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What to look for on a used EcoBoost?

ZeroTX

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Hi guys,

Just got a '22 Mustang for me and the wife as a "fun car." Well, guess what. Wife feels uncomfortable driving it, because she's afraid of the power. She also wants to get used to driving a stick until it's pure muscle memory (for me it is, it's like riding a bike, but she's never owned a stick, only driven others').

Anyway, looking at a few used S550 EcoBoosts w/ the 6-speed (exact same transmission, so a perfect way to prepare for driving the GT). What do I look for on these? I'm generally looking at 2016-2018 models with 50-80,000 miles on them. I know how to evaluate a car and I do have standards for all cars, but I'm not familiar enough w/ the S550 or the EcoBoost to know particular troubles the used ones may present with.

Thanks for any advice/heads-ups.

PFA, but this is one of the cars we're looking at... a 2018 w/ 52k miles and looks bone stock in the pics (do not want a car someone else modded, nor a de-modded car, so will be looking for the telltale signs of that already):
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If anyone ever brings up cobb or anything Iā€™d pass.
 

Bikeman315

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I had a 15ā€˜ EB. Trust me when I tell you itā€™s just as easy to get in over your head with an EB as a GT. Maybe even more because of the off of the line torque to the turbo engine. Let her drive an EB. She just might find driving the GT is no big deal. I speak from experience with my wife.
 

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Most people return the ecoboost to stock before trading it in. The only way to tell if it was modded would be to have a check done on the ecu for flasing and look for wrench marks on the normally modded items.

As for the wife. She would be better off on the GT over the ecoboost learning the stick. The way the ecoboost delivers power can go from non existent to bang on at around 2500rpm. The GT low down doesn't build power like that and is more consistent. Due to this power delivery shifting can be more jerky and less smooth while accelerating and vise versa.


I had both as mt82 6speed. GT is much smoother to drive off the line for sure. My ecoboost would break the tires free on less throttle.
 

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If anyone ever brings up cobb or anything Iā€™d pass.
What Donald is trying to say is there are a lot of tuned EBā€™s out there. Many, especially the 15-16ā€™s had a tendency to go boom (hence the name Ecoboom). Stay away from those.
 

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shogun32

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look for the other half of engine...

I agree with Stroke, the V8 is a pussy cat to learn on. The extra inertia makes it more forgiving of ham-fisted clutch use. Below 3500 RPM the power is nothing to get excited about.
 
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ZeroTX

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I hear what you guys are saying, but my wife is having a real hang-up about it. She keeps telling me she doesn't want to break the transmission in the car *sigh*.... FWIW, the GT is the most expensive vehicle we've ever purchased. It has about 220 miles on it right now. She's worried about damaging it or hurting it.

We may just go test drive the one pictured above and see....

What changed between 2017 and 2018 to no longer be "eco-boom"?
 

shogun32

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What Donald is trying to say is there are a lot of tuned EBā€™s out there.
in relation to total EB ownership? cars sold on this forum, definitely. But random dealer used stock? I seriously doubt it. But sure it doesn't hurt to check. And anyway why buy older than MY18? it's not like you're going to save so much as a farthing.

It wasn't so much something Ford did but that tuners stopped being stupid greedy. The 18+ also have dual-plate clutches which you can abuse the live long day. Sounds like she has a fundamental misunderstanding of how NOT fragile clutches are. The only way to really kill a clutch is to put high RPM on the engine and just drop the pedal.

practice maintain 15-1700 RPM sitting still, learn to feel out the bite point, KEEP the clutch at the bite-point, and modulate gas and *pressure* (don't think movement) on clutch pedal till car is rolling. The most common error people make is to remove pressure off the clutch as soon as they get to the bite point.
 
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ZeroTX

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I'll also add that one of the main things here is she wants to gain muscle memory for driving the car and frankly, not interested in having her daily drive the GT. I'm not even daily driving the GT.
 

