Why is the FRS handling so bad?? How do I fix it?

[kozyoncars]

So. I’ve had the FRS for a short time now.

I did my research before getting the car and had read about issues with handling, but I never imagined it was this bad.

It’s stock suspension. I run ps5 tyres now that have done 3k so pretty much new. The wheels are forged after market and new. Run 12mm extra track all round.

Now don’t get me wrong. On a good welsh B road. Lots of turns and relatively “high” speed. The car is great at transferring weight and power where it’s needed. It feels great. Very planted when it’s moving about as “god intended”. Plus the roads are much better.

Bushes all checked. Fine.

Suspension checked. All fine.

But on a motorway or A-road. It’s all over the place. Like in today’s wind and rain it felt even worse. Pogoing up and down and side to side. Felt like it was dancing on ice. My meg rs in comparison felt solid. Didn’t move. It went where you pointed. This does anything but fight you.

What causes it? What can I do to get rid of it? I really don’t want to sell the car but I’m thinking that’s the answer right now. Which is a big shame. But for the handling to be this bad, it’s putting me off keeping it. Given it’s getting harder and harder to do the b-road fun thing and. I don’t like track days as it’s my only car. The fact it’s behaviour is like this on most normal driving I kind of feel like what’s the point?

[71-bda]

take the spacers off. what tyre pressures you at? and have the PDC turned off.  Have a full geometry check, has the gearbox ever been out? the front subframe may not be in its original position afterwards. Mines rock steady on motorway and crosswinds and only had pogo on one part of M25 years ago. Are you running in sport/hard dampers all the time??

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No nothing.

No Mods. No rockers. Just a chunky knob, thats now been replaced by an RS knob innit.

No tackiness.

Std as Ford intended, but with a space saver wheel and jack and nuts and wheel brace. oh.. and flaps, a man has got to have flaps.

Innit?

 

[kozyoncars]

Thanks for the reply.

I asked Ford at it’s service about the PDC and they point blank refused. They said it was a safety parameter and that they wouldn’t do it 🙁 Not sure how I can go about it else.

The wheels aren’t spaced they are a different offset as I don’t like spacers for putting stress on hubs. But it would behave the same on the forged wheels.

Nothing in the history of the car that suggests the gearbox has ever been off. Not sure if I can check the alignment of the sub frame myself?

The car is run in sport mode all the time. With dampers set on “comfort”. She seems quite slow on “normal” in terms of throttle response and willingness to get going. So I always keep it in sport.

Will that also make a difference.

It’s amazing when I’m searching the forum how many people say theirs is good and no issues and then just as many say it’s all over the place. Ford seemingly don’t give a ****.

Finding it very frustrating.

[71-bda]

PDC is simply ‘pull drift correction’ the steering senses a crosswind and adds assistance against it. Go to another Ford dealer and request it to be switched off, or maybe someone like Mountune can do it? Having more offset wheels is the same as having spacers so will have same effect on wheel bearings and steering anomalies as spacers. Yes, I mean ‘sport mode’ on the damper switch not sport mode for driving mode. so dampers soft, sport drive mode on and yes it is a bit less responsive in normal mode but thats only because in sport mode the throttle makes the ecu think your foot is opening the throttle twice as fast as your foot really is. Put the std rims back on and get a four wheel geometry check done and drop your tyre pressures down 3psi from spec at each corner.

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No nothing.

No Mods. No rockers. Just a chunky knob, thats now been replaced by an RS knob innit.

No tackiness.

Std as Ford intended, but with a space saver wheel and jack and nuts and wheel brace. oh.. and flaps, a man has got to have flaps.

Innit?

 

[kozyoncars]

Thanks buddy.

Interesting. I’ve always been led to believe that different wheel offset put less pressure on the hub bolts than a spacer though effectively giving the same result. Learn something new everyday.

Wth that said the geometry was done two months ago when the wheels were fitted on a Hunter 4wheel. Was all in spec. But I’ll have it checked again. I have driven over UK pot holes since.

And I’ll get in touch with someone like GG as they are local and sure they can turn PDC off..

Tyre pressures are an interesting one. I always keep them in spec. As I know they are sensitive to that. I’ll try letting them out as suggested.

[71-bda]

its not the hub bolts, its the effect on wheel bearings and steering kickback etc that having your wheels basically further ‘outside’

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No nothing.

No Mods. No rockers. Just a chunky knob, thats now been replaced by an RS knob innit.

No tackiness.

Std as Ford intended, but with a space saver wheel and jack and nuts and wheel brace. oh.. and flaps, a man has got to have flaps.

Innit?

 

[9designs]

Shame you didn’t buy it a year or two earlier I could have emptied your pockets sorting it out … what you say BDA? 🤣🤣🤣.

Joking aside, so it’s okay on good quality roads?
Is it on stock springs, they should be black painted and the car sits with its arse up in the air.

Much same as BDA said, plenty to check, devil is in the detail, they are sensitive to small changes.  Alignment in spec, probably isn’t good enough, needs to cock on or refined values to tune the steering and turn in.  As they are very sensitive to tyres and tram lining.

Is the steering fighting you, or it’s bouncing around.
Better or worse when dampers are switched to hard?

How many miles has it done? Maybe a fook’d damper?

