Bronco Sport Overheating when Offroad?

[VapourTrails]

Is this where I read up on "Overheating Gate"

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[Cyclone Cowboy]

lol.... the rally participants would NEVER report an issue like that, at least publicly. Would you? Most of them were connected with Ford to some degree, I believe, including the marketing director. I conducted road race testing for a manufacturer about 15 years ago and the contract was very specific about releasing any performance information.

I personally believe the "overheating issue" is limited to heavy duty use of specific modes, not normal driving. They generally test new vehicles in Death Valley or Arizona in the summer. If a vehicle was "known" to overheat in normal driving conditions, it would result in massive legal and financial jeopardy because people would be placed in danger.

 

[Shiskamba]

This thread has gone places, lol

 

[robotfist]

that doesn’t matter anymore someone overheated their bronco sport off-road and now we get to talk about technicalities how it’s not a real off-road vehicle.

stay on the topic of technical discussion. That’s your first warning, got it. We are concerned and now you're just being emotional

Dude, the only person I see being overly sensitive and emotional to what is otherwise a normal discussion is you. Don’t take everything so personal. People are free to bring up possible criticisms and concerns over a new vehicle. Two different reviewers mentioned the overheating, not one. And I do not think it is unreasonable for potential customers to want to investigate this further. Especially customers that are coming from similar vehicles that have exhibited similar behaviors in similar conditions.

Let’s wait until this summer, when a number of Bronco Sports are out in the real world and are being pushed around, and then see what happens. Maybe it’ll be fine? Honestly, I’d like that, as I like the Bronco Sport and was considering buying one. But it is a version 1 vehicle and it would not be some outlandish, crazy conspiracy for there to be issues with it. Especially since it is at the heart, an Escape crossover being put in offroad conditions. When reviewers write about possible issues, it’s not unreasonable to want to look into those issues. You’re acting like this car is your son or something. Chill out.

 

[Bdub]

My guess is that Ford's already released (or preparing to) a TSB to address the issue.

 

[Excape]

Working in engineering for an OEM automotive control supplier (Ford Q1 no less), one of the jobs was to drive a heavily-instrumented test mule both up Pikes Peak and to Death Valley. This was quite a while back, but nothing has changed, NOT EVERYTHING GETS WORKED OUT PRE-PRODUCTION.

Even less so now, as back then everything was hardware/firmware based. You had to get it right or close to it. You couldn't flash an update like now.

If everything "got worked out in testing", then why would there be any need for reviews and quality ratings, not to mention recalls? (yes. Ford has them)

And yes, if one is using a vehicle in a hazardous situation (e.g. storm chasing), then yes, there ARE health and safety issues with fail-safe (limp) modes. These are standard product development concerns, not something made up.

Trust me, even those involved with this vehicle's development would agree with this.

 

[Excape]

Of course a manufacturer is not going to recommend chasing tornados or jumping the Grand Canyon or anything like that.

However, if someone learns of a characteristic, such as a possible tendency for a differential to overheat in certain conditions (not necessarily endorsed by the manufacturer), and this person knows that he or she is possibly relying on that not happening, then it is a valid discussion point for them. No one is bashing the Bronco or disrespecting it by noting certain characteristics.

Manufacturers don't endorse excessive speed either, but what kind of review do you think they would get if they limited speed to the legal limit?

It doesn't have to be a storm-chaser to be in a perilous situation if a vehicle has a characteristic that would render it unsuitable for rapid egress in rugged terrain. We just happened to have a notable storm chaser handy.

I'm don't even think anyone asserted that the Badlands wasn't up to the task, they just noted that two reviews had independently noted the condition. It is a fair discussion to discuss whether that is a valid concern for a potential buyer. Those are individual decisions that each customer must make based on transparent reviews and hopefully, unbiased discussion.

 

[Bdub]

I want to make sure I can get away from "mostly peaceful protests".

 

[Ponds]

lol.... the rally participants would NEVER report an issue like that, at least publicly. Would you? Most of them were connected with Ford to some degree, I believe, including the marketing director. I conducted road race testing for a manufacturer about 15 years ago and the contract was very specific about releasing any performance information.

