WS Fiesta Aircon

[Franco Cozzo]

Mines "Morello" this dark metalic purple colour, the aircon doesnt work until about 5 minutes of it being on and sometimes when I start the car, it'll turn itself on but other times, it'll stay off.

[JClarke]

Mine takes a little than two minutes to be very cold, but not in the hihly expected level, like RapidTyphoon said its acceptable still though after 3 months (tomorrow) still am a happy camper :evil3:

[StormyKnight]

Originally Posted by XCPWSF

...sometimes when I start the car, it'll turn itself on but other times, it'll stay off.

Maybe you have 'climate' control & you didn't even pay for it?

[dannyhilton]

If you leave it in demister mode, it will automatically turn on the air conditioning as the aircon removes moisture making the cabin less likely to fog. My top-tip for the day :-) LOL

[GoesLikeAZetec]

Went to dealer to price the sports pedals other day and told him about the air con... Basically said that they hadnt had any problems with them and to bring it in...

Then the sales guy out the front said that they'd already had a fair few complaints about the new Mondeo air con being crap too.... Which had me thinking are they the same or close to the same air con unit... Are Ford Oz that broke that they cant fit a decent compressor on their Oz cars?

[dannyhilton]

My FG Falcon has AWESOME air-con. I presume it's just a European Ford thing, but why they don't customise it for Australia I don't know. As for the alloy pedals, Ford Australia are rip offs. I've order a whole heap of Ford accessories of European Parts for pennies compared to buying them from Ford. I'm still waiting for delivery, but at least they will be cheap

[blownba]

Not compressor. That compressor would be fine to run a refrigeration unit on a truck!!!

It would be either condenser size (refrigerant temps and pressures too high) or evaporator/ heater box design, or TX operation........
Certainly wouldn't be compressor.
My bet would be condenser size too small to carry out enough heat transfer, like on my old BMW.
One way I overcame it to begin with was to fit another cooling fan on the front of the condensor with a water mist spray.... Worked UNREAL but was impractical being I had to refill the bottle with water every day or so and the fan was real noisy.... SO i ended up fitting a condenser that was a twin core and a fair bit bigger in size and OMG what a difference.. It would freeze your eye's open if you kept it on for more than 5 mins and then you turn it off and leave it for a minute or two when you turned it back on fog would come out of the vents as it vaporised moisture build up on the evaporator instantly!!!

I am yet still to have a look at it.
I spent my spare time yesterday REMOVING THE FRIGGIN SUMP... to fix the damn oil leak!!! YES it was leaking oil. 3000km old!!
They did not seal the sump correctly and a big section at the back was leaking oil and actually DRIPPING on the ground. I am really over this car.
If my wife didn't love it so much I would get it and drive it through the dealers front doors.

[Noddy]

Originally Posted by blownba

Not compressor. That compressor would be fine to run a refrigeration unit on a truck!!!

It would be either condenser size (refrigerant temps and pressures too high) or evaporator/ heater box design, or TX operation........
Certainly wouldn't be compressor.
My bet would be condenser size too small to carry out enough heat transfer, like on my old BMW.
One way I overcame it to begin with was to fit another cooling fan on the front of the condensor with a water mist spray.... Worked UNREAL but was impractical being I had to refill the bottle with water every day or so and the fan was real noisy.... SO i ended up fitting a condenser that was a twin core and a fair bit bigger in size and OMG what a difference.. It would freeze your eye's open if you kept it on for more than 5 mins and then you turn it off and leave it for a minute or two when you turned it back on fog would come out of the vents as it vaporised moisture build up on the evaporator instantly!!!

I am yet still to have a look at it.
I spent my spare time yesterday REMOVING THE FRIGGIN SUMP... to fix the damn oil leak!!! YES it was leaking oil. 3000km old!!
They did not seal the sump correctly and a big section at the back was leaking oil and actually DRIPPING on the ground. I am really over this car.
If my wife didn't love it so much I would get it and drive it through the dealers front doors.

Not wanting to side track this thread but i'm about to buy one of these cars and now i'm a little miffed hearing the problems people are having.


Blown ba could you just post the other issues you are having with the car?