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in relation to total EB ownership? cars sold on this forum, definitely. But random dealer used stock? I seriously doubt it. But sure it doesn't hurt to check. And anyway why buy older than MY18? it's not like you're going to save so much as a farthing.
I was just explaining Donaldā€™s rather cryptic post as OP might not even know who Cobb is.
 

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I'll also add that one of the main things here is she wants to gain muscle memory for driving the car and frankly, not interested in having her daily drive the GT. I'm not even daily driving the GT.
OK, so go on a road trip. Lots of fun and the muscles will be ready to go in 2-300 miles. :giggle: :like:
 

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What Donald is trying to say is there are a lot of tuned EBā€™s out there. Many, especially the 15-16ā€™s had a tendency to go boom (hence the name Ecoboom). Stay away from those.

Ha yeah sorry Iā€™m at work.

Correction explanation

People put maxed out tunes straight doing the dirty, then went to stock.Dogged the poop out of them and ram ragged, then sold them to carvana and vroom with basically head gasket failures and ticking time bombs.

I feel bad for a lot of owners that that time. You know a lot of people got screwed, I left the groups but ecoboost owner groups was literally bragging about how they got paid bank and sent a bomb to next owner.

Mild tunes ford perf and cobb stage 1 safe as pretty much same tune power range, but people did full bolt on, with full on tunes for full power pushing beyond stock safe range, floored it and burnouts track days, and then epidemic unloaded a bunch of broken cars or failing cars.

Unsuspecting buyers got these as they tossed stock parts on and flashed to stock
 

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I'll also add that one of the main things here is she wants to gain muscle memory for driving the car and frankly, not interested in having her daily drive the GT. I'm not even daily driving the GT.
a few days using the car to run all your errands and it'll be learned+engrained pronto. I switched off between 4 different stick cars and it was just 10 minutes and a handful of pull-aways and the brain had adjusted to the vagaries of the current car.
 

FreePenguin

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That said, I drove 30k on ford perf tune with zero hiccups. Was absolutely a blast. If I got another one Iā€™d get same tune. Itā€™s just a bump of power. Anything more to me was wasted, and higher risk of issues. Never had any issue

I sold mine for 25.5 with 32k miles, 2017 grabber blue premium. (But it had a lot of money into it) saw it recently. Heā€™s dailyā€˜in it. He flashed back to stock so he could use 87 lol. (You can go back and fourth using the dongle from ford perf) if you buy a fp tune.

I still got 30-35mpg on highway w tune. But I had to pay for 93. Stock tune can drink 87 all day with no harm

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ZeroTX

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in relation to total EB ownership? cars sold on this forum, definitely. But random dealer used stock? I seriously doubt it. But sure it doesn't hurt to check. And anyway why buy older than MY18? it's not like you're going to save so much as a farthing.

It wasn't so much something Ford did but that tuners stopped being stupid greedy. The 18+ also have dual-plate clutches which you can abuse the live long day. Sounds like she has a fundamental misunderstanding of how NOT fragile clutches are. The only way to really kill a clutch is to put high RPM on the engine and just drop the pedal.

practice maintain 15-1700 RPM sitting still, learn to feel out the bite point, KEEP the clutch at the bite-point, and modulate gas and *pressure* (don't think movement) on clutch pedal till car is rolling. The most common error people make is to remove pressure off the clutch as soon as they get to the bite point.
Oh, I agree. I've taught her how to drive a manual. I learned when I was 16 and had no choice. Once I figured out you can (as you said) get to the "bite point" and hold the pedal there while increasing the throttle, it was easy from that point. I could accelerate from a hill, from a flat surface, anything and it was a low power Mazda 626. A similar learning procedure is taught in motorcycle safety classes (for new riders). You sit and practice getting to the "bite point" on the clutch over and over and over. I've got it where she can do that, she's just scared. I'd rather us just keep her Prius and drive the Mustang, but she feels she won't get enough seat time to really get muscle memory for it when we have agreed it's only a fair-weather/pleasure/road trip car, not a daily driver. Since she works at a high school, driving a real nice car there isn't my idea of the greatest plan if you have another choice.
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