[Buckeye st]

New ST owner here. My car is bone stock, ST2 with 4600 miles on it. I noticed after break in, yes I babied the piss out of it for the first 1000-1500k, that my car didn't have that big punch in second. I test drove a couple different STs before buying mine. One of the test drives I recall the steering wheel being ripped out of my hands, granted I don't think I had a death grip on the wheel but, I can floor my car in second and hold the wheel with one finger and NOTHING! Also, the boost guage just sits at 0 until I floor it and then it still only moves a modest amount, it isn't active at all, I.E.: even under half throttle it lays flat. Is this normal?? Any ideas guys?? Should I take it in??

Thanks for any opinions you care to give.

 

[Baxter]

It is normal for it to be low in the boost department until you hit the floor board with the accelerator. Make sure you push the pedal to the metal and that you have 93 octane in the tank, and you should be making full power. If not, something may be amiss.

 

[ddfred]

New ST owner here. My car is bone stock, ST2 with 4600 miles on it. I noticed after break in, yes I babied the piss out of it for the first 1000-1500k, that my car didn't have that big punch in second. I test drove a couple different STs before buying mine. One of the test drives I recall the steering wheel being ripped out of my hands, granted I don't think I had a death grip on the wheel but, I can floor my car in second and hold the wheel with one finger and NOTHING! Also, the boost guage just sits at 0 until I floor it and then it still only moves a modest amount, it isn't active at all, I.E.: even under half throttle it lays flat. Is this normal?? Any ideas guys?? Should I take it in??

Thanks for any opinions you care to give.

If you "babied" the car for a long time, the Keep Alive Memory (KAM) has probably remembered this and could have actually detuned your car for you. Try disconnecting the negative battery wire, turn the ignition to On and turn on the lights. This will drain all the stored electricity and effectively reset the KAM. If that does not help you may want to take it in.

 

[Jim Bravo]

If your boost gauge is at 0, you may have a boost leak. Even in 1st-2nd, my gauge is moving.

Regarding torque steer, this car has a low amount of torque steer compared to all of the other fwd cars I've owned or driven (especially considering the amount of torque it has).

 

[Buckeye st]

N

If your boost gauge is at 0, you may have a boost leak. Even in 1st-2nd, my gauge is moving.

Regarding torque steer, this car has a low amount of torque steer compared to all of the other fwd cars I've owned or driven (especially considering the amount of torque it has).

My boost gauge barely moves at all!! It lays flat until I punch it. It doesn't actively bounce around??

 

[angrychair]

cars don't build boost unless under load and throttle.

 

[RoachRage]

You should be checking for boost in the upper gears.

 

[mininsx]

"KAM" huh? That's interesting, I learn something new almost every week here. I too "babied" mine during break-in, and still don't drive it hard around town, but I live close to an interstate so I regularly take it there and blow the cobwebs out of it. :big smile:

 

[Carlson]

When you accelerate in straight line the torque vectoring fights torque steer quite efficiently, so it's not really an indicator. Get the car to 2.8-3K RPM in 3rd gear and hard floor it. If you don't see you boost gauge getting to around 2/3 of the scale I would start looking for boost leak. Have you noticed any unusual sounds when you have boost?

 

[angrychair]

when my girlfriends wrx had a boost leak, it was super obvious. The turbo to intercooler Y pipe had a small tear where one of the tubes slid on to the intercooler. I kind of miss that boost leak, the sound was comical, almost like a loud kazoo hahaha.

 

[Buckeye st]

H

When you accelerate in straight line the torque vectoring fights torque steer quite efficiently, so it's not really an indicator. Get the car to 2.8-3K RPM in 3rd gear and hard floor it. If you don't see you boost gauge getting to around 2/3 of the scale I would start looking for boost leak. Have you noticed any unusual sounds when you have boost?

No unusual sounds, I will try the third gear pull. I haven't seen my boost gauge get to the 1/2 mark yet. Gauge goes from 0-30 half being 15, that makes sense that it should be 2/3 at Full 21 PSI?? Can the dealer find boost leaks pretty easily??

 

[Duece McCracken]

H

No unusual sounds, I will try the third gear pull. I haven't seen my boost gauge get to the 1/2 mark yet. Gauge goes from 0-30 half being 15, that makes sense that it should be 2/3 at Full 21 PSI?? Can the dealer find boost leaks pretty easily??

Are you in sport mode when you are doing these pulls?