[blownba]

Well I just had to pull the sump off the other day (sick of going back to Ford for warranty work and them not doing anything right so I am better off fixing it myself) to fix the nice big oil leak from there. I already had it back to Knox ford and they saw it and said it was just loose bolts. It was painfully obvious that there was insufficient sealer at the section it was leaking (about 3 inches of sump had no sealer or too little).

Ongoing issues with transmission shift quality and timing. It tends to get a bit lost and then runs a different strategy when air con on. Has been flashed twice (I don't reckon they did it the first time cause they were amazed it accepted a update the second time) give me a break.

Air con not cold and car struggling when on. Turns out it was WAY over gassed from factory.

Fuel economy excessive. (its on 11.1 now and we have not seen better than 9.2!!!)
But they keep saying its our driving style. My missus drives like a nanna.

Panel alignment poor. Especially at the bottom of rear doors.

Squeak/ rattle from rear seats.

Brake squeal excessive.

And a few other really small things.

And top it off it came back from Knox Ford the last time with a nice dint in the bonnet where they obviously closed it with their hand. (they dent real easy obviously)

My missus still loves the car, although she hates the way the trans shifts. And she hates the economy and she hates the rattle, and oil leak and a few other things. but as long as she is overall happy with it I can let it ride for now until I get a bit of time to start sorting it out.
I am in the process of getting software and licences to be able to tune the Fez. So I will try to improve the trans operation and fuel economy AND POWER myself with custom tune.

I also have a BRAND new 1.6L that I could put in it if she lets me. My ,ate has 2 of them that were set aside for Formula Ford cars but have not been used yet. they are still in the plastic the way they came from ford.
I reckon one of them would sit nicely in her car.
I did BEG her not to get the Auto as the manual drives a HEAP better, but she refused and now she's spewing. If you are thinking of getting one I would HIGHLY recommend getting a manual.

having said all this it still is a great car. I just need to work through these few issues and it will be awesome.
The gadgets are fantastic and there is a whole heap of good stuffed stuffed into such a small car for the price.
It handles fantastically well for a stock car, and when I drive it in manually mode and shift it where I like it drives beautifully and has surprising zip for a 1.4. they really get going after 3000rpm.

I am a fairly picky when it comes to cars, but that's my job.
She's happy with it and that's the car she wanted so I am happy to keep persisting with it and get it perfect eventually.

[Noddy]

Thanks for that ba, the car is for my inlaws they want the auto. It's that or a yaris so I have said go the fez. Fingers crossed.

[dannyhilton]

Having driven both a 1.3 and 1.5L Yaris auto, I think the Fiesta comes up trumps here no worries. Although the transmission isn't as smooth as the old 1.6L/4-Speed auto combo on the WP/WQ (which was great for an auto by the way) the Yaris has a clunky gearbox, and is woefully underpowered. I've only driven two Fiesta autos, and both seemed more than acceptable. Mind you my 1.6 WS felt MUCH punchier.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by blownba

Well I just had to pull the sump off the other day (sick of going back to Ford for warranty work and them not doing anything right so I am better off fixing it myself) to fix the nice big oil leak from there. I already had it back to Knox ford and they saw it and said it was just loose bolts. It was painfully obvious that there was insufficient sealer at the section it was leaking (about 3 inches of sump had no sealer or too little).

Ongoing issues with transmission shift quality and timing. It tends to get a bit lost and then runs a different strategy when air con on. Has been flashed twice (I don't reckon they did it the first time cause they were amazed it accepted a update the second time) give me a break.

Air con not cold and car struggling when on. Turns out it was WAY over gassed from factory.

Fuel economy excessive. (its on 11.1 now and we have not seen better than 9.2!!!)
But they keep saying its our driving style. My missus drives like a nanna.

Panel alignment poor. Especially at the bottom of rear doors.

Squeak/ rattle from rear seats.

Brake squeal excessive.

And a few other really small things.

And top it off it came back from Knox Ford the last time with a nice dint in the bonnet where they obviously closed it with their hand. (they dent real easy obviously)

My missus still loves the car, although she hates the way the trans shifts. And she hates the economy and she hates the rattle, and oil leak and a few other things. but as long as she is overall happy with it I can let it ride for now until I get a bit of time to start sorting it out.
I am in the process of getting software and licences to be able to tune the Fez. So I will try to improve the trans operation and fuel economy AND POWER myself with custom tune.

