Jason's Love Bean Sequel - Ford Fiesta ST

[novicius]

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Handful of pictures from a small roadtrip over Thanksgiving weekend.

(How does one make attachments bigger inline vs thumbnails?)

Double-click the image while editing post and it will open up a Properties panel.

[Jason]

Hmm...can you take the image that the inline attachment is linking to, and put that in image tags?

You can, and that's what I often do, but then you have full inline images, and the attachment thumbnails at the bottom.

Other forums just make the attachments bigger by default, so I was wondering if I missed an option somewhere. I think it must be a forum setting thing.

[Jason]

Woah, and I just realized the forum abslutely destroyed the sharpness on the images I uploaded... damn.

[Kchrpm]

My current workflow for sharing images is uploading to Google Photos at full-size, "sharing" them by creating an album link (so that the image URLs will work) but not actually posting the share link anywhere, and then manipulating the image URLs to get the image dimensions I want.

[Jason]

Reviewing my mileage logs from the trip.... On one 35 mile stretch I made 49mpg (average speed was 38mph though hah). Got 39mpg on two extended highway stretches, was doing about 70mph with cruise control on.

Cannot complain about those numbers.

Well rounded little beastie.

[Random]

Ford adding Siri-via-user-iPhone to SYNC: http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/03/f...iri-eyes-free/

Not much use for me, since Mapper an I are both Android peeps.

[Jason]

Ford adding Siri-via-user-iPhone to SYNC: http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/03/f...iri-eyes-free/

Not much use for me, since Mapper an I are both Android peeps.

I don't even have Siri turned on, I find it kind of useless.

[Jason]

Alright, been a while since I've updated.

I've done no mods since my initial 'stage 2' package, I did however go back to an OTS tune, as Tune+'s was a little aggressive (but powerful!) for my liking, and I don't really have time/reliable areas to do datalogging to finish up the process.

I've had a couple warranty repairs, all within the last month, at about 2 years and 24,000 miles (though, I kinda wish I knew driving time, vs miles, since a lot of my driving time is in stop and go traffic)

• Air blend door actuator replaced due to clicking noise under certain air direction settings (basically a gear broke a tooth inside the actuator)
• Cruise control button lights stopped working which apparently requires the whole switch
• Brake switch failure causing the 'wrench light' (maintenance light that doesn't throw obd codes apparently) to come on. Brake switch failure only caused cruise control and hill assist to not work. Might have impacted brake lights, but I couldn't confirm (also never had anyone yell at me for non working lights).
• PCV tube replaced, which was apparently damaged or collapsed some how. I had no indication it was damaged, but they found it when checking things and replaced it.
• During the process of replacing the blend door actuator, they missed a screw or something, so I had a loud rattle. They took it apart, found it, fixed it.

Hopefully this trend of things breaking stops here, I'd like to keep the car around for a while. Still love driving the thing, but QC/fit and finish leave much to be desired. I can imagine DC isn't easy on stiff 'cheap' cars, though.

Next up:

• Mountune RS-R brake pads. Apparently have less initial bite, but comparable or better overall braking power, and much less brake dust. Wouldn't mind smoother braking in the city, and definitely wouldn't mind less brake dust.
• I'd still like to get an exhaust, even if there isn't a huge performance gain. Want a bit more growl.
• Next year my hope is to have some paint issues fixed, and have the car detailed or whatever.
• Also next year, probably going to do a transmission/brake fluid change, even though it's before recommended. I just figure I should be a bit more aggressive on fluid changes compared to recommended mileage due to the fact that I have a lot of time driving, but not a lot of miles.
• When it comes time to replace my tires, I'm thinking of going to 205-50/16 vs 205-45/16 that I have now. The former is slightly bigger than stock, and the latter is slightly smaller than stock in overall tire size. The extra side wall should make the city a bit easier, hopefully not impact handling too much. But I'm probably never going to be taking the thing to 10/10 in corners.

[Jason]

Update: Tune+ saw my minor critique about their tune, and told me to get in touch, so that was cool. Apparently their older tunes (which I was on) had a more sensitive throttle input, and that's been dialed back a bit in their newer tunes.

[Cam]