Tickover Rough

[watermeade]

Hi Everybody,I have had this car fo 6 months (1.6 SX Hatch petrol) and it has took me this long to find this forum!!! - anyway could I enquire does anyone else think the tickover on their car is rough.I usually sit at the lights with my foot on the foot brake and I can feel the engine vibration changing as if it is missing,so have started applying the handbrake and taking my feet off the pedals and putting them on the floor where I can still feel vibrations.It is so bad that if I look at the passenger seatbelt whilst stood you can see the metal clip moving on the column.I mentioned it the last recall and they supposedly changed a temp sensor,it going in tomorrow for the seatbelt firmware upgrade.Also I occasionaly get the loud squeel when reversing,reading the other posts makes me think this is quite a common fault.

 

Anyway TIA

[Stuey]

there have been a few people mentioning vibrations/body shake when the engines are cold. Mine shakes a bit when the engine is cold but sorts itself out after about 10 mins when warmed through.

 

KFK might have an idea but I cant imagine there will be a fix for it apart from new engine mounts, or maybe slow the idling speed which may be an issue as the whole thing is CPU controled...

[Mat]

...it going in tomorrow for the seatbelt firmware upgrade.....

Not heard of that one before :blink:

[watermeade]

Sorry Typo,been on nights and had 1.5 hours sleep so am being a dozy s*d.

Sorry I meant Airbag F/W upgrade.

 

I dont think its a mounting problem,it just feels like the tickover is irregular,I was going to live with it but then the recall letter came so I thought s*d it and mentioned it when I booked the slot.

 

Whilst I have your attention,could I ask you regarding a few other thinks that are bugging me?

 

 

Do you think the ride is hard on your car? my previous car was a laguna and I think the ride on my C4 can be bone crunchingly hard,it seems to transmit every road imperfection straight up my back.

 

Also ( and this is prob a little trite) I dont have an SX badge on the back,I have noticed some 1.6 SX with badges and some without (and believe me I have looked) at one point I had convinced myself they has sold me a 1.4 and stuck some alloys on it.

[Welshguy]

Do you think the ride is hard on your car?

 

In a word : Yes

 

lol - try having a 30mm drop and stiffened suspension on your C4...that sorts the men from the boys lol! :blink:

[watermeade]

It must cost you a fortune getting your fillings replaced :blink:

[watermeade]

Yes but was it hard from the factory? I mean it goes round corners like it on rails, but get a bit of a bad road and its all over the place....

[Stuey]

I think it is a bit of a model trait to be honest, if you want a really crap ride buy a peugeot 307!! makes the C4 feel like its floating!!

[watermeade]

Thats strange,because the guy I car share with tuned up in his missis`s Pug 307 last night,and (knowing that the C4 is based on this) I thought it was a really soft ride

[Welshguy]

From what I can remember (it was lowered fairly quickly after buying it) the ride was quite smooth.

 

I then added the stiffened suspension and 215/35/18 tyres - made the car feel like it was going to fall apart. I will never ever go back to 215/35 profile tyres!! :blink:

[Stuey]

Thats strange,because the guy I car share with tuned up in his missis`s Pug 307 last night,and (knowing that the C4 is based on this) I thought it was a really soft ride

how random, I had one for about a month when my C4 was being put back together and that one wasnt to bad, but the one I drove to Bolton in at the weekend was very rough...muchos random

[ham's c4vts]

the 307 and c4 both share the same floorpan, engine and gearboxes, most likely the suspension too. mines a vts and i dont find it too hard unless the road is really crap.i drove a c4 hdi a few weeks back and that felt a bit softer than mine but quite a bit more body roll. try driving a older ford, my brother in law had a fiesta ghia a while ago and it was horrible, the ride was rock hard. so i dont think the c4 is bad at all

[Stuey]

the 307 had quite a bit of body roll to, it is very tall though compared to the C4 Coupes...I have a Focus ST tommorow, we will see what thats like...

[Welshguy]

I doubt you'll feel a thing Stuey - the seats in an ST are awesome!!

[Stuey]

I will let you know tommorow :P

[watermeade]

Well I have driven a couple of Focus hire cars in the past week,a Zetec and a Deiesel turbo.The Zetec didnt seem to have much poke about it compared to my C4 and the DTI went like some brown substance on a hole digging implement.. :P

[watermeade]

In regard to my original posting,I was rather hoping (poor disillusioned fool that I am) that the FW update tommorrow might sort the roughness out,as I am guessing that the throttle is fly-by-wire,so the tickover will be handled by the Engine managment system and not a thumb screw (as found on lesser cars) :P

[wozza]

Diesels always feel quicker than the petrols lower down because of the torque its just the turbo spooling up that causes that. Same on a petrol car so many N/A type cars are quicker than the turbo'd units but the turbos feel much faster cause of the massive amount of torque you get when its spooled up rather fun feeling.

 

Driven my friends zetec though wasnt a bad car as quick as my 1.6 C4 anyways maybe slightly slower but not by much at all. But the gear change on it is so much nicer. Just a shame the cars so dull.

[lab44]

The ride of the C4 would seem hard compared to a Renault (Rubbish) Laguna - my parents have one and in terms of ride quality it cant be beaten. The trade off of course is poor handling and lots of body roll. Personally I think the ride quality of the C4 is pretty good - though a tad hard it is very smooth and comfortable - better than a Clio or a Focus but not as good as my parents Laguna or my old 306.

[wozza]

Its got a better ride than the Clio at times but others it doesnt the C4 seems to deal with some bumps wonderfully and others it seems intent of making sure you knew that bump was there.

 

Still for fun factor you cant beat a Clio or a nice 306 205 106. There just amazingly fun cars to be behind just rather small.

 

Doesnt matter how many times people slate french cars they always get there hot hatches perfect. And the germans just cant replicate the fun of a hot hatch theres might be faster better refined etc but that takes away the fun factor. You want it to feel a bit raw and a bit crazy. And Renault (Rubbish) and peugeot have been getting that bit perfect for years.

 

Apparently though the Citroen DS is still regarded as one of the best riding cars ever produced and its getting on a bit.

[Mike5483]

Ive got no complaints about the ride quality on mine. My car has nearly 22000 miles on it now. Maybe it takes ages for the suspension to bed in properly???

[watermeade]

just got mine back from the FW upgrade,I had a chat with the tech who did it and asked him about the rough tickover,he says that he had dl a patch to fix it and if that did not cure it he was talking about a new throttle body.I dont think the patch has worked cos it still feels rough though.