Ford Ecosport- Underpowered in second gear?

[Rajesh Jalubula]

Hi there Zigwheelers. Hope you guys are doing well as I am doing here.

In this post, I am going to write about the experience I had with the Ford Ecosport TDCi. This one too is about a performance-related issue as my first one.

My friends and I had made weekend plans to go to Kodaikanal. After much discussion on wether to go by bikes or a car, we decided to take the latter. The four wheeler won over the two wheelers because of the distance (550 km) and the bad condition of one of my friend's bike. We started at 1:00 AM on Saturday (02/25) anticipating that we would reach the hill station by 9:00 AM at least. As the minutes ticked by, so did the miles. We made finally it to Kodai by 09:30 AM. After a quick breakfast, we went for a tour covering various interesting places and shoot some photos.

Night crawled in and it was getting colder by the minute. Our plans of sleeping in a tent didn't materialise as we didn't have enough of them. We decided to take a room instead, for which we began our hunt in earnest. I was behind the wheel and while scourging for the place and due to traffic restrictions, I took a road leading downhill which was leading me to nowhere and against to our intended destination. Fellow passengers complained that this was the wrong route and that we should return back the same route.

Alright, I took a U-turn in a small alleyway. Once it was done, I could see the road in front of me. It was like a wall. Definitely more than a 30-degree incline. Didn't notice how steep it was while coming downhill. The car was carrying 5 people along with 40 kgs of luggage in the boot. Holding the brakes, I slotted the car into first gear and released the clutch as smoothly as I could taking into account the engine vibration to release the brake and apply some gas. 2 sec...3 sec.. yep.. there it was.I could feel the vibration. I released the brake and gave the throttle. Instead of going forward, it started to move back. My timing wasn't right. There was immense tension in the cabin ().
Second try. This time I got it right. The car started to move forward. Gotcha!! I revved the engine to 3,000rpm and the car gained momentum. Right then, I shifted to second gear and all I got was a total power drop. The car started to roll back again. Tension rose yet again. I had to change to first gear again and give a hard rev. I revved it so hard with the clutch in half open position. I would have done the same for almost 200-250 feet. Finally, we were on top and the road levelled out. But it smelled of trouble. All of us could smell burning rubber. I was really worried about what might have happened to the engine or if the tyres burnt. Later, I found out it was due to the clutch overheating. The smell subdued by the next morning.

I have seen the lack of power in second gear at various locations too while going uphill. When I downshift from 3rd gear to 2nd gear, the car literally crawls. I had to downshift to 1st gear and pull it. I felt third gear has much better torque than in second.

Is it because of my bad driving skills () or if the car is really underpowered in second gear? Let me know.

Vehicle Odo: 8,000 km
Variant: Ford Ecosport, Titanium, TDCi , Diesel.

Cheers. Peace out.

[NikilSJ]

Rajesh Jalubula, doesn't your EcoSport have the Hill-Hold function. I thought all Titanium variants of the EcoSport came with Hill-Hold. That feature would have stopped you from rolling back on the incline. The burning rubber smell is indeed the clutch, but then again I can't seem to figure out how you it's possible to burn the clutch on a diesel car with loads of torque to pull you through in 2nd gear. Also, your car has barely covered 10,000 kilometres, so the clutch should have been in fine condition. I would suggest you take the car to the nearest Ford dealer and get the clutch checked.

[Roshun]

NikilSJ
The hill-hold function, if I'm not mistaken, comes only with the automatic Ford EcoSport - the 1.5 petrol automatic with the six-speed DSG gearbox. Now coming to Rajesh's issue, I think it has to do with the fact that the diesel EcoSport has some turbo lag, and if you let the car drop out of the turbo-zone, it won't make enough power. I think what happened here, was that Rajesh let it drop below 1500 RPM, when shifting from first to second. Also if the clutch is half pressed, the anti-stall feature that is inherent in diesels won't kick in. Ideally, you need to let the clutch out fully for it to pull, because even if you slightly press it it would result in clutch slippage (and hence the burning smell) as is the case here. Best case scenario here would have been to steadily keep moving up in first until there was clear enough road and less of a gradient to move to second.

[M_S_20714]

<a href="https://www.zigwheels.com/forum/profile/6">Roshun</a><br>In total agreement with your statement, the idea is to give the vehicle enough steam in 1st gear so that the switch to 2nd will not require any clutch usage, just a gentle release of pedal in transition will do the job. My experience with my love (trend , 6500kms, 10 months) is it has one of the most torque friendly motor in its segment, with minimal turbo, if kept in right rpm bands.<br>Rajesh,&nbsp;<br>2nd gear in diesel ecosport is more of a stablization pedestal (a feature much helpful in packed city drives), unlike 1st and 3rd gear, which generate enormous push.&nbsp;

[vijay_dubey]

<a href="https://www.zigwheels.com/forum/profile/13216">Rajesh Jalubula</a>, firstly, there is a engine lag in most diesel vehicles under the range of 12-15 lacks. And this lag stays until you Rev up your engine to 2000 rpm. So when you are going on a hilly region and you are trying to climb up then on the second gear rev your engine upto 2500 rpms and release the clutch slowly. And the rubber smell might be of the break pads that get heated on hilly regions because you use the break a lot and due to that the disks get heated up and due that it burns the rubber pads. And if you want to stop that lag then try modifying your car by remapping or using a race chip.&nbsp;

[mario]

My input is that the Ford Ecosport LOOKS like an SUV, but you have to remember that it is not a true SUV, nor is it a high powered vehicle. It has just a 1.5 litre engine, which is less than a powerful sedan has. With 5 passengers and 40 kg luggage there is no way it is going to climb up that incline, whether manual or automatic.