reverendalc

Lol, yeah they’re OEM and I did replace them with OEM. two were kind of baked around the collar, I’m not sure what that might mean either.

So I’m not really realizing any improvement in the sound or feel of my ICE. obviously not enough time has elapsed for the fuel system cleaner to be consumed, but the coils looked fine. injectors (cleaning or replacement) aside, and assuming that my coils are fine, what else could it be? I’m no mechanic… I’m also curious what a light coating of oil (presumably) on plug 3 means. The tip was dry, and the well was clean/dry too

Plugs not looking so great. particularly plug 3, it’s moist. Not terribly. grabbed a bottle of Techron, fingers crossed

I feel like this is getting a little combative for some reason. Indeed the purpose of the thread was to resolve the rough idle. Gas and tires were mentioned in passing with regard to a drop in mpg that corresponds with the presentation of rough idle, but not suggested to be the culprit. I know you didn’t specifically say driving habits, but I felt it would be worthwhile to exhaustively rebut any potential causes (both named and unnamed) for my drop in mpg that are external to the ICE’s operation. for edification, Dr Injector is a string of retail businesses in my locale that offer fuel injector cleaning services. I haven’t used them personally, but many claim that their service is comparable to replacing the injectors at a fraction of the price. anyhow, your summation of my summation is correct, and I’ll report back after I’ve had a few bottles of Techron and new plugs. cheers

Let’s move past the gas, I’m not concerned about it, unless the 2.0 doesn’t like ethanol. summer tires -> all season tires wasnt my main consideration; it was very expensive tires versus less expensive tires. my drop of .9mpg isn’t seasonal or from a change in driving habits or equipment use. I’ve had this car for years and I’ve always been at least 41.7, and I expect it to hit 40.9 any day now. It’s been descending over the course of a year. when I say dieseling, I mean the occasional run-on. It’s not very long and definitely not every time, but it’s there. Sometimes the starts are a little sloppy too… like it’s clamoring to start. The car performs just fine though. It also sounds much louder than it used to. originally it was just the clamoring to start, and I had some motor mounts replaced under warranty, but my Lincoln ESP expired at 100,000 /-: at any rate, I’m going to change the plugs and possibly the coil packs, and I’ll give that Techron stuff a whirl.

I never put much stock in the fuel quality because I don’t buy from no-name, unbranded stations. I haven’t tried pure gasoline, but again that’s just a thought. it’s interesting that you mention tires! Around the time I noticed my mileage slowly declining, I DID put new tires. I had some excellent summer tires, but the roads are so continuously wet here that I opted for an all-season tire. I would imagine that tires could easily account for a .9mpg decrease in economy. too bad they can’t be blamed for my ICE /-:

This isn’t my first hybrid, and I’ve never had problems using regular unleaded. I don’t hypermile, but I do drive consciously of those pretty little leaves on my tree and my combined economy (it’s kind of a game, the only way I stay sane driving all day). ive never had much luck with OTC “fix in a bottle” products, but i guess it’s worth a try. I’ve got a couple other cars so I thought why not yank the injectors and take them Dr Injector for an ultrasonic bath. has anybody tried both the bottle and the professional cleaning, that can offer a comparison? thanks all!

Hmm. I tried using premium for a few months but didn’t see any difference, possibly the impact of regular was already done? I’m not opposed to getting the injectors cleaned though, she’s been good to me and it’s my turn to be good to her! I always buy gas at 76 or chevron or Texaco, but not premium. Is anybody suggesting premium?

Thanks for that! I was on the fence between iridium and motorcraft plugs. Considering how affordable the coil packs are, I don’t see any harm in replacing them… I guess I’ll stick with OEM there too! i can’t really think of anything else that would cause my ICE to run a little rough, or sometimes “diesel” a little bit on start/stop. can you?

