport is updated in September 2020 with support for live traffic, wifi connectivity etc. And as per the reports, retrofit on older models is not possible. So, getting a January 2020 model would mean that you are not going to get this update. May be you can talk about this to see a possibility of further negotiation if you are going to proceed.

Thanks Karthik, waiting was a seriously good option. Got a 2021 ES AT+ at a ~40k lesser price. Took the delivery yesterday.