WTF is up with people and this "crawl" mode.

[Thirdgen89GTA]

Every once in a while, particularly on the Focus Forums it seems, I see someone refer to "Thank X for X mode". Sometimes they call it crawl mode, or another term like that.

They are thinking the PCM has a "special" mode for allowing the car to idle while in gear.

What is up with that? Its just the PCM attempting to maintain its commanded idle, be it in gear or not in gear.



Every manual car I've ever driven I've been able to simply put the car into gear, and slowly release the clutch. In my G6 I could do it, and get the car up to nearly 40mph without ever touching the gas. I'd just slowly release the clutch, shift, repeat until the car went as fast as it could without a touch of throttle.

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[Turbocharged400sbc]

its a start or hill assist, and its for people who otherwise couldnt operate a toaster without a few weeks practice

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

its a start or hill assist, and its for people who otherwise couldnt operate a toaster without a few weeks practice

ST does have hill assist, it applies the brakes if a level sensor detects you are facing up a hill, but the PCM will only hold that for about 15 seconds. After that it releases the brakes. Its more jarring than anything. Because its laggy. Several times when it was enabled I'd release the brake and go to take off, only the car would stutter and stall because the brakes didn't release, and I hadn't given it enough throttle to overcome that. Thankfully, it can be disabled and it stays disabled.

But there is no "crawl" mode to enable the car to idle while in gear.

The PCM contains tables for clutch anticipation. If you depress the clutch at idle and put the car in 1st gear it temporarily raises idle to prevent a stall, but its so weak that it would stall it anyways unless you apply throttle.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

nah its just a idle speed correction loop then

that and alot of people like to think they are special

 

[P40E]

When they are talking about "X whatever ", are they talking about it with the auto trans ? Because focus' s and fiestas have an electronically shifted manual trans that ford calls an auto trans. . For safety reasons ford had to have some kind of system so the car does not roll back too far if you are in Drive and stopped on a hill . (Hill assist)

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

nah they're just special

like short bus special

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

When they are talking about "X whatever ", are they talking about it with the auto trans ? Because focus' s and fiestas have an electronically shifted manual trans that ford calls an auto trans. . For safety reasons ford had to have some kind of system so the car does not roll back too far if you are in Drive and stopped on a hill . (Hill assist)

In this case, they are referring to the Focus ST, in particular.

On the Focus ST forums its a common "myth" that people accept as a whole that the Focus ST comes with a "creeper", or "Crawler" mode to allow you to move along in 1st gear.

No matter how many times I've explained the actual reason it happens in the posts, they continue to call it a "special" feature, under the impression that its a "new" feature that only the ST had.



The same goes for Deceleration Fuel Cut-Off, they can't understand that just about every EFI car in the past 30 years has disabled the injectors under deceleration while in gear because the extra fuel was causing cat converters to overheat. It also has a net benefit on fuel economy.

Also, the hill start assist only engages in VERY specific circumstances. You must be in neutral, on the brake. Then you step on the clutch, and put the car in first gear. Then it will hold the brake for about 15 seconds. If you put the car in gear, take it out of gear, then put it in gear Hill Start disables itself thinking its not needed. It doesn't kick in all the time.

 

[IDAFC21]

I love the crawl mode in my ST!!!





:trollface:

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

I love the crawl mode in my ST!!!





:trollface:

Yes, I love it on my TransAm, I love it on my G6 too! Its amazing. I can just put the car in first gear, release the clutch and it will idle along in traffic at just a few mph! Its amazing!

 

[IDAFC21]

I think they must have messed something up in my gto after the cam went in, because now it dont crawl so good.

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

I think they must have messed something up in my gto after the cam went in, because now it dont crawl so good.

Does it have a "Bronco" mode?

 

[P40E]

This crawling would be called Ghostriding The Whip on YouTube .

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

crawl mode is what those trucks do at the mall


they sure as hell dont crawl over rocks....

 

[Runtz52]

Damn, my sonic, civic, and integra all had this feature. They all must have been tuned or something to unlock it.

 

[FrenchLicker]

I remember in HS a kid had some little 5 speed shit box (which 4 of us could pick up and move) and they had a competition taking off in random gears with no gas.... That car must've been "custom", right? Lol

 

[Mike K]

Are you sure it's not just a start assist? It was really hard to stall the 550 unless you straight up let the pedal completely up immediately. Otherwise it would counteract with immediate engine revving to prevent a stall.

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

In this case? They are calling the ability to idle while in gear "crawl mode".

Which is just the PCM maintaining commanded idle despite a light load.

If thats crawl mode, then my TransAm running an LT1/A4 F-body tune could do it with a T56 and a SES light because it couldn't find the transmission.

 

[Turk]

You could get a G6 to 40mph without touching the gas? wat

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

You could get a G6 to 40mph without touching the gas? wat

Yep, clutch, shift, wait till engine speed reaches about 1000rpm, shift again, repeat until the car wouldn't accelerate any longer. Which was about 40mph in 6th gear. You wouldn't want to be behind me when I did that though, the acceleration was terrible. The PCM would just open the blades up till it reached about 1000rpm then stay there.

Commanded idle speed was 900rpm. And the 3.9L had enough torque down low to do it. Altogether a pretty smooth engine.

 

[Turk]

Yep, clutch, shift, wait till engine speed reaches about 1000rpm, shift again, repeat until the car wouldn't accelerate any longer. Which was about 40mph in 6th gear. You wouldn't want to be behind me when I did that though, the acceleration was terrible. The PCM would just open the blades up till it reached about 1000rpm then stay there.

Commanded idle speed was 900rpm. And the 3.9L had enough torque down low to do it. Altogether a pretty smooth engine.

That's pretty impressive, didn't realize that engine would have enough power at low rpms to do that.

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

That's pretty impressive, didn't realize that engine would have enough power at low rpms to do that.

It wasn't fast, my best was a 15.0 @ 94mph, but it had a very wide power band. Peak torque was something like 240lb/ft @ 2800rpm, and peak power was 240hp @ 6000rpm. So the powerband was very wide. It always felt like it was in a right gear. The car was also heavy despite just being a 2 door coupe. Its wheelbase was 112" long, so for being a "midsize" car it actually had a big wheelbase, which is where most of its 3550lbs came from. So the fact that it got down the strip at 94mph with almost 3750lbs race weight is actually a decent showing.