20 years of Ford has come to an end

[asgadf/lkjnadsfg]

I've driven an F150 for the past 20 years, and over the weekend I bought my first Ram. I needed a new truck quickly, and I gave Ford a shot, but when I sat in a new F150 I was completely underwhelmed. It didn't move my needle, I felt nothing. I wasn't about to spend $65k on a truck that i felt was boring and didn't make me excited to bring it home.

After a long, frustrating search, I found a Ram that came close to how I would order one if I'd had the time. The only difference was that it had the e-torque system, which I didin't want. I couldn't find anything without it, and I didn't have time to wait on a build, so I consider the e-torque as a necessary compromise given my timing and the current state of the car market.

Now that I have it, I'm curious to see how this e-torque auto-stop thing works out. So far it rarely kicks in. There's a long list of things that can keep it from engaging, and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to fully predict when it will or won't kick in. They have a display that tells you when it's "ready", but even that doesn't account for some of the quirks. Today was a nice day, so I drove home with windows down and the AC off. I drove 12 miles and the Auto-stop system never kicked in, despite several lengthy waits at traffic lights. It kept giving me a message saying it wasn't ready because the cabin was heating or cooling. Both the AC and the heat were off, so it couldn't have been that. Ultimately I discovered that even if the AC and heat are off, if your fan motor is blowing, it reads that to be the same thing as the AC or heat running and it won't allow the auto-stop feature to work. Once I turned my fan motor to zero, it said the system was ready. Strange stuff.

I've only got 300 miles on it now, but I'm excited about the trucks potential. It's certainly a comfortable and fun truck to drive.

 

[jimothy]

Congratulations are your new gram and welcome to the forums!

I don’t want to spoil the excitement of a new truck, but your experience with eTorque doesn’t match mine. Stop/start should definitely kick in if your heat and AC are off (and should usually kick in even when they are running). I’d get it looked at by the dealer if it’s not.

 

[UnloosedChewtoy]

Definitely a nice looking truck. Welcome aboard!

I'd give it time to settle before taking it to the dealer over the start/stop not working, see if it gets better/worse over a little bit of time. Thats my two cents.

Also, if you are the upgrade/modding type, be prepared to dump your wallet on the table and never have any spare cash if you start looking around on the forum. Lots of ways to spend money here.

 

[Florida Ranger]

Drove only Fords from 1984 until December 2020. Tried to buy myself another F-150 Platinum again. But my 3 local Dealers told me I would be Unhappy with a V-8 Engine in my new truck and should only buy an Ecoboost V-6 Engine truck.. I bought a V-8 Laramie 4X4 crew cab . And. Could not be happier, it rides 100% better than my last 4 Platinums ever did and is 100% quieter,,,I needed a New truck so Problem Solved. I also told the dealer that I did the most business with to CANCEL my Company’s order for the 5 New F-450 Sevice trucks I had on order with him. He offered to sell me a V-8 F-150 truck at this time, I told him No Thanks he should have not worried about my Happiness and sold me what I wanted to start with…He got Mad at me and I left…….

 

[Runagun]

I've driven an F150 for the past 20 years, and over the weekend I bought my first Ram. I needed a new truck quickly, and I gave Ford a shot, but when I sat in a new F150 I was completely underwhelmed. It didn't move my needle, I felt nothing. I wasn't about to spend $65k on a truck that i felt was boring and didn't make me excited to bring it home.

After a long, frustrating search, I found a Ram that came close to how I would order one if I'd had the time. The only difference was that it had the e-torque system, which I didin't want. I couldn't find anything without it, and I didn't have time to wait on a build, so I consider the e-torque as a necessary compromise given my timing and the current state of the car market.

Now that I have it, I'm curious to see how this e-torque auto-stop thing works out. So far it rarely kicks in. There's a long list of things that can keep it from engaging, and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to fully predict when it will or won't kick in. They have a display that tells you when it's "ready", but even that doesn't account for some of the quirks. Today was a nice day, so I drove home with windows down and the AC off. I drove 12 miles and the Auto-stop system never kicked in, despite several lengthy waits at traffic lights. It kept giving me a message saying it wasn't ready because the cabin was heating or cooling. Both the AC and the heat were off, so it couldn't have been that. Ultimately I discovered that even if the AC and heat are off, if your fan motor is blowing, it reads that to be the same thing as the AC or heat running and it won't allow the auto-stop feature to work. Once I turned my fan motor to zero, it said the system was ready. Strange stuff.

I've only got 300 miles on it now, but I'm excited about the trucks potential. It's certainly a comfortable and fun truck to drive

I had a 2019 that would no matter if ac or heater on the truck would shut off when brakes where pressed. My '21 only shuts off when heater or AC is turned off. Not sure if by design or not.

 

[Quint]

Congrats from another longtime Ford guy. I'm now on my second Ram and haven't looked back.

Unless you hit the "Off" button, it will still affect the auto stop. I don't think that it has as much to do with A/C and heat per se. If I remember the manual, the truck will keep running if the cabin has not yet reached the set temperature. For example if you have the A/C off but the fan is blowing, the temperature set to 66 degrees, and ambient air temperature in the cabin is 75 degrees, the truck will keep running until the cabin reaches 66 degrees -- which won't happen because you don't have the A/C on.

I love the auto stop. I barely notice it and the system is saving gas.

 

[asgadf/lkjnadsfg]

I had a 2019 that would no matter if ac or heater on the truck would shut off when brakes where pressed. My '21 only shuts off when heater or AC is turned off. Not sure if by design or not.

