Hello --
First post. Please bear with me. It's a long one…
I found
focusfanatics this past Friday and before reading a single thread, I signed up, and then immediately jumped on this thread which has taken me several hours to read
IN ITS ENTIRETY: I spent the whole weekend reading this novel of a nearly 900 posting thread. Reading the whole thread has answered so many questions, and given me so much great info, that I will now not waste your time with repeat questions that have been asked and answered so many times before in this one thread. I thank all those who have provided all this great information -- links to websites, the youtube vids on the dual clutch transmission, notes about how to learn this transmission, et al. Great stuff, all.
I'd like to apologize up front if my handle sets anyone off here. That is not my intention, but I can certainly see how it might be taken that way since the word 'shudder' is perhaps mentioned more than any other single word in this long thread. I've been using 'shudder' as my online handle since I joined a photography website called dpreview 11 years ago ('shutter' was taken, so I went with 'shudder' -- I've since used that handle everywhere on the web). The name has now brought me full circle to this website: my Tuxedo Black '12 Focus Titanium hatchback exhibited the same 'shudder' that has been so well documented in this thread by so many others.
Jumping into issues now:
I. THE SHUDDER:
On 9/1/11,
FordCostomerService (Natasha) wrote,
"We are working on doing a better job at explaining how this new transmission technology behaves when customers take delivery of their new vehicles" (post #178 -
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3805195&postcount=178). One specific way to do this is to make the youtube videos posted previously in here required viewing at the dealership by anyone interested in purchasing a new Focus. I am going to be writing the internet sales rep I dealt with to make this exact recommendation, considering all he really did was tell me that it's a different type of automatic transmissions than most.
On 12/5/11,
serathe posted this video with PowerShift Development Team Leader Piero Aversa -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX1DN04vZPk&feature=player_embedded (post #563 -
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3917587&postcount=563). Note that at
32 seconds in the vid, you can actually
SEE the shudder we all know so well as the Frosted Glass Focus pulls away from a stop at a corner… Taking just five minutes to view this one vid in particular as I was buying my car would have saved me so much time and effort after the fact. It really does explain so much that was not explained to me as I was looking at the car.
On 11/1/11,
Montana wrote,
"Anything built after 08/12/2011 should not have some of the issues that the prior vehicles had" (post #442 -
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3877658&postcount=442). My Focus has a build date of 12/11 (I bought it March 18). It exhibited the same shuddering issue that supposedly only cars built prior to 8/11/11 exhibit, but for me it was not obvious until I hit some drive time traffic on a crowded freeway (no, I did not test drive the car in drive time traffic before purchasing it). I took it back into the dealership after having it for only a few days because I didn't know what was going on, but it certainly felt 'wrong' when I almost stalled trying to maneuver my way through traffic. The service personnel did not know what to tell me at first -- it was like they had no idea what was going on -- but eventually they learned (or figured they would have to tell me) that they would have to "reset the computer" controlling the transmission. By this, I now assume they performed one or another of the PCM/TCM updates talked about on here. It really did seem that they had no idea about there being any issues with the transmissions in these vehicles at all. No mention was made of this at all until they told me about the reset. This surprises me now, considering how much the
FordCustomerService team have mentioned this in replies to users throughout the thread.
I'm happy to report that since that update was applied (whichever one it was -- sorry but I am too new to all of this, so I don't know exactly which was done), the shudder has thankfully been greatly reduced. I also think that information I have gleaned from earlier posts in here have helped me out a great deal, as I find that I am now driving a bit differently with this transmission than I have with other transmissions: I am learning it as it is learning me. And that's really okay, as long as everything works out in the end. There are 1,475 miles on my odometer as of this writing (highway mostly -- this is a commute car), so the jury is still out, but it does seem like it is getting better as time progresses.
Additionally, on 11/7/11,
JPopNC wrote,
"Have you tried a higher octane of gas yet? Did that for mine and the shutter literally disappeared" (post #458 -
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3885378&postcount=458). I filled my nearly empty tank with Premium gasoline this morning, to see what effect that has. I do not intend to put Premium in the car regularly, but since it was an earlier recommendation in this thread to mitigate the shudder, I thought I would give it a try to see how the car performs. I also noted that after
JPopNC's posting was made that some other folks completely discount the idea that Premium gas will do anything for the shudder. We shall see.
