Fiesta Owner's Manual

[MegEtc]

Here is the first printing, in all its PDF glory.

I was actually a dork and read it (Sam laughed at me on Twitter for announcing I was reading it cover to cover, so y'all can go ahead and laugh at me, too).

Here were my highlights:

Page 333: We only have to change the oil every 10,000 miles (!!!!) Is that common for new cars? I'm having trouble believing that.

Page 295: There's a whole complicated ritual you have to go through after you change the battery. God knows if I'll remember to do this in 5 years.

Page 340: It's got a timing belt (boo!) but it doesn't have to be changed until 150,000 miles (yay!).

Page 358: The lime-green Fiestas will molt in 3 years and settle into their mature brown color.

Also I noticed the logs are super-boring. Is there a web-based or smart-phone APP that's popular for tracking maintenance?

[LMTech]

yeah theses threads get buried quick here is the original and all the comments on the contents of it. http://fiestafaction.com/forums/2011...rs-manual.html

[MegEtc]

Crap, sorry mods.

Reported the thread...

[NLC-KC]

I read the owner's manual a few weeks back when my cable, Internet and phone were off for a few hours...

[golf strom]

Originally Posted by MegEtc

Here is the first printing, in all its PDF glory.

I was actually a dork and read it (Sam laughed at me on Twitter for announcing I was reading it cover to cover, so y'all can go ahead and laugh at me, too).

Why would you be a "dork" for actually reading your owners manual for your 17k purchase....the second most expensive purchase most people make is a car with the house being first....you my friend as mensa material for having the intelligence to read the manual...it will help you get he most out of your new car and possibly help solve or prevent a problem in the future....of course you can always refer to it later as well but nothing wrong with reading it all at once ...it makes you SMART and an enthusiast! Congrats

Page 333: We only have to change the oil every 10,000 miles (!!!!) Is that common for new cars? I'm having trouble believing that.

As long as you use the recommended oil (I'm certain that the Motorcraft oil for this car is semi-synthetic ) and do mostly freeway driving (not much stop and go driving) you probably would be fine....but since most people do have some severe driving characterists in their driving environment the most you should go is about 7500k. For mostly severe driving environments I would say 5k miles between changes. In any case I would change the oil at least once every 16 months max.

Page 295: There's a whole complicated ritual you have to go through after you change the battery. God knows if I'll remember to do this in 5 years.

Maybe stick a piece of duct tape on the top of the battery cover that spells it out..for you OR maybe a AAA service guy.

Page 340: It's got a timing belt (boo!) but it doesn't have to be changed until 150,000 miles (yay!).

I never understood WHY people are so against a belt vs chains...in reality they are much quieter make the engine a bit more efficient, and WHEN THEY DO NEED REPLACING IT IS MUCH CHEAPER TO DO THAN CHAINS.. 150k is a LONG time before a change..I wonder if they recommend a time period interval as well?

Page 358: The lime-green Fiestas will molt in 3 years and settle into their mature brown color.

That link doesn't work...it is a propritary Ford site only for dealers Ford employees.

[BobosCurse]

Originally Posted by MegEtc

Page 340: It's got a timing belt (boo!) but it doesn't have to be changed until 150,000 miles (yay!).

I've never even had a vehicle reach 70k, so 150k is unimaginable to me.

Since the Fiesta is so high-tech, does it give you maintenance reminders for everything?

It's nice that it says 10k for oil changes, but I'm sure I won't go past 4k-5k just to be safe.

[MegEtc]

Originally Posted by golf strom

As long as you use the recommended oil (I'm certain that the Motorcraft oil for this car is semi-synthetic ) and do mostly freeway driving (not much stop and go driving) you probably would be fine....but since most people do have some severe driving characterists in their driving environment the most you should go is about 7500k. For mostly severe driving environments I would say 5k miles between changes. In any case I would change the oil at least once every 16 months max.

7,500 is more believeable than 10k. When the manual gets into fleet and taxi cars, it says to change the oil when the dash tells you to, suggesting the car's dumbdot is based on something other than a cheap clock. I'll let that be my guide unless i get into some gnarly stop-and-go situations.

I never understood WHY people are so against a belt vs chains...in reality they are much quieter make the engine a bit more efficient, and WHEN THEY DO NEED REPLACING IT IS MUCH CHEAPER TO DO THAN CHAINS.. 150k is a LONG time before a change..I wonder if they recommend a time period interval as well?

This is a good point. My Alero crapped out before I even got to the timing belt - the ignition coil burst and sprayed raw gas all over the catalytic converter, which then choked to death. Thereby proving it's entirely possible to destroy an entire engine without wearing out your belt at all. I don't think there's a time period mentioned. It must just be purely a mechanical thing.

I forgot to mention the other manual detail that caught my eye:

Page 5: Try not to drive at the same speed for very long for the first 1,000 miles. Vary your speed a lot. I'm enjoying thinking about the honks I'll get trying that on my friendly neighborhood Highway Of Death.

[GapBoyPCS]

As mentioned already, there's already a post about the US-version manual.