2013 SHO Software Issues

[Greg2013SHO]

Here’s something I’ve been asking around. I even had a phone conversation with SM105K. It’s what Mike Stimson contacted him about when I had trouble joining the Forum. I was taking the vehicle into a new dealer shop and wanted to be informed so as to assess their competence and honesty.

Ever since I prepared to buy the 2013 SHO I had heard about its glitchy software. My dealer made jokes about it during our test drive. He held monthly classes for new Ford owners; more jokes about their frustrations getting the new cars to behave. The car I chose drove so well that I accepted the glitches.

Of major annoyance is the Trip Calculator. The amount of gas I pump in can be off by a gallon or more, always less on the screen than what the pump read-out shows. My fueling approach matches those of others so it’s not some aberrant method, such as topping off. The wrong volume translates to a wrong MPG calculation, always too high. Makes it hard to know how the vehicle is performing.

The side sensors are way too sensitive. The rear view mirrors show a warning when it’s only normal grass on the highways. I suppose the sound alerts help my backing up to make me aware of anything in the area but when the car is going straight back it seems excessive to tell me there are obstacles on both sides. The crash warning is also maybe too sensitive but that’s the way I like it - allows me to be careful when danger is possible.

Have any of you had problems with the parking assist? My dealer couldn’t make it work well. Ever since then I do it all by myself.

The new Ford place assigned me a very good tech. I guess all my questions put them on notice. He did the diagnostics at no extra charge. Their usual fee is $130 per issue. He found that all my software was current except the PCM, which he updated. He also tried the parking assist and said it worked fine for him. I was having a problem fueling the car; the pump’s automatic shut-off engaged except when I nursed the gas in slowly. So I went thru months of long sessions at the pump. Recently I was OK but the question remained. He found an insect nest in the air vent valve. He blew it out. Apparently the nest had become a bit dislodged so wasn’t interfering with fueling. So THAT made sense. As for the other items he said there was no way of predicting what software upgrades would impact which functions. The system is holistic so anything could be affecting anything. I haven’t experienced any differences since his PCM upgrade a month ago. Same quirks.

I’ve done preliminary reading in the Forum topics but don’t see these items addressed. Maybe they’re deeper into the threads. Anybody want to shed some light here or simply fret together?

Thanks.

 

[yaycandy]

Mine has all the same issues on my 15, i just ignore it. My friends joke and say hey the trees are trying to cut you off. The correct way to reset the gas miles calculator is to run the car empty. Only need to do it once, when it reaches zero it will bounce back up to 15. Over and over till its empty. Then you fill it and i think mine says 490 miles when full. Or 470. Cant remember

Everytime i pull out of my garage, car coming from left. Its a der gum broom handle ya stoopid sensor. And then it makes the radio all shut up like where the flip son. Reason i dont daily it, it made fer these stoopid new time idiots that aint no how to drive. I drive me classic, aint no beep beep nutin. Backing out of pole building with caddy, flips that sound. Oh the cotton pickin pressure washer was behind the car

 

[Greg2013SHO]

Thanks yaycandy. I’ll try running down the gas tank. But you don’t mean bone dry, do you? Both SHOs I’ve owned warn against running out of gas. It would mess up the programming and other fuel functions. Do you carry a gas can with you so can refuel it yourself when it’s empty? Seems like a lot of attention for a software issue. The receptionist at the new Ford place told me the read-out uses the remaining gas to make its calculation. What you say is along those lines. That’s a rather indirect method for a modern car, ain’t it?

Here’s another oddity. I’ve been told that the oil life is computed from driving history. The black box keeps track of recent speeds and stop/go driving to model how the oil is being degraded. There’s no direct measurement such as a transparency scan. I see the oil life decrease faster when I stay in town. On the highway for long hauls it gives me 100 miles for each percent of drop. Here’s the funny part: it’s exactly 100 miles, to the tenth. I go for hours and monitor it. Exact same pattern for each percent. That suggests there are only a few categories of display. Not esp precise!

