Delayed Acceleration
 

Hi
My wife has had a 2012 Fusion for almost a year. I don't drive it very often, but when I do I notice what I consider to be far too much delay between pushing the gas pedal and the car moving from a stop or to try to get it to downshift and accelerate to pass or just move quickly.
Is this a common problem and can it be adjusted?

sounds like slow throttle response and or sloppy torque converter.
with the engine running and the transmission in neutral. tap the throttle. does the engine hesitate before revving?
with it in gear, do you hear the engine rpms increase right away or slow to react?
if the engine reacts quickly, it points toward the torque converter.
there is one other thing…
the engine is quick to adjust and you hear the load increase on the engine right away.
you just have a weak or low powered engine. compared to what you are used to driving.

Thanks for responding. I will try the tests. The engine is a v6, so it's not weak. Mind you, I did trade in a 400 hp v8 gto to buy this Ford, but both my wife and I experience the delay. And, what might be important to your analysis is that it is intermittent. Could the throttle response be slow sometimes or the torque converter be sloppy sometimes? I test drove the car for about a half hour last weekend, and generally it did not exhibit the symptoms. But, more times than not; when I drive that car there is a delay between pressing the gas and having the car move. My wife who drives it mostly and who is not technical at all, thought that symptom was maybe the heels she was wearing were not touching the gas properly or something. She has noticed the same issue.

My newst vehicle is 10 years old but I am a Courious George, so I searched a little.
These cars have drive by wire accelerators. there could be an electronic glitch involved.

Here is a response to someone having a stalling V6 issue:
For stalling at that speed the only possible causes are a loss of fuel pressure or the electronic throttle body the other expert spoke of. Throttle body failure for 2010 fusion, especially a v-6 are quite common. This would also explain the wrench light.

The throttle body on your fusion uses an electric motor and a throttle position sensor to open and close the plate and to monitor it's position, rather than a mechanical cable connected to the accelerator pedal. When the computer can not correctly control the throttle opening, almost always due to an internal throttle body failure, the engine will either stall, or go into fail safe-forced idle mode.

This concern will reset itself with a cycle of the ignition key, which explains why autozone is unable to retrieve a code from your processor.

The throttle body is classified as an emissions component, since it replaces the EGR system as well. In most cases, there is extended time and mileage warranty coverage for this component.

That said you could try a fuel system cleaner and a MAF sensor cleaner.

I wondered if it could have something to do with the throttle, but I had read a considerable number of threads about the "learning transmission" that had similar issues that could be also intermittent. Supposedly oil temperature in the transmission or even oil level can play a role as to whether the car shifts properly or in this case to engage the clutch mechanism to make the car go. This car also several times exhibited the over-rev'ing when shifting. That I've noticed only a couple of times when I was flooring it to pass. Mostly the problem is as stated though, so it could just as easily be the drive by wire throttle as you suggest. Generally this transmission is very smooth shifting. However, for passing, I don't like how long it takes the car to downshift, run high revs in a lower gear and then shift again. In my opinion, it does all that much too slowly for a 2013 vehicle. My 1987 Nissan Maxima was nearly perfect in that regard. When floored to pass, it downshifted nearly instantaneously and rev'd right up for the task. It was certainly a bit of a jerkier experience than the Ford though. I suppose that since they used to call the Maxima a four door sports car, one might expect fast and jerky over a smooth and slow cycle of events for passing. But, in my opinion one looses too much valuable time with all that "smoothness" even when the transmission is shifting reasonably well. It is not tolerable though when the problem occurs. The delay approaches being dangerous if I were trying to move suddenly into fast traffic. The delay is sometimes way too long. That is; the unusually long delay either from a standing start, or sometimes shifting into the next gear. And I can't tell if the shifting is not happening due to lack of gas being delivered. I do need to try accelerating in neutral as suggested. I have yet to try that.
It's interesting that the last two times I've driven the car, I have not noticed the bad delays. I wonder if it behaves in warmer weather. In any event, it might be pointless to take it to the dealer right now because they'd probably say it was working fine; and unless they were able to see some error code; they'd be correct that it is running fine. Others reported the same problem in regard to the tranny; the difficulty to make the symptom happen at the dealer on demand.
Thanks for your suggestion.

There have been problems with the newer type throttle system along with the "newer" transmissions. Since the problems appear to be intermittent would indicate the systems are not working all the time as designed.

Jeff: the car should still be under warranty. I hope you have a dealer who takes customer care serious.

I think that's true, but proving it may be difficult. At least reporting it will get it on the books.

They've been attentive for the couple little things we've brought the car in for. That is; one of the plastic decorative strips on the roof cracked and they replaced it. I'm concerned that it went bad so quickly and I have no idea what made it crack. If it was heat, we're probably in trouble because I live in the south.

The other was a slight misalignment which they fixed.

We'll keep an eye on it and take it to the dealer if we're driving around and it is occurring regularly. I think that's the best way because when it is happening, it keeps happening. It just is not at the moment.

Thanks everybody. I think I have enough to go on now unless anyone else has anything meaningful to add.

Hello,

I've been Drivin 4 Ford Taurus and now a 08' Ford Fusion V6 all the big models. I can say they have all been the same, the rev's function normally, but the automatic clutch is slow to engage when experiencing a big rev difference.

Things to try:
- Turn off the traction control. This makes a big rev / power difference, without the computer trying to smooth out the acceleration.
- Also drive a little crazy, find a good hill, get the car in a downshift from the hill, wait untill after the car shifts back normaly and try testing again, when the car gets into "Sport" mode as i call it, it works with quick auto gear changes as well.

If you've been driving ford cars as i have this is normal and is always repeatable and never had any problems other then getting used to it.

Thank you.
Mr.Deek