I've had my ST for a couple of weeks now and generally I'm very pleased with the car. But one thing I have noticed is when driving and the engine is at normal operating temperature and I put my foot on the clutch, the revs don't go straight to idle, 800rpm-ish, but pause at a fast idle of approximately 1500rpm before slowly going down normal idle. It is almost as if the choke is on and then is slowly removed.

Does your ST do the same thing, and is the known problem that Ford are "working" on that will be eventually fixed with ECU upgrade?

Thanks,
James

Hiya. I remember DavidT mentioning this in his thread about his ST. Perhaps its something normal?

http://www.fordfiestast.co.uk/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=6066&an=0&page=0#6066

"At junctions- fast idles @ 2000 revs for about 5 secs then drops down to normal"

Haya,
I think it's normal, mine does that too and it's more moticeable when it is cold. Once warmed up it still does it a little. One other thing I noticed which I think is related is that there is a noticeable delay between when you release the gas pedal and the throttle actually closes. It seems as though the throttle actuator could be quicker in response, you defenetly feel the engine pushing for another 1/4 second or so after you back off the pedal. A little annoying at first but I guess I can get used to it.

mine does it if it's warm or cold

Yes mine does the same. The ST has a fly by wire throttle (no cable!) so the ECU is able to have full contol of the throttle independantly of the pedal position. The cold idle thing is the most annoying; if you shift up at quite low revs (<3k) then the engine speed actually increases between shifts making a rather jolty gear change.
Interestingly the car i drove before I got mine did not have this problem, but did stall v.easily so perhaps the 2 are related.

I'm glad i just read that, my cars been doing it for a while. At first i thought it was just my driving!! It revs itself as well if its in neutral and you're rolling down a hill, the revs go up and down between 800 and 1200. Should i just get used to it or should i take it back to the dealer?

take it back. there WILL be a fix if everyone does something about and they will ONLY fix it if you go to them! its called an ecu reflash where they replace the software with an updated one!

what i meant to say is there is or will be a new software released soon!

Karis I had that happen too and as chris says there is indeed an ecu update which my car had and it seemed to settle it down (also saw to the slight starting problem I was having).

theres always going to be updates coming through on new cars! they can include all sorts of fixes to little bugs and bits from flat spots to difficult starting and so on. theres often one new cd of software upgrades sent out every couple of months to ford packed full of sofware upgrades!

Thanks, i'll book it in.

yep, mines got the same problem. Am concerned about taking it in for an ECU update, though, as I test drove a couple before i got mine, and they all stalled really easily.... pefer odd idle to easy stalling.

I've booked it in now for in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know if it starts stalling easily!

thanks! will be good to know if all is ok after the upgrade. Cheers.

Yes I noticed that on the test drive I stalled it twice seemed odd at the time
Just thought it was the newness wearing off the clutch