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Magnetic Grey with all the best bits

FPM375/COBB/MSD-  Quaife LSD,  DSC+Tractive  Suspension,  HJS200 cell sports cat and MT Cooler. Sync3 upgrade.

Was UK seller for DSC & Tractive  Active suspension !!!

    

[kr1s]

You can’t beat a good relationship with a main stealer.
the right people know almost everything and can be so helpful.
I have just had a worrying rumbling noise diagnosed on my service, and so I didn’t mind the long test drive at

15 mpg !

[white-rs2]

It reads like it’s just need the PDC switching off. it’s a bit of a lottery on which cars do and don’t have a PDC which literally tries to kill you if the road camber is not to its liking.

I’ve ran 15mm spacers on mine with the original MPSS without issue then swapped out to the OZ Leggarra with a 45 offset and a wider 8.5” rim with no issues.

Im 90% certain switching off the PDC will stop the left right pull, back in the day some debaters made you sign a waiver to clear them of any possible liability.

Cars fitted with a DSC box have currently not mentioned having severe left and right pull but that’s a whole new story lol

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RS Edition.

FPM375 Rocks

The rest of the “M” maps suck

[kozyoncars]

Thanks for the replies all.

I’ve been to 3 dealers locally. 2 main and 1 certified 3rd party. All refused to turn PDC off. The 3rd party entertained a conversation with me and said they’ve been told they can’t as Ford advise them they’ll be held liable should anything happen.

I’ve asked Pumabuild, Graham Goode and auto torque what can be done and they’ve all not yet come back to me. I’m not holding out much hope as it’s been a week or more so far.

To answer the questions.

Pogoing up and down is worse set to hard. The veering seems the same.

It’s on stock original suspension and the car has done 76k. It’s been checked by ford and they’ve advised it’s all good. Bushes. Arms. Links. Suspension. All of it good. Apparently.  They just won’t entertain switching off PDC.

As for alignment. I will have to get it redone. But again the response is it’s ok as it’s in spec and as it’s not adjustable there’s only so much adjustment they can do right ?

I’ve started pricing up coilovers, DSC, bushes, arms. But it’s coming to some serious cash. I’m not sure it’s worth it.

I’ll keep at it for a while and see what joy I get at a specialist but there aren’t many in Birmingham so if anyone can recommend one Midlands ish that would be good.

Cheers

 

[tonys]

Some on here who have had a veering issue claim they sorted it by swapping oem MPSS for MPS4S. Just saying so don’t shoot the messenger guys.

[al-b]

I know you are after someone in Birmingham but ring Fred at FJRS and he will happily chat to you over the phone and offer advice and not expect anything back.

You can often get him on the phone or if you send an email he always replies to me within 24hrs

Good luck 👍🏻

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Eibach Pumaspeed springs UK  – Mountune full Induction – delete valve plug – carbon knob – JCR seat lowering kit set @ 39mm – black nuts! Engine forged by FJRS – TCR front splitter V2 and side skirts – RS rallyflapz – Car serviced/maintained by GS Motorsport

[71-bda]

Just tell the silly sausages that PDC is not a safety device, its a COMFORT device that is supposed to only remove a bit of steering effort ( by adding assistance against a sidewind) so how switching it off could ever be considered risky I just don’t know ! Its supposed to sense when you are say on a motorway cruise that you are slightly steering to the  right for example to overcome a constant crosswind from the right, then the EPAS adds a bit of extra power to that steering input so you dont feel that you have to steer to the right a bit ! The thought is that PDC also reacts to changes like truck ruts and grooves, tramlines etc and starts adding assistance left/right/left/right so you end up all over the place ! Mine is FAR improved with it being switched off at Guildford Ford by Alan…

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No nothing.

No Mods. No rockers. Just a chunky knob, thats now been replaced by an RS knob innit.

No tackiness.

Std as Ford intended, but with a space saver wheel and jack and nuts and wheel brace. oh.. and flaps, a man has got to have flaps.

Innit?

 

[white-rs2]

A mechanical fix change the springs for H&R and use their ARBs would reduce pogo, but to totally eliminate the pogo and improve the ride no end invest in a DSC damper controller

---

RS Edition.

FPM375 Rocks

The rest of the “M” maps suck

[9designs]

Veering steering mostly down to tyres and tram-lining, alignment and PDC can help, but tyre construction and variations between build batches is the cause with the original MPSS. I went Goodyear, big improvement, or I’d try Continental.

For Pogo bounce, yes DSC module first step.  Springs alone will be a help at lower speed but worse at higher over bigger bumps if a DSC isn’t fitted first.    At 76k I’d of thought the original dampers are going be knackered.

Jackson Ford Henley in Arden have been my dealership for 8 years. Ask to speak to Ryan.  They did my PDC, hunter alignment and have fitted a few Tractive damper kits I sold, plus mine. Sadly they scaled back a lot since Dan the workshop manager and Tech expert passed away, but Ryan is a good guy, who does the work on RS.

Or FJRS as suggested.

All that said if your use to something like a dead inert VAG car the RS will always be lively and feeding back loads more.

---

Magnetic Grey with all the best bits

FPM375/COBB/MSD-  Quaife LSD,  DSC+Tractive  Suspension,  HJS200 cell sports cat and MT Cooler. Sync3 upgrade.

Was UK seller for DSC & Tractive  Active suspension !!!

    

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