Vlad Soare

Frankly, I don't think it's the control arm. At least in my case I don't think it was. It felt nothing like a suspension issue. Besides, my suspension was fine. The car had only 20K miles on the clock and had undergone a yearly check-up, suspension included, where they had found nothing wrong. But mostly it's the way it felt that makes me rule out the suspension. I know how suspension issues feel. This didn't feel like that. This felt as if the car suddenly stopped braking at all for a split second and then started braking hard again. A faulty control arm doesn't have this kind of effect. Considering that this behaviour doesn't seem to affect the regular Fusion or Mondeo, but just the hybrid, I suspect it has something to do with the regenerative braking system and the way it's integrated with the normal brake. There might be something about braking hard on a dry surface that's confusing it and causing it to engage or disengage very abruptly. But we may never know for sure.

Sadly, no. I didn't pursue it any further, because I sold the car soon thereafter.

It doesn't resemble the ABS action all. On slippery ground, if I brake hard enough to trigger the ABS, it's extremely smooth. I can barely feel some vibrations in the pedal. Whereas this jerk is strong, the whole car shudders. And it's just one time, just one single jerk, after which the car continues to brake as if nothing had happened. When this happens I don't feel anything unusual in the brake pedal. It doesn't feel like the pedal were pushed back. And there's plenty of grip, there's no reason for the ABS to activate at all.

Thank you. That's reassuring. I was afraid that the transmission might be failing.

Did you by any chance find out what the problem was? Mine (2017, 20K miles) behaves the same. There's a sudden jolt when I brake hard. I suspect something in the transmission, but I don't know what it could be. Theoretically there's nothing in the transmission that could explain it.

Hi, My 2017 hybrid Mondeo started doing something very strange recently. When I brake very hard, it first starts decelerating, then suddenly there's a powerful jerk, then it continues decelerating normally. During normal driving, when I drive smoothly and brake gently until the car comes to a stop, it never happens. It's only hard braking that causes this jerk. And it's really strong, it feels like hitting a sleeping policeman at 40 mph. There's no other symptom. The car works perfectly every time, under all circumstances, except when braking hard. Any ideas what the problem might be? I guess I'll have to go to a Ford dealership anyway, but I'm curious as to what could be wrong. I'd like to be prepared when I get there. ? Thank you.

Does anybody know what the actual scale of the Empower gauge is? I mean, how many killowatts does each line stand for? The gauge is marked simply 'kW', which seems to imply that one interval means one killowatt. But that surely can't be right, can it?

I didn't know that. That's strange, considering it's practically the same car. What I also find strange is that over here they recommend the exact same pressures - 35 psi front and 32 psi rear - for the entire Mondeo range, despite the fact that the hybrid is 450 pounds heavier than the others, and most of those extra pounds are in the rear. I would expect the hybrid to require higher pressures. This makes me think that Ford engineers don't actually take the time to figure out the perfect pressure for each vehicle. Instead, they just pick a median value that they think might be acceptable in most conditions and recommend that to everyone.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the recommended difference in pressure between front and rear. Ford recommends more pressure in the front than in the rear tires, and I believe there's a reason for that (and no, I don't think it's just about the weight distribution, as is commonly believed). How much grip you have at various pressures is one thing, but what happens if you exceed that? I think Ford recommends lower pressures in the rear because they want the car to have an understeering character. Oversteer in a FWD car is easy to cure if you expect it, but scary and easy to mess up if you don't, which is why an understeering tendency is deemed safer for the general public. So, if you put 50 psi in the fronts, shouldn't you have something like, say, 46 in the rear? With 50 psi everywhere wouldn't the rear break traction first?

The communication protocol is different. The car can be unlocked either by remote start keys, or by non-remote start keys, but not both. The engine can be started with both though. You can activate the remote start feature. Then the new key will be able to unlock the car, but the old ones won't anymore. Remote starting via FordPass is not available in Europe and cannot be activated on Mondeos, because we don't have the modem. However, remote starting via keyfob can. I had it activated on my Mondeo, and I love it. There's just one little catch, namely that my older keys will not unlock the car anymore (though they will start the engine if placed in the special slot).

I upgraded my instrument panel firmware today to the 2018 version, and the EV+ option has indeed disappeared. However, I can see that the EV+ mode is still working. While it doesn't explicitely say 'EV+' anymore when I approach my home, the EV threshold on the Empower screen does increase massively, just as it used to do before the upgrade. This makes me believe that what used to be called EV+ and regarded as an optional feature is now an integral part of the car's behaviour and can't be turned off.

Mine does the same. My wife's Kuga does the same. And so did my previous car, a Mk4 Mondeo. It's normal. When the car has been parked in the sun and is extremely hot, it can take up to twenty seconds until cool air comes from the vents. It takes a bit of time for the evaporator to cool down. If the climate control started blowing aer at full speed right away, it would blow hot air, which would be much worse than not blowing at all.

If it beeped every time it lights up, I would go insane. I can't even begin to describe how much I'd hate it. But of course I wouldn't mind if they also offered an easy way to disable it permanently.

Sync 3 does use the GPS clock and the time zone you're currently in. It doesn't, however, take daylight saving time into account, probably because there's no universally accepted standard for that (some countries don't use it, and those that do use it don't switch on exactly the same day).

Mine always turns on the engine when I use the demist button on the climate control (not the MAX demist, but just the regular demist, just to direct the air towards the windscreen). Or you can put the gear selector in L instead of D.