Feedback Please From 12/13 Reg Tdi Manual Owners

[Scorpiorefugee]

I've logged a lot of moans about my MKIII but I am eventually learning to live with it. Chucking out the run flats and using cushions in the awful sports seats has helped and inflating the tyres to full load levels together with exclusive use of Shell fuel had helped the fuel consumption. On a recent 400 miles it managed a calculated 47mpg albeit with a mix of motorway with some speed restrictions and urban/rural roads. Even better, after filling up and driving 10 miles home following one of those nutters who manage 35 mph on open roads and 40 in built up areas it recorded 58mpg but that won't last.

 

More to the point, I have continually complained of turbo lag for want of a better description. chrispb123456 reported that his seemed much better after a service and software updates so I was hoping for a similar result. Sadly, after it's second service (now at 15K) and having had all of the updates which apparently took most of the afternoon, it is now if anything worse. I am now wondering it I am suffering from a "Feature", an unfortunate side effect of low emission engines, some specific design feature to improve the driving experience :blush:  :blush:  or an actual fault. This being the case I should appreciate any feedback from other owners based on the following fault description. I should say that my wife continues to refuse to drive it and she has happily driven everything from an antique motor coach to a TVR including furniture vans and motor bikes.

 

The problem(s)

 

The throttle has most of it's action in the top 1/4 - 1/2 inch (1cm) and under normal driving conditions including motorways just the lightest touch gives a feeling of a lot of welly, almost like driving a high powered sports car, but using the rest makes a little difference but nothing appreciable which makes overtaking a bit nerve racking until you learn what to expect. It's a bit like the old days when a quick burst on the throttle squirted neat petrol into the input manifold.

 

On a steady take off or in slow moving traffic after changing up there is a short (1 second ish) period of normal reaction followed by 1 or a series of surges of power particularly progressing though 1400 rpm. These can be almost like a a quick stab of full throttle (without turbo lag) with a sustained increase in power until a quick lift off and a gentle return to the throttle pedal. If I just leave the throttle pedal fixed there are a succession of these at 5-10 mph intervals as the speed builds up. 

 

A similar effect occurs after accelerating at higher speeds and changing up. I.E. a normal smooth change followed by an unwanted boost.

 

It seems at times as if the damned thing has a mind of its own.

 

As others have commented on a similar effect I should be interested in progress. I have adapted to this but it still feels very odd from what is supposed to be a well designed power unit.

 

I shall be taking it back to the dealer but I get the feeling that they see very few Galaxys and what they do see are mainly autos so a bit of ammunition would be useful.

 

My own opinion is that is is all to do with controlling turbo boost at low revs as the surges at around 1400 rpm do feel like quite a push in the back, far more than I should expect for low revs in 4th gear.

 

Any observations welcome.

 

Thanks folks. 

Edited May 4, 2014 by Scorpiorefugee

[Scorpiorefugee]

I took it to the Local Ford dealer today and one of their techs drove it around for about 1/2 hour. Annoyingly, the damned thing had been behaving itself pretty well on the drive in so it  continued that for most of the test. I drove it for a bit but the trouble is I now anticipate it's idiosyncrasies and tend to intercept them and he had a different driving style. He did however agree that he had noticed some of the symptoms I described on Mondeos and agreed that it seemed to be just part of the normal behaviour of this engine. I think they have been very helpful and they have suggested that I could pop in every month or so to check for any updates and refused to charge me for his time. I have to say that Hills Ford of Kidderminster have been brilliant throughout.

 

I suppose it is somewhere in the range of Fault, Freak or Feature, probably midway between the last 2. Annoyingly it started doing silly tricks on the way home but I've now got used to it I suppose I'll just have to live with it and try to get my wife to give it another go. One little point, one of the reception staff is looking to replace her MKII Ghia X with anything but a MKIII and that's before I came along but I think that's mainly because of the fold down seats which is probably my biggest source of dissatisfaction. I've offered to let them borrow mine so that they can do a comparison with the alternatives as they rarely get one less than 3 years old in for resale and these issues do seem to have occurred as a result of "improvements" like standard fitting of "sports seats".

Edited May 12, 2014 by Scorpiorefugee