DCT / PowerShift Transmission Update TSB Thread

[Black Bengal]

Originally Posted by kam327

Five full throttle 0-60's in a row on a deserted country road seemed to make a big improvement immediately. And I've just been acclerating faster in general since then. Seems not to have negatively affected fuel economy, it may have even helped it a little.

How often do you repeat this 5X acceleration exercise? Is it a one time thing or every day or week or month?

[jbird1955]

I'll start by saying mine is a May 2011 build.

After chasing my dealership for almost 4+ months I got the latest update in early February.

Right off it wasn't a big improvement but it was better. Not being satisfied I disconnected the battery and performed the drive cycle myself, just to be sure. Its now been about a month and 1200 miles later and it is unbelievably better. It did take some miles to learn again but its torque-y as hell, stays in gear with more input longer and after 9 frigging months of DCT & MFT frustration I am so thrilled to drive this car. The MFT update that I downloaded and installed myself Friday night has put a huge smile on my face.

Oh, believe it or not my mileage has increased and I'm not babying the thing at all (avg. of 29.5 now 32).

Now to find the district rep. and complain about my dealers service group.

Joe

[kam327]

Originally Posted by Black Bengal

How often do you repeat this 5X acceleration exercise? Is it a one time thing or every day or week or month?

Nope I just did it once. The thinking is that it helps hasten break in of the clutch surfaces which should only need to be done once. Kind of like the hard stops you would do after putting new brake pads on.

[foh-kuhs]

Originally Posted by kam327

Nope I just did it once. The thinking is that it helps hasten break in of the clutch surfaces which should only need to be done once. Kind of like the hard stops you would do after putting new brake pads on.

Maybe correct on the clutch disc break-in but on new brakes, the bedding in process is just the opposite. You do not want to do hard stops for the first few hundred miles to avoid creating hot spots and glazing the pads and rotors.

[kam327]

Originally Posted by foh-kuhs

Maybe correct on the clutch disc break-in but on new brakes, the bedding in process is just the opposite. You do not want to do hard stops for the first few hundred miles to avoid creating hot spots and glazing the pads and rotors.

I understood the opposite. I think it was the guidance that came with the NAPA rotors and pads when I replaced them on the Explorer that said to do a series of hard stops from 30 mph to seat the pad material onto the rotors.

On "bedding in" brakes:

http://www.zeckhausen.com/bedding_in_brakes.htm

Make eight to ten near-stops from 60mph to about 10-15 mph. Do it HARD by pressing the brakes firmly, but do not lock the wheels or engage ABS.

After the break-in cycle, there should be a slight blue tint and a light gray film on the rotor face. The blue tint tells you the rotor has reached break-in temperature and the gray film is pad material starting to transfer onto the rotor face. This is what you are looking for. The best braking occurs when there is an even layer of of pad material deposited across the rotors. This minimizes squealing, increases braking torque, and maximizes pad and rotor life.

[kam327]

Originally Posted by jbird1955

I'll start by saying mine is a May 2011 build.

After chasing my dealership for almost 4+ months I got the latest update in early February.

Right off it wasn't a big improvement but it was better. Not being satisfied I disconnected the battery and performed the drive cycle myself, just to be sure. Its now been about a month and 1200 miles later and it is unbelievably better. It did take some miles to learn again but its torque-y as hell, stays in gear with more input longer and after 9 frigging months of DCT & MFT frustration I am so thrilled to drive this car. The MFT update that I downloaded and installed myself Friday night has put a huge smile on my face.

Oh, believe it or not my mileage has increased and I'm not babying the thing at all (avg. of 29.5 now 32).

Now to find the district rep. and complain about my dealers service group.

Joe

Glad to hear you got some positive results by being persistent. Congrats on the "new ride."

[VOLDAR]

Has anyone observed that after the TSB update the idles at 750 rpms ?

[foh-kuhs]

Originally Posted by VOLDAR

Has anyone observed that after the TSB update the idles at 750 rpms ?

Mines at 750 rpm. Is that not the norm?

[VOLDAR]

Originally Posted by foh-kuhs

Mines at 750 rpm. Is that not the norm?

Well, before the TSB mine was at 630-650 rpms.

[suss6052]

Originally Posted by st falcon

Is anyone aware whether or not this TSB update will affect the milage? My 2012 gets worse milage than the 09 Focus loaner (which is a conventional 5speed!) we are driving after we got rear ended. My trans is sluggish and hovers arounf 2600 to 2800 RPMs going 70 to 75...SEEMS VERY HIGH, as the 5 speed 09 focus loaner hangs out around 2400 to 2500 at these speeds....I am going to call the dealer today while it is there getting body work done to see if it can be flashed...

Unless you were driving the manual the only automatic in the 2009 Ford Focus was a traditional 4 speed automatic. http://media.ford.com/press_kits_det...ection_id=2878.

Since it was only a four speed automatic with a tall final drive and a 0.73 gear with 15" tires the engineering equations for estimating the rpm from the tire size, gear ratio and vehicle speed. In this case 70 mph, with 15" tires on the automatic 2009 Ford Focus should be 2731 rpm. With the 16" wheels the car should be turning around 2687 rpm. both of which are higher than the engine speeds theoretically required by the effective gear ratio of the transaxle gear* the final drive * a bunch of coefficients and divided by the rolling radius of the tire. The 2012 should be turning 2626 rpm at 70 in the base s with 15" wheels, around 2584 rpm at 70 with the 16in wheels and 2563 rpm at the same speed with the 17 or 18 in wheels since their rolling radiuses are approximately the same.

Therefore 2600ish at 70 is spot on with what the car should be doing in 6th gear according to the math.

The math is as follows: gear ratio* final drive = effective gear ratio at the wheels. Knowing the engine speed or the road speed we can find the other one of the two items. In this case I knew the road speed and the size of the tire but not the engine rpm as I didn't have one to test.

The relationship between the increase in engine speed and the road speed can be calculated in english units by the following equation: 168*Ra*Rt/rr

Ra*Rt= axle ratio* transmission ratio 168 is a conversion factor, rr= tire rolling radius, which is not half the diameter, but can be easily looked up if needed.

Once this road speed to engine speed relationship is established reverse calculating the engine speed is a simple matter of multiplying the target vehicle speed by the result and bam out comes the result in revolutions per minute.