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What's your theory on the RS NOT giving out advertised power numbers? Disappointed.

109K views 492 replies 157 participants last post by  Ducxl 
#1 ·
How are they gonna release a car with false advertisement numbers?! This is a big issue, whether you can get a tune(or whatever) or not in the future to match the numbers that they lied about its still not right. Car should of came of the lot the way it was suppose to be for the number of months ford has been saying what it outputs and hyping.
 
#62 ·
Yea. If that's the case then that's a problem as all the glowing praise for this vehicle mostly comes from EURO reviewed cars. Especially when Ford invites all the US car magazines out to Spain to review the car for the American market. Intentional?
 
#69 ·
I'm thinking it has to do with the Dyno's expecting all 4 wheels, which just doesn't happen with the RS

Remember the rears disengage at highway speeds unless turning, at Dyno's speeds, it's just the fronts

But on flipside, they may also reengage under heavy acceleration, which would be happening during a Dyno's run

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
#76 ·
To add some more info, I recently started noticing the decrease in power randomly. Would feel like it wants to pull, but just doesn't. Today, my wife and I went for a drive in our cars, she has a 2014 GT. We kept WOTing back to back. I never felt that power dip. We also never slowed down due to traffic or lights. So, when we would come off WOT, we would still be going 60 or so, then WOT again a few minutes later. When I was seeing the power dip, I was in a decent amount of traffic. Not sure if any of this helps at all, but just wanted to put it out there. Both occasions were in Sport mode.
 
#77 ·
most 1/4 mile calculators using the inputs of 350bhp and 3450lbs theoretically put ET between 12.6~12.9 seconds, trap speeds between 106~109mph, and I'm pretty sure this is calculated at 0 DA. Houston, we may have a problem..........
 
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#78 ·
Hopefully Ford addresses this somehow, likely via flash. If not tuners are going to have a field day with this removing the restriction on OB making their tunes look amazing. So, it'll be great that we will be able to unlock that artificially bottled up power, but it'll come at a risk of having to throw out your warranty. Or, we'll see Ford selling "red keys" for these things too for just under $1000.
 
#86 ·
I have no doubts that the European tune is a bit more aggressive than the US. US has more variance in fuel type (aka California's 91), altitudes, climates etc. Not to mention that the emissions are stricter here and the whole CAFE bull****. The VW scandal was probably something that every auto manufacture took note of, and makes sure things are on the up and up in that regard. My guess is that the dyno numbers are due to a temperature compensation such as Charge Temp, Compressor outlet temp, etc or Cat protect mode which will dump fuel up top. If you look at a stock Focus ST dyno, they fall like a rock up top because the cat protect mode engages and dumps a ton of fuel to cool it down. The other thing is the OAR (Octane Adjust Ratio). Basically the ECU will learn the knock activity, more knock means a higher OAR which is a multiplier to give you spark advance. Ideally the OAR will be at -1, which is used to multiply against a spark advance table to add to the borderline timing. That is what gives you your final timing curve (among some other compensations, but that is the jist of it). I can't remember if OAR effects boost and fuel as well, but for some reason I think it does. I have been away from Fords for a year and tuning Subaru so OAR and DAM are crossed in my mind lol.

Lastly with OAR, it takes time to learn. There was a good post on Stratified Tuning's website about how to get the OAR to learn properly. I think from the factory it defaults low, and changes constantly. That would definitely explain why the dyno one time is good and another its bad. If the knock sensors are overly active, or the tune is too aggressive for the fuel you will see OAR swings.

Hope this makes sense, and thats my best stab at it without seeing more data logs.
 
#88 ·
I just hope Cobb or another tuner figures out something that gets rid of all of the power robbing bs. I plan to run a catless dp and tune from there so hopefully a good map is out in the next few months.
 
