Revisting the Instantaneous fuel consumption readout

AlanD · 20-11-2009, 09:21 PM

Hi group,

Had the 3000 km courtesy service half completed today

: , and asked for this facility to be switched on.

Left the car with the dealer at 10:00 am and indicated we would be back at about 4:00 pm.

We kept our part of the bargain. the car was still on the hoist and we then waited for 30 minutes while two service people walked about the place consulting books and fiddling with steering wheel buttons.

Long story short: "Sorry the instantaneos feature can't be had" - but in the course of their probings thay have managed to turn off the long term average consumption readout too!

: Discovered this on the way home.

The car is a 2008 January build MA Zetec TDCi sedan:

So if anyone with the same car (Or the hatch version) has had this feature enabled for them can they let me know who did the work so I can direct the metally impaired to a knowledgable person for guidance - even better would be if someone knows the trick and can post it I will do it myself, I'm suspecting a combination of simultaneos button pushes with the ingnition at a particular position. Other things get set/reset with accelerator and brake combinations so I'm expecting to be surprised.

They fiddled with the A/c too and managed to get it colder than it was, but the service guy wants it back next week to complete the service and get the refrigerant load checked out.

You would think that with 6 hours to play with they could have managed to get everything completed before we got back to retreive the car.

And if anyone is wondering why it has taken almost two years to clock up 3000 km its because it sat on the dealer's floor for 18 months until we came along and then we got a $10,000 discount from on road list price. This we are happy with :yeees:

Thanks in advance for replies.

Cheers

Zippy7 · 21-11-2009, 08:13 AM

IIRC, the instantaneous fuel consumption figure was available if you had a software upgrade done. I think it's still a relatively unknown product with the service staff (they sell so few Mondys, so they don't get to service many cars, and even less requests!).

I never bothered asking since it was always hit and miss with dealers, and there is the risk that they screw something up (as in what happened to yourself). At least now you have an excuse to make them give you a software update, as they've screwed your existing setup.

AlanD · 21-11-2009, 10:10 AM

Hi Zippy,

Thanks

DRU842 · 21-11-2009, 01:20 PM

Had this added during a software upgrade at the 15,000k service. Service Manager admitted to being surprised at the lack of problems it caused as it was their first one!

Dusty1 · 21-11-2009, 01:26 PM

I've asked a couple of dealers about it, and they have said the same thing - 'can't be done'.
If we can get specifics as to what they need to do (where to find it, how to switch it on) I'd be happy to see about getting it done at the next service.

LRsedan · 21-11-2009, 01:32 PM

Only one guy I know of has done it, the colonel I think it was.

He said its in the IDS. Only dealers can do it.

Dusty1 · 22-11-2009, 08:10 AM

That sounds right. I think his little brother works in a service dept. I also remember someone saying it was only going to work on the expanded (colour) HMI.

AlanD · 22-11-2009, 08:49 AM

Well, there seems to be lots of differing stories:

1. Dealership - "Can't be done"
2. The Colonel gets it done on a pre 2008 XR5 (?)
3. Needs to have the MB series colour display.
4. Has been a standard feature since May 2008 as a running change
5. Needs an IDS software update (this I tend to feel is close to the facts)

From a practical point of view the hardware has to be monitoring instantaneous fuel usage to be able to provide the average figures, so it's just a matter of getting the software to route this information to the display. In any event the Engine management system is deciding how much fuel to feed to the engine at the current time when it adjusts the injector settings, so it's not a matter of measurement, rather a matter of recording what has already been calculated for display.

My 5 year old Territory has both instantaneous and average (rather less aggressive averaging too) readout capability from day 1 and that car is a an April 2004 build. And from a software point of view it is rather trivial, but the code does need to be there.

I guess that I will be "grateful" if they can gert the average readout displayed again.

But as a practical matter, it's getting damned difficult to find out anything about how your vehicle works except by trial and error, which is fraught with danger as you might just do something you cannot retrieve and there your vehicle sits waiting for a flat top truck.

:

Oh for the days when you could get your car into a good state of tune with nothing more than a screwdriver, a set of feeler guages, a timing light and a spark plug socket. I fondly remember the 1962 Falcon Wagon my father bought new which regularly gave 32 MPG or 8.8 litre/100km. But it wasn't quite as comfortable as the Mondeo - or as quick off the mark - or had ... End of rant!

Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

But if anyone who reads this has had this feature activated, would you let me know the build year, model and the dealership who did the work?

Thanks

AlanD · 23-11-2009, 12:17 PM

Hey Dusty,

Registered at the mondeo.org site and found the thread you started in June.

If I'm reading the replies correctly from MondeoCat, it appears that there was an IDS (Instrument Display System?) software upgrade in about March of 08 which is why my car (Jan 08 build) doesn't have it. And it applies to the standard instrument panel like ours according to ModeoCat..

So on Friday when the car goes back in to get the remainder of the courtesy service done, they get to give me back the average readout and hopefully upgrade the IDS software to provide the instantaneous read out too.

Feedback after Friday.

Cheers

Dusty1 · 23-11-2009, 01:49 PM

Alan,

I wish you all the best. My experience so far with service people are that if they can't find it in two seconds, it's not do-able. I had a big drama trying to get the autolocking set, and when I asked about this software flash last year, they knew nothing about it.

I'm interested to see how you go.

AlanD · 28-11-2009, 10:28 AM

Went back yesterday and gave the Dealership service people a bit of a ticking off on the basis that:

1. 6 hours for a courtesy inspection service ought to be enough and we were kept waiting for 30 minutes after our pick up time.
2. They managed to lose an IDS function that was previously available.
3. People both here and in the UK have indicated that the software upgrade does the trick.

I'm reasonably confident that they understood I was somewhat peeved

:

According to them the shop foreman worked on the car for the 6 hours they had it with frequent calls to Ford Oz about the problem of the lost Average Fuel Consumption readout. Got a call 15 minutes prior to pickup time to be told they were downloading some software that might do the trick but if it didn't (It didn't) the next step was the replacement of an Instrument Cluster module!!!

This, of course, involves dis-assembly of the dash area - Think we are pleased? NOT! But according to them it isn't "that difficult" But they will arange a zero charge courtesy car!! I'm kinda worried that if we let this proceed then we are going to get a car back that rattles and squeaks for the rest of its life. At the moment it is rock solid with nary a rattle or squeak anywhere and we would like it to stay that way.

I'm tempted to tell them to "shove it where the sun don't shine" and take the car to our regular dealer from whom we have had nothing but satisfactory service. As it happened we were having another car serviced by them and when we picked it up told them the nasty story, They agreed with me that since all the other readouts are working, the idea of a hardware snafu seems far fetched and pulling the dash to bits is not the best idea they have heard.

Also in a previous life I used to design digital electronic systems, and I know that when hardware goes bad it does not do so selectively.

I'm tempted to disconnect the battery and let it sit overnight to discharge the capacitors and then reconnect to let it do a hard boot up to see if this fixes the problem, since I have the radio security code, that isn't going to be an issue.

But anyone with more knowledge of the car might give me a heads up if there is other stuff to watch out for.

And if any one wants to know the dealer involved then PM me.

Cheers