Throttle Hesitation

[invent4hir]

Since September 2009, I’ve put 14,000 miles on my 2010 SHO. So far I’m very pleased with the manufacturing quality and while it may not be the best at anyone thing, it is very good at most everything. Below are 3 acceleration problems that I’ve experienced that I wouldn’t expect to find in a SHO, especially one equipped with the Performance Package. Has anyone else in the Forum noticed these and if so know of any remedies?

1. Occasionally there is a hesitation starting from a rolling stop, which can be downright dangerous, if it occurs turning left in a busy intersection. This sounds similar to what JWadle is experiencing.

2. The acceleration transitions from reasonably responsive to more of a Sunday driver mentally a split-second after the car shifts into third gear under normal driving conditions. This happens routinely regardless if the transmission is shifted automatically or manually and is really noticeable and annoying. The only time this does not occur, is if I really tromp on the accelerator.

3. Sometimes the SHO tries to avoid downshifting. Occasionally I can depress the gas pedal perhaps as much as ½” and the car depends on the powerful motor to do all the work.

The later two seem like an attempt on the SHO’s part to achieve better gas mileage. While that certainly is a worthy goal, there needs to be a better balance between it and performance. At least if Ford provides the drivers the option to select a higher performing mode that avoids these acceleration issues at the expense of giving up some gas mileage that would be a good start. This is not achieved with the AdvancedTrac Sport mode.

Update: My neighbor owns a 2010 SHO that was built a couple months after mine (7/2/09). I asked to test drive his and noticed it doesn't have nearly the drop-off in third gear that mine has. His car more responsive overall. Which is odd, since mine has the sport package and lower axle ratios. Then he drove my car and did say he noticed the difference to. He happens to manage the Ford plant in Cincinnati where the SHO transmissions are built. He stated that if a trip to the dealership didn't improve matters, he'd invite some developers down from Dearborn, to reprogram my car with an experimental fix.

The Ford dealer reprogrammed my SHO's transmission with TSB 10-20-8 and I have seen no major improvement to any of the 3 problems. I plan to take my neighbor up on his offer, and will post the results. It may take awhile, but if they can use my car as a guinea pig, we all may benefit.

 

[armyintel]

Your neighbor manages a Ford plant where the trans is built? Sounds like a score to me!

 

[bill1]

It is easy to replicate, on an open road, where it is safe, start a passing move give it lots of gas, when it downshifts let off of the gas then floor it again. It takes two to three seconds for ECU to decide, what gear it needs to put the transmission into, the car does nothing even though it is floored, once the ECU has picked a gear, it lets the engine come back on line after a terifying wait, and away you go. Not something I am used to in a hotrod. Dangerous in my opinion, it can't recover from sudden moves on the throttle in a timley manner.

 

[SHOvinstuff]

It is easy to replicate, on an open road, where it is safe, start a passing move give it lots of gas, when it downshifts let off of the gas then floor it again. It takes two to three seconds for ECU to decide, what gear it needs to put the transmission into, the car does nothing even though it is floored, once the ECU has picked a gear, it lets the engine come back on line after a terifying wait, and away you go. Not something I am used to in a hotrod. Dangerous in my opinion, it can't recover from sudden moves on the throttle in a timley manner.

I had this happen once only, and it only lasted for about 1 second. It was triggered as you stated with a hard tip-in, full tip-out, then a hard tip-in again. This isn't a normal driving maneuver, so I'm not worried about it. The circumstances which bring about this combination of pedal demands isn't encountered very often.

What I figured was there was some torque detent for the upcoming downshift, then the detent is being removed after the shift (but you need the throttle to open again and/or timing to return...I don't know how Ford does their torque management, but you either retard spark, close the throttle a bit, or both) but the demand is removed from the tip-out (so I think it eases out of torque detent instead of quickly returning to the previous state), then the demand returns with the last tip-in but the engine and trans. are still easing out of the detent (as requested from the prior tip-out).

 

[bill1]

No I think it is in the transmission software/hardware (torque management), TIPIN (force a down shift)
TIPOUT (up gear up up up)
TIPIN (to soon I'm still trying to up shift Wait, Wait ....... Engine management hasn’t received an I'm ready to go from the transmission)

Well the engine management (torque management) is not going to allow the engine to spool up if it can"t get an OK from the transmission. I think it starts the system fault routines, then puts the engine into a hold the the engine in a neutral power mode (For safety reasons).

In PARK ease the gas to it, floored the engine won't rev past 4200 -4700 RPM, safe place for the motor, if the sensors fail, or the car goes air born, or even when the transmission takes to long to respond.