I also have a BRAND new 1.6L that I could put in it if she lets me. My ,ate has 2 of them that were set aside for Formula Ford cars but have not been used yet. they are still in the plastic the way they came from ford.
I reckon one of them would sit nicely in her car.
I did BEG her not to get the Auto as the manual drives a HEAP better, but she refused and now she's spewing. If you are thinking of getting one I would HIGHLY recommend getting a manual.

having said all this it still is a great car. I just need to work through these few issues and it will be awesome.
The gadgets are fantastic and there is a whole heap of good stuffed stuffed into such a small car for the price.
It handles fantastically well for a stock car, and when I drive it in manually mode and shift it where I like it drives beautifully and has surprising zip for a 1.4. they really get going after 3000rpm.

I am a fairly picky when it comes to cars, but that's my job.
She's happy with it and that's the car she wanted so I am happy to keep persisting with it and get it perfect eventually.

I think you probably got a dodgy one, maybe there was something wrong on production line and it screwed the whole thing up?

[blownba]

Yeah maybe.
Good enough reason for me to sell it. But she won't let me.

[GoesLikeAZetec]

Agree with the air con not being very good... you wont sweat but you wont be cold.

Some seem to have a poor panel gap on the rear doors.

The 1.6ltr manual is the go though... average 6.5-7ltrs for ours...

Ours doesnt have any of the other things poor blown has...

[StormyKnight]

Yes I had a drive of the car today with an indicated outside temperature of 38 degrees....

OK the AC did seem to struggle a little, we started with it on the face & foot & fan speed 4. I'm sure that the air comming from the face vents was hardly cold at all, but the foot vent the temperature seemed much better.

Has anyone else noticed that?

I turned on the recycle mode to assist...

Anyway, after 5 minutes or so, I decided to turn the knob more towards just being on face since i wasn't getting any air pressure at all from the face vents...very little anyway & not enough to reach my face.

There are two notches inbetween each major setting so 1 notch towards fully face allowed much more air to come from the face vents. I also noticed a drop in air temperature too. I tried the next notch, it was even better! My feet where already feeling too cold for my liking compared to my face/chest.

I would have to say that in this setting it was working OK, although the fan was on 3, the recycling was also turned on. A little noisy for any sort of long distance I would have thought.

Another thing I noticed was how 'well' the car kept stored temperature. We spent 3 hours inside tonight after parking the car in the sun facing west at 6pm. Still by 9pm I had to wind the windows down & use the AC as the car interior was still very warm....

Perhaps that is why it seems to take a long time to cool when we first get in the car, it seems to store the heat very well...

Cheers.

[dannyhilton]

The bloody front window is far too big. It heats up all the pipes and dash so by the time you jump into your car it's a degree from boiling point. Others noticed this a while ago, so I went and got a windscreen cover. I got one that actually fitted (it's flipping HUGE!) and it has made a noticeable difference. It still takes the car about 10 minutes to reach a stage of coldness, but after about half an hour it seems good on level two with the air-con on. Because of the large window area, and relative smallness you have to air it out before using the air-con, otherwise it just stays stinking hot!

[GoesLikeAZetec]

Oi Rapid where did you get the proper one from?

[vegabass]

Blownba, you let me know when you have a better A/C system worked out and when you can custom tune for the fez. Ill do yet another road trip from the ACT. Also my XR6 will be ready for you modify the LPG system for boost. Ill be bolting the charger on in a few months.

[dannyhilton]

Got my window cover from Super Cheap Auto. It's a massive silver one. Has like two adjustable parts to it. It's massive and bulky but works. Will take a photo tomorrow.

[blownba]

No problems dude.

I have had ZERO time to do anything to my own cars of late.
16 hour days 7 days a week for the last month and a half and I still have cars piled up to the rafters!!

I am thinking its still too small a condensor for the system. But I need to do some tests first.
I have had to fix the oil leak from the sump myself.......Don't get me started on that one.
i have some pics actually. i'll post them.

[StormyKnight]

Yes the AC really is the only thing that lets the car down, if we could fix that I (currently) have no issues with the car at all!

I don't drive the car that often as it is the wifes car, but I really do like to drive it the steering for one is great, & I like to drive my cars if they like to be driven

[dannyhilton]

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/825/img1319gy.jpg

This is my windscreen shield.