Knock Sensor

Mako

Mako

Club Member
Feb 6, 2011
15,053
13,872
Milton Keynes
Earlier, Ginja celebrated his Coug hitting 70K miles. He said that he fed it high-octane as a present.

The question I have is, was that worthwhile beyond the higher-grade detergents? Do the Zetec/Duratecs have automatic ignition advance to take advantage of the better fuel?

I'm very sorry if this is something answered elsewhere. My search-fu might be rubbish...
 
I only put unleaded in mate ;) nothing special, but yeah the car does run sweeter if I put V-power or the like in, there are that many different sensors on the engine that the ECU can optimize all the ignition parameter's
 
well lets just say the normal unleaded was £1.37 a litre so no (that was from a TOTAL garage) soi'm thinking V-power or EXcelium that TOTAL sell would be £1.47 or thereabouts!

Mako the V6 even dual-sparks to efficently burn the fuel mixture, helps to reduce the emissions, thats why it uses Platinum tipped sparkplugs
 
jamie_duff said:
Even the V6's traction control system modulates power by retarding the spark. Pretty much any modern engine with solid state ignition will self advance and retard.
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I'm a K-series refugee, sir. The MEMS ECU is extremely bright and exeptionally good at coping with varying operating conditions. But it has no knock sensor and therefore no ability to cope with high-octane fuel. As I understand it, the ECU assumes 95RON and works from there.

I love the idea of an adaptive ECU that learns how you drive. But I've always thought that if it can't cope with varaible quality fuels, then it's an evolutionary dead-end.
 
It has upsides and downsides. Sometimes it's tendency to try to predict your thoughts just results in high fuel consumption and poor power output. Members often unplug their batteries to wipe the self learned data and revert back to the base map. It does have it's uses though; varying fuel quality being one of them.
 
jamie_duff said:
It has upsides and downsides. Sometimes it's tendency to try to predict your thoughts just results in high fuel consumption and poor power output. Members often unplug their batteries to wipe the self learned data and revert back to the base map. It does have it's uses though; varying fuel quality being one of them.
Click to expand...

That's really interesting, Jamie. I wonder whether it's because of a high balance of town or low-speed driving?

Motorolla's MEMS III in the Rover 2x/4x was incredibly good at knowing what I wanted of it, to the point that it was like putting on a pair of old shoes. But the engine itself - lighweight, economical and lovely though it is - is pretty primitive compared to the Zetec-E. We used to say, "The K4 was ten years ahead of its time, and stayed there for 20 years."

Getting back to the Cougar's ECU, are you saying that it's adaptive too?
 
On the back of the engine about halfway up the block and a third of the way across from the passengers side.

You should be able to reach up between the y pipe and rear header and get it off with a ratchet spanner
 
Ok guys, I'm a thicko when it comes to the old mechanicals, so please excuse my following question: What is a knock sensor? and how do you know when it needs changing???



















...returns to the corner and adorns the "Dunce" cap! lol
 
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