I personally believe the "overheating issue" is limited to heavy duty use of specific modes, not normal driving. They generally test new vehicles in Death Valley or Arizona in the summer. If a vehicle was "known" to overheat in normal driving conditions, it would result in massive legal and financial jeopardy because people would be placed in danger.

Agree that the Ford teams signed NDAs, so it would be unlikely that they’d say anything. And it’s unlikely given Ford’s sponsorship that they would have mentioned any issues. However, it is interesting that none of their competitors, or any observers, made comments about overheating issues. They had no problem talking about pulling a Bronco Sport out’a the sand. I kind of doubt that they’d be silent if anything more serious was seen.

 

[Zander1ni]

I did 10 hours of driving both in and off road in my big bend today and nothing overheated or turned off. I was going 60 mph in sand in the desert and 2 hours uphill in slippery mode. This sounds like an issue if it was 100+ degrees doing burnouts in the sand for extended periods of time. After using sand mode I can tell you that it holds gears a long time without traction control on. The car revs at a consistent over 4K Rpms. I’m sorry but extended driving like that pushing hard will eat up transmissions. I don’t see this as something common

 

[Excape]

I did 10 hours of driving both in and off road in my big bend today and nothing overheated or turned off. I was going 60 mph in sand in the desert and 2 hours uphill in slippery mode. This sounds like an issue if it was 100+ degrees doing burnouts in the sand for extended periods of time. After using sand mode I can tell you that it holds gears a long time without traction control on. The car revs at a consistent over 4K Rpms. I’m sorry but extended driving like that pushing hard will eat up transmissions. I don’t see this as something common

Your review was great, the Big Bend has been on my radar and will likely be the trim level I end up purchasing.

Note that the dual-clutch rear-locking differential temperature issue discussed in this thread wouldn't affect the Big Bend trim level anyhow, as that is a Badlands exclusive feature.

Thanks for the review and update, the Big Bend looks certainly capable for my needs.

 

[Bdub]

I did 10 hours of driving both in and off road in my big bend today and nothing overheated or turned off. I was going 60 mph in sand in the desert and 2 hours uphill in slippery mode. This sounds like an issue if it was 100+ degrees doing burnouts in the sand for extended periods of time. After using sand mode I can tell you that it holds gears a long time without traction control on. The car revs at a consistent over 4K Rpms. I’m sorry but extended driving like that pushing hard will eat up transmissions. I don’t see this as something common

The big question is did you have fun?

 

[Zander1ni]

Your review was great, the Big Bend has been on my radar and will likely be the trim level I end up purchasing.

Note that the dual-clutch rear-locking differential temperature issue discussed in this thread wouldn't affect the Big Bend trim level anyhow, as that is a Badlands exclusive feature.

Thanks for the review and update, the Big Bend looks certainly capable for my needs.

thanks! You won’t rock crawl or anything but going on basic forest roads sand etc...you will have no problem. Also in regards to the overheating I saw somewhere it had to do with the ptu which is in both vehicles and that an outer banks had a overheating failure where it disabled 4x4

 

[John Comer]

Straight from owners manual

When driving over sand, try to keep all
four wheels on the most solid area
of the trail. Drive through the terrain
without varying vehicle speed. Apply the
accelerator slowly and avoid excessive
wheel slip. Avoid driving your vehicle in
deep sand for an extended period of time
as this may cause the system to overheat.
Use the vehicle’s momentum to maintain
forward motion in sand. Avoid coming to
a stop on steep sand slopes as the vehicle
may not be able to continue forward
motion after it has stopped.

 

[Washburn]

If there are widespread overheating issues, and a TSB is not issued for 2021, I am sure Ford will fix it for the SECOND year's run ...after observing it for the FIRST year's operation / feedback / reviews.

(AKA another good reason to wait for the 2nd year.... which has been my default plan anyways exactly due to things like this AND I do want a GDO/HomeLink which I am pretty sure Ford will notice the lack of after some consumer reviews pretty soon, AND the cheap steering wheel... i mean my 2010 boxy escape has a leather wheel)

(Given that you do serious enough off roading where it CAN cause overheating, and as long as there's a fix, there's no reason IMO to abandon the B/S - it looks and sounds like a great SUV so far with some really good off road chops for LIGHT/MODERATE adventure, so it is worth the wait for 2nd year OR buy now and wait for TSB/fix during the current/2021 year)

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