 

[yaycandy]

I ran it empty. I wouldnt if i were you. It can suck up bad stuff.

Oil life is 10 percent per 1000 miles. So it goes 10k miles to 0 percent. Im my expirence. Ive never seen it go down any quicker. I barely use it, as i just set my phone to 6 months on the calender to change it out. As i rarely drive it.

Its bs for it to know the oil life. Its just an oil pressure gauge in there. Nothing else, its not no exotic engine and even they dont know the oil life between all the types of available oils and additives.

My work has r&d on aerospace rigs, which is highly wearing out jet engine components to figure out when they are done. They have about 7 computers worth of electronics and sensors on it and they cant even tell the oil wear on an r&d jet engine rig. When its something that should be the center of attention

 

[krewat]

Oil life is supposed to be based on temperature, duty cycle, etc. So yeah, flat out highway use, it's slow, and then if you do a lot of stop-and-go, heavy acceleration and/or run up the oil temp, it's going to move faster.

I noticed my 2018 is a little less sensitive on the warnings than my 2013 was. The 2016 I had in the middle, maybe what the 2018 is. I had park assist on the 2013, and the one time I tried it, it worked. Never used it again. I can parallel park as long as I have a right-side-view mirror

 

[limited02]

Personally, I don't care if the MPG readout is off a little and honestly, I expect it to be. Typically, it's off by .5 mpg and as high as 1 mpg (rare). I track my MPG via Fuelly and have done so the last 5.5 years since buying my car. I know my driving habit well enough that if the MPG readout is looking pretty off, then I know something is off.

If I understand your post that you're annoyed the digital mpg readout is off, you might want to do it the old fashioned way and manually figure it out.

 

[FiveLeeter918]

Whew, glad I don't have any of these reported issues... or I just don't pay attention... haha

 

[Zpak]

I found after I started mixing for e30 I always have way more fuel in the tank than it reads. Made for some lousy mixes. I’d run it down to “30 miles to empty” and couldn’t squeeze in 12 gallons, other times 14 gallons at same gauge readout.

 

[Greg2013SHO]

Personally, I don't care if the MPG readout is off a little and honestly, I expect it to be. Typically, it's off by .5 mpg and as high as 1 mpg (rare). I track my MPG via Fuelly and have done so the last 5.5 years since buying my car. I know my driving habit well enough that if the MPG readout is looking pretty off, then I know something is off.

If I understand your post that you're annoyed the digital mpg readout is off, you might want to do it the old fashioned way and manually figure it out.

yep, I do, every gas stop - but it seems unnecessary given what is offered. Thanks for your results.

 

[Greg2013SHO]

I found after I started mixing for e30 I always have way more fuel in the tank than it reads. Made for some lousy mixes. I’d run it down to “30 miles to empty” and couldn’t squeeze in 12 gallons, other times 14 gallons at same gauge readout.

that's my experience too.

 

[EdgarAllanSHO]

Not sure how accurate this is but I recall either someone at the Ford dealer or my mechanic tell me that the oil life % in most Ford's is based on the amount of engine start/off cycles

But I've definitely seen it fall more than 10% per 1,000miles, especially within the last year or so, I've only put less than 3k miles on my SHO

I don't seem to have any of those other issues/glitches though, but I've seen them on my buddy's Explorer sport lol, especially with those front parking sensors

 

[jtreber]

Not sure how accurate this is but I recall either someone at the Ford dealer or my mechanic tell me that the oil life % in most Ford's is based on the amount of engine start/off cycles

But I've definitely seen it fall more than 10% per 1,000miles, especially within the last year or so, I've only put less than 3k miles on my SHO

I don't seem to have any of those other issues/glitches though, but I've seen them on my buddy's Explorer sport lol, especially with those front parking sensors

Not as bad as this: For the winter I park and store my C7 with only 200 miles on the oil change. Come spring I start the car and it shows I have zero miles left on the oil and Onstar hammers me in email to get the overdue oil changed.