#89 · (Edited)
How many engineers does it take to use launch control and a GO Pro and give us a 0 to 60 time legally on most highways and let us see who has a pig and who is trolling to create doubt. If you don't have an RS but you "know a guy" who has a found a major problem or their tune/gas/engines are better somewhere else.? Thanks, but shut the hexl up. How many posting here have a FIA license and need 100 % of the rated HP for qualifying? Supposedly this is a spec car with no comparative competition out there, so what is the deal with these rumor mongers? Do it right, pull the engine and dyno it if it is such a big deal. I am sure some Lemons cars will beat it in a 1/4 mile. So?. Find someone with an octane tester. Apples to oranges with a 2 wd chassis dyno guesstimating engine HP.. and no I don't have my RS yet. Possibly in a week. You're giving me an ulcer.
 
#90 ·
I got one for you.....
The AWD system monitors inputs from:
Steering, throttle, engine output, engine speed, yaw rate, LATERAL AND LONGITUDINAL ACCELERATION/B], brake and ESC systems, wheel speeds, PTU temperatures, and RDU temperatures........
MAYBE, when the car is on the DYNO and people are flooring it, the sensors are looking for longitudinal acceleration, which it won't see because the car is static......maybe the computer is going WTF, and cutting back power. There are videos of the RS on the track, passing cars it should be able to pass so the power is there....right...???? Have any of yall actually raced a car and seen your focur RS not work????? Go race a Focus ST........If the ST wins, then yeah......we got issues...
Just a WHAT IF, RANDOM thought.......
We'll never know unless EVERY ONE is having the issue and Ford has to figure it out......unless it's just a few folks are complaining..... meh
 
#94 ·
I really thought I remember reading early on when all the media was testing the car in Spain that the nominal hp/tq was 325/330(ish). Wouldn't that be consonant with repeated whp numbers ~250-260 in a 15-20% driveline loss? Ford advertised the car making 345 in over boost, not its nominal hp rating. I dunno, that to me says the car is performing as advertised. Speaking to not being able to repeat the 300ish whp in over boost, beats me.
 
#101 ·
I was wanting a peaceful 8 years with this car under warranty and no worries.

Starting to look like I wont be getting that. Probably going to have to do upgrades it seems.

Almost makes me consider just buying a higher priced car to begin with based on the amount of money im going to have to put in to make this car do what it was supposed to stock.
 
#102 ·
I can agree that not getting the advertised numbers is a huge problem. Ford needs to sort that out, because 350hp at the crank should be a repeatable number when accounting for driveline loss.

Trap Speeds are a very clear indication of a vehicles power to weight. If the car isn't trapping 104mph, then its underperforming. Realistically it should be in the 105-107mph range depending on factors with a good driver and a good launch.

Power should remain consistent in all normal conditions. Even the ST which is known for its rather small intercooler was consistently within 10whp each run. Both when stock, and when running a OTS Cobb 93 Stage 1 tune.

If ford cannot meet both the EPA's requirements as well as their own advertised ratings, then they need to provide a fix.
 
#104 ·
Golf R's are trapping 104-106 in decent conditions, and STI's are similar but slightly lower. The RS should be trapping 107-109 MPH in my opinion if the power really is where Ford rates it. We will have to see, more people should be running their cars soon so we should be getting a bigger sample size on how the RS is performing.
 
#107 ·
Here in Australia it has been commonplace for manufacturers to detune a car to suit our conditions, I hope our RS gets the full monty! I am also located in Adelaide which is basically at sea level, hoping this helps performance.
 
#109 ·
I've not experienced any of these power loss issues. Mine is hitting consistent boost levels every time. Power seems uniform. I haven't done a quarter mile test. I will say that mine was built before the cutoff for cars sent to the modcenter, and it never went there, it got straight on a truck and came straight to the dealer from the port. The whole trip from boat docking in jacksonville to Ky took around 15 days.

It arrived with all Euro Numbers on everything electronic. Celsius, KPH, etc.

Are these cars that are underperforming ALL cars that all went to the Mod-center?
 
#112 ·
 
#115 ·
I don't get why all these cars seem to not be in overboost...it's bs, they advertise it as available basically all the time bc let's face it you will never be WOT for more than 20 seconds without lifting but yet car after car showing 250 hp pulls.
 
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