Yeah, I messed around with mine some more tonight. If I'm cruising down the road with the fan off, the info center says "Start Stop Ready". If I turn the fan on, it immediately switches to "Start Stop not ready, cabin heating cooling in process" or something close to that. I can make it turn off and on all day just by bumping the fan motor speed from 0 to 1 and back down to 0 again. If I turn on the AC and the fan is going, the system says it's ready. I'll give it some time, but if it's still doing this a month from now I might ask the dealer about it.

 

[asgadf/lkjnadsfg]

Congrats from another longtime Ford guy. I'm now on my second Ram and haven't looked back.

Unless you hit the "Off" button, it will still affect the auto stop. I don't think that it has as much to do with A/C and heat per se. If I remember the manual, the truck will keep running if the cabin has not yet reached the set temperature. For example if you have the A/C off but the fan is blowing, the temperature set to 66 degrees, and ambient air temperature in the cabin is 75 degrees, the truck will keep running until the cabin reaches 66 degrees -- which won't happen because you don't have the A/C on.

I love the auto stop. I barely notice it and the system is saving gas.

I can definitely feel the engine turn off, it thunks to a stop, but the restart is dang near seemless. It's shocking how fast it is, and how it's almost imperceptible. So far there's a lot to love about this truck.

I've been following the break in procedure from the owners manual, and today I've got enough miles on it that I can start with some full throttle runs from cruising speed. That 5.7 hemi will absolutely ROLL!

 

[Quint]

Some friendly advice. Keep hammering that throttle even after the break-in procedure. These engines are more prone to cam & lifter failure due to a lack of oil spray at low RPMs. The dealer warned me that I drove my 2015 too gingerly and that I need to get on the gas more often to keep the oil spraying around.

Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not. But it is a rational excuse for stretching her legs.

 

[Red Cat]

I agree with Quint. I live by the simple creed of don't baby any Hemi. Don't get yourself arrested but don't drive it like there is an egg on the pedal. Every Hemi I've owned felt stronger and stronger the harder I drove it. Follow the recommended oil change interval and use a high quality oil. If you do a lot of short trip / stop and go driving, I'd take the truck out once a week to some back roads and run it through it's paces. Get all the fluids to full temp. Exercise the RPM range. Aside from that don't worry about it. Just enjoy the truck. There are HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Hemis out there running perfectly fine.

I've talked with some dealership service departments over the years and more than one told me the highest number of failures seemed to be on service vehicles like police cars where they idle a lot non stop sometimes for days on end. I believe that even this number can be narrowed down to failures due to oil changes not being done at the right intervals or cheap oil being used. There are also some "regular use" failures you'll hear about as well. But it is a small slice of the overall Hemi pie.

Look at it like this, if there are tens of thousands of troopers with 5.7 Chargers across the country idling for multiple days straight and even those aren't all failing regularly, you have a pretty solid engine. Those cars are put through severe abuse. If every 5.7 was destined to have lifter/cam failure then I don't believe any police agencies would still be running them. With the budgets most have to work with word would spread and they all would dump them in a second. I've owned a lot of Hemis and know people who have Hemis and personally I don't know of any that have had any issue at all.

 

[Trippi]

Got yourself a nice looking Rebel...congrats!!

 

[millerbjm]

I agree with Quint. I live by the simple creed of don't baby any Hemi. Don't get yourself arrested but don't drive it like there is an egg on the pedal. Every Hemi I've owned felt stronger and stronger the harder I drove it. Follow the recommended oil change interval and use a high quality oil. If you do a lot of short trip / stop and go driving, I'd take the truck out once a week to some back roads and run it through it's paces. Get all the fluids to full temp. Exercise the RPM range. Aside from that don't worry about it. Just enjoy the truck. There are HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Hemis out there running perfectly fine.

I've talked with some dealership service departments over the years and more than one told me the highest number of failures seemed to be on service vehicles like police cars where they idle a lot non stop sometimes for days on end. I believe that even this number can be narrowed down to failures due to oil changes not being done at the right intervals or cheap oil being used. There are also some "regular use" failures you'll hear about as well. But it is a small slice of the overall Hemi pie.

Look at it like this, if there are tens of thousands of troopers with 5.7 Chargers across the country idling for multiple days straight and even those aren't all failing regularly, you have a pretty solid engine. Those cars are put through severe abuse. If every 5.7 was destined to have lifter/cam failure then I don't believe any police agencies would still be running them. With the budgets most have to work with word would spread and they all would dump them in a second. I've owned a lot of Hemis and know people who have Hemis and personally I don't know of any that have had any issue at all.

Not to discount your thoughts on the use of Hemi's in police use but at least around here most of the Police Chargers have the 3.6 Pentastar V6 - a very solid and reliable engine that has seen likley more severe duty testing and different applications than most modern engines. Looking at 2021 models of Charger and Durango they are standard with the V6 in AWD and the Charger is avail with the Hemi in RWD.

 

[Red Cat]

Not to discount your thoughts on the use of Hemi's in police use but at least around here most of the Police Chargers have the 3.6 Pentastar V6 - a very solid and reliable engine that has seen likley more severe duty testing and different applications than most modern engines. Looking at 2021 models of Charger and Durango they are standard with the V6 in AWD and the Charger is avail with the Hemi in RWD.

Very true. The Pentastar is a phenomenal engine. They are dead reliable and make pretty decent power. Simple. Parts everywhere. I think it will go down as one of Chrysler's best engines ever.