Makes me feel very unsafe like I have no controle of the vehicle.

 

[Frex]

This happened to me too, does yours just hesitate or does it cutout and then begin to accelerate?

Mine would actually throw me forward in my seat if I was in motion and gave it a lot of throttle. Then it would throw me back in my seat when it started accelerating. The dealer found the HPFP bad, this was at 1400 miles on the car. Haven't had the problem reoccur since.

What is an HPFP? I have the new range sensor and is still cuts power.

 

[ttrull]

This is one of the reasons my SHO is in the shop right now

 

[Aelwell]

What is an HPFP? I have the new range sensor and is still cuts power.

The HPFP is the High Pressure Fuel Pump for the direct injection system on the engine.

 

[invent4hir]

Update: My neighbor owns a 2010 SHO that was built a couple months after mine (7/2/09). I asked to test drive his and noticed it doesn't have nearly the drop-off in third gear that mine has. His car more responsive overall. Which is odd, since mine has the sport package and lower axle ratios. Then he drove my car and did say he noticed the difference to. He happens to manage the Ford plant in Cincinnati where the SHO transmissions are built. He stated that if a trip to the dealership didn't improve matters, he'd invite some developers down from Dearborn, to reprogram my car with an experimental fix.

The Ford dealer reprogrammed my SHO's transmission with TSB 10-20-8 and I have seen no major improvement to any of the 3 problems. I plan to take my neighbor up on his offer, and will post the results. It may take awhile, but if they can use my car as a guinea pig, we all may benefit.

Despite leaving 3 phone messages on my neighbor's answering machine and talking to his wife once in between, he never returned my calls. Seems like a dead end. Anyways, in the past 6k miles the hesitation problem has showed up only 3 more times. Unfortunately each time I was turning left across on-coming traffic, where a 1-2 second hesitation is unsettling - especially for a passenger! Damn with all the bells and whistles Ford put into this car you'd think they get the drive train right.

I'll bring it back up to the Service Manager next time I'm in and see if any new fixes have come out. Will also re-read some of the similar threads for updates and begin to consider 3rd-party fixes, though probably won't get serious about that until I exceed the warranty.

 

[Wileytheman]

Anyone had any success with making this problem go away with Ford firmware updates?

 

[RavensFan79]

I've noticed that my car is starting to have this problem. If it's around 1500 in 5th I have to go almost half of the way down on the throttle in order to get it to down shift and go. It's pretty annoying. No issues in manual mode though. Clearly something with the shift logic.

 

[SunDaze]

I've noticed that my car is starting to have this problem. If it's around 1500 in 5th I have to go almost half of the way down on the throttle in order to get it to down shift and go. It's pretty annoying. No issues in manual mode though. Clearly something with the shift logic.

TUNE!!

 

[Frex]

This has happened a handful of times so far and all have been under constant moderate acceleration. Except once. I was driving along at a steady 60 mph turning the 1600 or so rpm. It slowed for a second or two, the tach dropped to idle and went right back to 1600. It did it again about 15 seconds later but has been fine after that. The dealer has no idea except to bring it in while it is happening

 

[ttrull]

They (Ford Dealer) fixed my hesitation with an programming update

 

[Billm0066]

They (Ford Dealer) fixed my hesitation with an programming update

Is there a tsb for this?

 

[mjhpadi]

I'm thinking there is a TSB for the hesitation problem....not sure about the number.

 

[mjhpadi]

Try 10-20-8...all of them are listed as a sticky under Troubleshooting.

 

[way2evil]

I've noticed that my car is starting to have this problem. If it's around 1500 in 5th I have to go almost half of the way down on the throttle in order to get it to down shift and go. It's pretty annoying. No issues in manual mode though. Clearly something with the shift logic.

This is normal, it doesnt have to shift down. The turbos spool up and provide all the power you need to overtake. Unless you need to gun it you should be fine with what I call the "suck n go."

 

[ttrull]

I lied, the update DIDN'T WORK; I about got killed last night because of the hesitation. I pulled out onto Storrow Drive last night and floored it and it took like 5 seconds to do ANYTHING!!!!! (Felt like 10 minutes)

I had people honking and swerving like crazy; i called the dealership right away and they have another appointment for me on Monday (Again no loaner)

 

[Frex]

Got t he car back from the dealer again today. The end result was that they could not duplicate the problem. I also see from the written report that they also have a hard time writing down what we described. What is so difficult about "like someone turned the key off" They said there were no TSBs about this. They wanted to keep the car a fourth day for testing but I picked it up anyway. I hope someone else can solve this problem.

Frex