In 2nd at about 3000 rpm and floor it not a lot happens, but change to 3rd and the power comes on big time.I am not one give my scoob much stick but this is some think I have noticed.
Is this the norm or does it have to go to back to the dealer?

I have found that if I travel along behind a slow moving vehicle in second at 25 - 30 mph, if the vehicle increases speed and I do also, when I get the opportunity to overtake I floor the accelerator in 2nd and Oh Nooooo, there is the power of a 2 litre Mondeo. I ease off the throttle and floor it again, and whooosh it flies like it should. I suspect it is something to do with the turbo spooling up. It may be it gets caught off guard so to speak. I have no other problems with the car and I can live with this "once in a blue moon" situation. I Now tend to follow slow vehicles in third gear, then when I get chance to overtake, slot into 2nd and off we go at the pace we normally expect.

Hi,

There was a good thread about this last year.If the car is held in 2nd at a constant rpm for a period of time then floored you only get about 10 psi of boost,something to do with eu noise regs or gearbox protection so you have to vary the rpm or throttle off and then back on before booting it and off she goes.

Have fun Paul

and don't u hate it when it happens though! Just when you need it!

Hi Richard

... interesting date !


Cheers

Adam

Thanks for the info.

Would having the ppp fitted to my MY01 cure this or is it deeper in the cars workings than the ECU? I thought i was just imagining it up until now. Thank god im not going mad.........

No, probably not because PPP cars still have to pass emissions tests too.

D.

it makes no difference with PPP.

Cheers

Paul.

Yes, this is to help in the drive by noise test. Essentially, the test involves driving up to a marked line at 50kmh in second gear. Upon hitting the line, "open the throttle fully as fast as possible". The noise measuring device is 20m or so down the road.

Once you hold a steady 50kmh or so in gear 2 for 2-3 seconds, the car recognises that you're trying to do the noise test, and will limit boost to 0.5bar. Way around this is to gradually but briskly open the throttle instead of flooring it. You won't lose any speed, and still get max boost.

I am glad they did this feature so they can get around the sound level test but surely that is a bit of a cheek...

Why didn't they sort the ECU so that the emmissions tests pass so we can have more power? i.e. if car started from cold and left running until warm then set fuel co to 0 etc... :)

Thanks, top information on the second gear peculiarities!! I bought my first Scoob yesterday, a WRX and had noticed that sometimes, when the car was held in 2nd for a while before booting, the acceleration was not the impressive (2ltr Mondeo, hehee wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding :D) and third was actually pulling harder???.
I was convinced it was my driving, ie poorly timed gearchanges that was causing the oddness.
At least now i know what to do to guarrantee that nice "jeeeeesssSSSSUUUSSS" reaction from passangers ;)

Is this peculiarity found in all turbo MY's? I test drove a MY99 at the weekend and wasn't that impressed with the surge when I put my foot down in second. Having read this thread I'm thinking it was due to this, and the fact that I had held it at steady revs for a few moments in second gear before flooring it.

Yep, I think they all do it - certainly MY99 onwards...

Richard

Had my UK300 a couple of weeks now and experienced exactly the same - found that 2nd was flat whilst 3rd seemed to pull like a train.

Changed driving style now and either cane it everywhere:Dor am a bit more gentle with the gas pedal and problem seems to go:)bit different from my old car where 2nd was the only gera to leave it in !!!

Its *definitely* this feature. In my previous '00, I could get it to occur every single time the conditions were met. Hold gear 2 for 3-5sec at 50kmh, floor it.

0.5bar boost EVERY TIME.

If I had a quid for every time I answered this question ;)

To aid the car through emission tests, the ECU spots when the car is held at 2500-3500rpm (roughly) in 2nd for more than a couple of seconds, as this normal means that it's about to go through the tests. What it does is then limit boost to 7-9psi when you accelerate, at least until around 5500rpm when it kicks back in to normal boost. This has the weird effect of you changing up at about 5500rpm to 3rd gear and accelerating more quickly!

The way to avoid it is either to lift off the accelerator and dip the clutch momentarily, and then burn off, or (preferably) stay in 3rd until you're just about to go and then drop down to second and immediately floor it.

It's a well-known 'feature' :)

Richard

[Edited by Bitten Hero - 2/4/2002 1:41:48 PM]

Yep, always said I was ahead of myself :)

It's a bug in the BBS that means when you go back and edit a post, it reverses the date (US format to UK format), so 4th February (4/2) becomes 2nd April :)

Richard

[Edited by Bitten Hero - 2/4/2002 6:55:45 PM]