 

[STinSPACE]

if any of your friends have an Accessport they would be willing to lend you for an afternoon, you could go do some logs and see how they compare to other factory logs. That, ladies and gentlemen, is dang near science.

 

[christianc16]

Try putting it in Sport Mode and flooring it in 2nd and 3rd. Usually that'll get it to TQ Steer pretty good. If not take it into the dealer for a boost leak check. Your car is well under warranty so you don't have anything to worry about.

 

[USAFST2]

I'll chime in and add my two cents. My car was bought brand new, no previous owners. I voiced concern about the same exact thing you are mentioning. However, the other ST's I drove were equally unresponsive as mine so, I thought it was normal. After watching a few videos I happen to notice other people's boost gauge moving pretty much constantly while mine stayed stagnant unless I literally floored it or lugged my engine.

I had a myriad of parts I had ordered for the car but, I hadn't installed many of them because I was waiting for support from Cobb to actually be able to use my Accessport. Anyhow, long story short, I ended up swapping out my stock BPV for an aftermarket unit, just on a whim as I was bored of waiting for the tune. Crazy as it may seem, right after doing so, I immediately noticed that my car was significantly more responsive and my boost gauge was actually active. Seems as though I may have had some boost leak through the stock unit the whole time. My car hasn't been beat on but, I didn't drive it gently, either. I didn't reset my KAM when I did the BOV install and yet, there was a rather night and day difference.

Before, my car was simply dead under 3500 rpm with my foot pegged to the floor. I'd watch my gauge move up to about 1/2-3/4 and quickly drop as I moved past 5k. It was a super small window of any "performance" the car could muster. I'd just take a really hard look at some of your stock components. From what I've gathered, it's not exactly far fetched to have some of them be faulty or simply not secured properly from the factory.

I hope some of this helps.

 

[YoumustFocus]

I have to look into a leak myself as I have the same issue.

Sometimes I get on the car and think damn this car moves... then sometimes i mas the pedal and think "huh" where is the power. Not that its slow but sometimes it feels like what an ST should feel like and sometimes it feels like an Elantra.

I have 3k miles on he car sometimes when stopped the idle feels a bit rough, sometimes [twice] when I put the clutch in it doesn't stall but the rpm stumbles.

If the people making these cars can't even put the panels on straight I guess its easy to see that a boost leak on a brand new car is possible.

Sorry but I am hating on Ford right now. My wife and I put near a million miles on German and Swedish cars with 0 issues. Then 5k miles iinto her owning her Explorer she was stranded on the side of the road with our 3 month old in the truck. Her radio freezes sometimes as does mine. Plus all the other issues I am having with my ST...oh how I long for the does of poor German reliability lol.

I dd and tracked a 8 year old 335i with 80k miles on it and never had an issue:furious:

End Ford rant

 

[XRJoe]

Alignment and tires also play a huge role in torque steer. If the car feels as quick as it should, I wouldn't go to the dealer complaining about not having torque steer.

 

[Toadster]

If you "babied" the car for a long time, the Keep Alive Memory (KAM) has probably remembered this and could have actually detuned your car for you. Try disconnecting the negative battery wire, turn the ignition to On and turn on the lights. This will drain all the stored electricity and effectively reset the KAM. If that does not help you may want to take it in.

can you clear it other than pulling the battery?

 

[jamie1073]

My '16 never quite hits the 3/4 mark but always hits under it, around 19PSI in 3rd and 4th, never need more boost on the street in 5th or 6th since you would be well over 100mph. I have bounced the needle once or twice at the 3/4 mark and it drops back a hair. The 3/4 mark is 22.5psi. so 1.5 over max boost on a stock tune. If you are getting near it and floored in 3rd and 4th then you are fine and it should hold to about 5500 rpm.

 

[Straightline]

I found when I was running the OTS Cobb accessport Stage 1, 91 Oct. tune, I could push the boost gauge to 3/4 on command. Of course get into 3rd/4th, get excited, floor it. It seemed the engine responded exactly like expected boost shoots straight to 3/4 mark, no hesitation just mechanical genius and speed.

Recently removed the tune because I am going on a long road trip and prefer reliability mostly. I miss that simple OTS tune. The stock tune is hard to describe. Just does not seem to be as easily coerced into bringing on the boost. Then even when the boost is there, it feels like the stock tune has to think about it for a minute before it decides to party. I will admit it feels like the more I drive it aggressively it seems to be more to my liking though, so again maybe KAM is at play. So my point is the stock tune seems to have a lot more variables and electronic engineering going on, for whatever purposes Ford had in mind.