Team-BHP - Can a service cause pick up to drop

Hi,

I own one-yr old Ford Ikon 1.6 ZXI - petrol (ROCAM Engine). I love to drive this car because of its flat torque which is a key feature of Ikon 1.6 and Baleno. It delivers max torque at 2500 RPM. Recently I gave this car for servicing. After servicing, I feel the car does not deliver that much of power at low rpm. I have to press accelerator much more to get the same power. The manual says that

1-gear: 0-40 kmph
2-gear: 14-74 kmph
3-gear: 20-112
4-Gear: 28-max
5-gear: 34-max

Before servicing the car was pretty much running as per this pattern. But now, it does not seem to follow this pattern. At 45kmph speed also the engine knocks in 5th gear. I want to get it back to old settings. Does anybody know why would it happen? Has the service guy changed any engine settings? Is it because the microcontroller has been reprogrammed to different settings?

Rakesh

Hello, rrkoul. Err....first, the title is slightly misleading, as your query doesn't have much to do with gear ratios.

The manufacturer recommended speed ranges are never ideal under actual driving conditions. The loads, air density, fuel quality, etc. bring about huge differences in the gears/ratios that can actually be used in a specific rev-range.

You say the vehicle didn't use to knock before the service. How many kms has the car run? It's possible that the injectors might be clogged, or perhaps the service guys didn't attend to the spark plugs, and/or valve timing (if it's a high-mileage car). The ECM programming cannot be changed, so don't worry on that front. The ECM could have been reset, though, if you had disconnected the battery for a while. Did you give it for charging?

Lastly, check the fuel quality as well. Perhaps you filled in from another pump.

back in del i used to drive my 2001 1.6 ikon (now done app 41,000kms).. she never knocked at 45 in 5th (although i rarely did that..)

the only prob i see can be bad fuel.. its not that easy to change the microcontroller settings and i dont think they will change it until unless a special request is made by the owner

if u feel lack of power, it may be due to clogged injectors, a very common prob in ikons. I have got them cleaned 4 times in my ikon and have to use premium/power petrol to keep them running in good shape

Thanks guys for the response. I always use BP Normal Unleaded petrol (Not SPEED) in the car ALWAYS from the same petrol pump. The car is serviced 4 days back, so I do not expect any clog or spark plug problem. The car has run less than 10K km, it is 1 year old. Yes, before delivering the car, the service guy filled up 10lit of petrol from an unknown petrol pump because car was low on fuel. May be that is the problem. But I know practically, there is a difference in the way gears were behaving before the service and after the service. Car doesn't have same acceleration at low RPM. Before the service, the car used to run in 4th gear on an upslope at 30kmph with no knocking. Need to press accelerator harder to get the acceleration!!! Anyway, I guess the only thing I can do it is to wait for next refuel, hoping petrol is a problem.

-Koul

There are some additives that you can squirt into your fuel tank and they apparently help (somewhat) to clean out the injectors.

Its a good idea to use SPEED or Premium or whatever. Its less than 2 Rs more.. which is like 4%. You get better mileage, performance and engine life. Plus, i've heard that they put some sort of cleaning agents in these fuels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ford Rocam

Can you please explain us how did you come to that conclusion???

Sure …if you insist….
The fuel/air mixture is normally ignited slightly before the point of maximum compression to allow a small time for the flame-front of the burning fuel to expand throughout the mixture so that maximum pressure occurs at the optimum point. When the mixture is not ignited “slightly before” it results in an un-burnt fuel. Knocking occurs because the spark plug is igniting fuel either before or after that point. Knocking is caused by the burst of the un-burnt portion of fuel disproportionate to what its “timed” to be. This un-burnt burst at wrong time result is a pressure wave and is quite dangerous for the engine piston and crank.
Hope its clear enough now
Thanks

A good explanation but imo thats not the problem theres no settings or adjustment for fuel/ignition on that engine everything is controlled by the ecm by taking feedback from various sensors moreover the problem is of power drop, hence when hes on 5th gear at low rpm theres not enough torque available from engine hence it gives knocking like sound the problem could be mainly due to, Air intake choked up by some foreign particle, Low fuel pressure (fuel pump or fuel injectors clogged) or any obstruction in exhaust.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkkoul

Hi,

Would suggest that you get your plug gaps checked. Also once the same is done reset your ecm by disconnecting the negative terminal of the battery for a few minutes. Am not asking you to do other things like clean filters etc assuming they have been attended to during the service.

Viper

Quote:

Originally Posted by rohitbagai

Are there no knocking sensors installed in rocam engine?

Am not 100% positive, but all ROCAMs, 1.3 & 1.6 have knock sensors. Dunno about the earlier 1.3 pushrods, though.

Since the car's run only 10K kms, it's highly unlikely that the knock sensor's been fouled.

Nevertheless, rrkoul, you can check for the same. The knock sensor is a small black thing that bolts on with a single bolt below the intake manifold. It should have a single black wire coming out of it. Take the car to your service guy, replace the sensor and check if the condition improves.

Alternatively, there's a dummy terminal in the fusebox under the hood. Short it with a wire, and if your odo reads "00000", then no sensors are faulty. Tell your mech to check it out in your presence.

Else, it could be other factors that everybody has mentioned...