Hey all, years of smooth sailing and MKZ loving are winding down… I’ve got a little over 105k on the clock, and my combustion engine is getting kind of rough. I’ve watched my MPG slowly dwindle, and I’m down to 41.0 combined when i was steadily around 41.9 in its younger days. Still excellent mileage, but I’ve never tuned up the ignition. ive tried searching the forum, but it’s yielding lots of junk… I apologize if this has been asked a lot and I just can’t find it, but… what does everybody like for plugs? Mine are about 60k old. Should I swap the coil packs, and if so, what do we like? I want my MKZ to purr again

Following up... the dealer decided to replace one of my motor mounts under warranty as well, with regard to the occasional clunky ICE engagement. They inspected my plugs and coils and suggested it felt like a misfire, but the car has no codes stored or otherwise. they’re telling me that the noise that I’m hearing is “normal.” I took one of their techs for a short drive alongside a concrete wall so we could have the sound thrown back at us, but he insists he doesn’t hear anything abnormal. I asked that if the noise was normal, does that mean that when my car didn’t make it, then it was “abnormal?” He had no answer. I also consulted my door sticker, and to my surprise, my build date was 07/15 not 10/15 as I had previously thought (that was the first registration date). I suggested the TSB to the tech, who replied “if that was it, we’d know already” whatever that means. I brought the TSB up to the service advisor who admitted that many fords receive replacement trannies under that TSB, but there was no conclusive evidence to get ford to step up to the plate. any suggestions?

Hi and thanks. I can’t be sure it’s the electric motor, because even if it was there I couldn’t hear it over the ICE. My build date is 10/2015 if my memory serves me correctly (it’s been at the dealer for a week now) the sound is constant and I don’t recall it changing with speed. As I come to a complete stop, it fades away in volume, but I don’t think it changes in pitch or tone depending upon speed, if that makes a difference.

hello MKZ friends, it's been about a year of smooth sailing, but here i'm back... my 2016 mkzh is giving me some issues, and i'm at 96450 miles and chasing my CPO warranty out at 100k. it's at the dealership right now getting some work done, but they're giving me a bit of a hard time ICE occasionally makes an assortment of noticeable clunks when firing up. dealer was able to reproduce only once, but confirmed. ICE idles far more loudly than it did 50k ago, and slightly rough. ICE doesn't shutdown gracefully the dealer says they can't determine any issue regarding the ICE, despite having reproduced the issue. electric motor produces a significant grating squeal when ICE is off. this is noticeable during both acceleration, electric coasting, and regen braking. it sounds like a bad bearing of some sort the dealer says this is normal i guess that means my car was abnormal when it didn't make this noise? has anybody else been down these roads? silver lining, they're fixing my front seat climate control computer under warranty. i average 41+ mpg in my mkzh, and i want to love this car again, but it feels old and shitty now and they're telling me it's "normal"

for all of you (or any) trekkies... here's an LCARS wallpaper. in the car, and the wallpaper. i made a few minor formatting adjustments between the in-car photo and the source image.

i know that i put about 175 miles on my Z today. the wife was driving it over the weekend, and when i got in it was at 39.5mpg and i parked it at 40.3. i'd like to try fuelly or the like to get a second opinion... but i'm not sure i've got the discipline. i do have 7 flowers and a crap ton of leaves tho!

i'll have to doublecheck that, i don't recall seeing that setting when i pored over all the settings initially. i am sync2, but the bluetooth support is lacking and i'm considering the sync3 swap.

i just set my dash clock to match my phone two weeks ago (i recall specifically, because i set many clocks to match my phone on that day). i had a teleconference today at 11am, which i usually do in the comfort of my car... when the dash said 10:56, i pulled my phone out to dial in. 11:01. god dammit. the struggle is real

i've got a 2016 hybrid with the glass roof, which i'm sure weighs a bit more than your average Z... i purchased it 1162 miles away, and had a lot of time to experiment with MPG on the trip home. i smashed from CA to WA, averaging over 72mph, and there were a lot of mountain climbs. i parked it with 39.6 on the clock, and did a reset. it's true that if you hover in the low 60s, 41mpg is nearly effortless, even with cruise control on. i'm in outside sales, and the western half of washington is my territory, so i drive a lot. i did a day in bellingham, about 120mi out, and the commute is about 1hr in terrible traffic thru seattle, and then about 90min for speeds between 60-80mph. it's impossible to get good economy at 70+ speeds, as it just needs the ICE to hold that speed even on flat ground. i'm not hypermiling, just driving with a high mpg goal, and i'm constantly between 40.2 and 40.8mpg. in my experience, slow all electric launches aren't the way to go... they're infuriating for you and all drivers behind you, and they suck your battery dry... then the ICE is always running trying to recharge. i do quick launches up to speed or slightly over, then fall into EV mode to maintain. this way the battery gets a good charge on launch, a good charge on brake, and all of the little reminders tell me i'm doing a good job when i come to a stop. it's been excruciatingly cold this past week though, and between tons of remote starting and always having the heater on, i've been treading water ~40.3 and haven't seen my good friend 40.8 much recently. FWIW, this thing has almost 51k now.