II. THE MILEAGE:
I was not impressed out of the gate with my mileage as it was nowhere hear the 27 - 37 MPG promised by the marketing, but I read
Natasha's note on 11/25/11,
"As far as fuel economy, you'll get a more accurate measurement after 2-3K miles on your Focuses" (post #528 -
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3906558&postcount=528). Hopefully in a few hundred to a couple thousand more miles I will see better numbers. Currently my very best has been an average of 27.7 on a tank. I'll wait on this until later.
III. THE SOUND SYSTEM:
I'm a bit of an audiophile. I noticed the headliner was loose in my vehicle and was causing rattling while listening to the Sony sound system. When I took it in for the shuddering, they ended up keeping the car for an additional three days so they could replace the entire headliner (they had to wait for parts). I've read in here that some folks have had their headliners come unglued. Since mine was replaced, I have not noticed the rattling any longer.
The CD player volume is attenuated considerably lower the radio, Sirius, Bluetooth and USB. While the CD player does have 'Compression' available on it, which does raise the volume levels a bit when engaged, not all CDs sound great being pumped up by compression. I've been able to mitigate this a small bit by upping the levels of bass/mid/treble in the EQ, but of course this affects all audio channels, not just the CD player. The CD output needs to be normalized with the audio level of the other channels. The full output of the CD player can easily be talked over (I find myself often turned all the way up, wanting to go further, but it's just not there when using the CD). It is also majorly annoying when I switch to other audio channels: they boom in
way louder than the CD player. The fact that other devices can get much louder is an indication that there is some kind of governing going on in the system. Can this be removed?
IV. SYNC:
I've experienced issues with SYNC since day one. Of course, it is a very complicated computerized system, but there are things that are just not right about it. I am up on the latest/greatest rev of the software (confirmed by Ford's In-Vehicle Technology team at (800)392-4040 -- I have the "house" and "gears" on my home screen, which is apparently the way they know). I did the system reset over the weekend as recommended by
FordIVTeam (Jaclyn) in response to
liljr's similar issue (post #880 -
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4093499&postcount=880), and also reset my iPhone, all to no avail.
corpflyboy has just written in above me today that the new software fixed all of his problems (you can do this update yourself by the way, by downloading it from syncmyride to a USB drive and performing it at home while running the car -- could take up to an hour to finish up), but we still experience the wind tunnel effect, making it almost impossible to communicate when I am moving.
A. RESETTING SYNC:
Resetting the SYNC system can be a bit disconcerting:
1. Reset the system, per Jaclyn's instruction.
2. Re-added my iPhone.
3, Downloaded my phone book, and after a minute or two the screen said:
Vehicle Transport Mode Active
-- Please contact your dealership.
4. That was not good, so I turned the car off, and opened the door to shut the SYNC system down.
5. Started the car again, and SYNC came back, reset to defaults (though the FM presets I'd set were retained…). Whew.
I then pressed on, and have some reproducible issues:
B. CD OVERTAKEN BY USB:
I started playing a CD and then plugged in my iPhone to the USB connector. A moment later, the CD stopped and iTunes started playing, and very loudly (as noted above since the audio levels are not normalized between the different devices).
Plugging in a USB drive of any sort should not change audio inputs.
C. BLUETOOTH/USB ISSUE:
Post reset, with the iPhone plugged in, the Bluetooth is now listed as 'BTST1' on the Home screen. I'm not sure what that's about, but feels incorrect (might this be a setting somewhere?… I've not set up anything called BTST1). Here is a reproducible issue:
1. Play Bluetooth, song plays from iTunes.
2. Switch to USB, same song continues to play (time continues counting, play button is activated, volume is up),
but there is no audio output.
3. Unplug the iPhone, radio comes on, significantly louder than other options…
4. Plug phone in and USB interrupts the radio without being asked for, but plays fine.
5. Switch to Bluetooth, plays fine.
6. Switch to USB, same song continues to play, but as above,
there is no audio output.
NOTE: This reproducibility shifted on me again this morning. Now, it plays fine on USB, and when I switch over to Bluetooth, the song will not play (pressing the > engages for a moment, then stops). Always a moving target...
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So, sorry for my very first posting to be such a long one, but I thought I would get it all out there as I introduced myself. Thanks for your time and attention. I look forward to being here, and with your help hope I can get all of these issues ironed out with my new Focus.
- shud