has anybody pulled this off without being gouged by 4D tech? i read on F150 forums that multiple people have done it with their pickup trucks and edges etc, and they did so w/o paying $1MM to those guys for the gear. they were also able to identify other ford models which had direct-fit SYNC3 units, as some require bracket/other modification to install.

i just don't think enough people know that FFH/MKZH, and probably camrys and avalons for that matter... can achieve spectacular mpg. my wife drives a 2010 FEH, and while it's pretty great in a lot of ways, unless i'm driving and hyper-miling, it sits around 30mpg. i didn't take pride in my mobile portrait, framed in prius. it was strictly a business decision. kicking it out was an emotionally driven decision. BTW all, not everybody who drives a prius wants to go on a date with you, is smugly saving the world, or is some other negative thing.

I have always felt that the Prius was intentionally vile (aesthetically) so that the average driver may choose form over function. Once I realized that economy and quality weren’t mutually exclusive, I was pretty damned quick to jump ship. As far as hyper-miling, I never did that in my Prius. That would’ve been a real drag. The one thing I do appreciate about that car, is that acceptable (by my standard) economy is effortless. You wont see me looking back though!

i just don't think enough people know that FFH/MKZH, and probably camrys and avalons for that matter... can achieve spectacular mpg. my wife drives a 2010 FEH, and while it's pretty great in a lot of way, unless i'm driving and hyper-miling, it sits around 30mpg. i didn't take pride in my mobile portrait, framed in prius. it was strictly a business decision. kicking it out was an emotionally driven decision.

this so-called "hyper miling" is fun though... almost like a game. try to drive without the ICE as much as possible, until the battery gets low, then shift the focus to charging... it reminds me greatly of playing warcraft2 when I was a kid... attack attack attack, then oh shit defend, defend, defend! maybe that's just my way of coping with a 90min commute home most days.

here are a few i just made, which i'm going to try out. edit: by "made" i mean "plagiarized, resized, photoshopped, and saved as jpeg"

hello MKZ forum, from the proud owner of a CPO 2016 MKZ hybrid. i'm in sales, so i drive a lot. it made sense to buy a prius, so i did. 30k/yr and i'm still only using half of my fuel allowance. getting 48mpg in the summer and 44mpg in the winter, i didn't think anything could touch the iconic prius in terms of economy. fast forward a few years and Leonard, an old man from a neighboring state side-swipes my prius on the I5. into the shop it goes, and his insurance provider sends me over to enterprise, suggesting i get into a "chevy impala" or similar. with a combined 25mpg, i suggested that was a measurable hardship, so they acquiesced and put me into a 2018 FFH for a week. curious how a mid-size (full size in my opinion) sedan would fare as a hybrid, i reset the economy tools and gave it my best shot. i turned the car in with 44.4mpg combined on the clock, after 6 days of careful, if not meticulous driving. this got me thinking... a prius is certainly acceptable for a salesman. who would want to drive a whole lot and waste money on gas? that would negatively impact the profitability of my profession. but as a salesman, shouldn't i drive something that exudes business and success? so i drove around deflated in my fixed up prius, reminiscing of the 2018 FFH titanium in the days of yore, and it's nearly equivalent economy. truth be told, 44mpg was effortless in the prius, and it took a concerted effort to achieve in the FFH, but it was possible... so i began my search for a 2016 or better FFH. a titanium one. none of them fit the bill, so i set my sights on the fancier brother, the MKZ hybrid. then i met the panoramic roof. then i met the 600A reserve equipment package, which introduced me to the technology package, and down the rabbit hole i went. to make a long story short, 1100 miles away in CA, i found a CPO 2016 MKZ Hybrid in white tricoat metallic, with the painted 19" wheels and the panoramic roof. optioned with the black (not charcoal) leather interior, no wood grain, every single option (except motorized rear shade), and MINT condition to boot... i flew down there and drove it home for a meager 26K out the door. happy to be here.