Quirks and Features
 

Too many posts seem to be oriented towards how the car drives without enough thought towards inane documentation of the quirks and features.

The obvious ones are the turn signal without any detents and the lack of a fuel door release button. I'll get this thread going with some even more useless observations:

• The prioritization of what gets power when the ignition is off is weird. If carplay was active, the stereo keeps going until the phone is disconnected or you open the door. However, the homelink garage door opener doesn't get power unless the ignition is on (not just ACC). A bit annoying as I'm used to killing the engine as soon as the car's in the garage to avoid fumigating the house (more of a problem with the RX-7 but still).
• The shift/rev-beep comes on in 6th gear. Somewhat useful during break-in as I set my reminder at 3500rpm which is ~80mph in 6th, but what about normal use? Am I supposed to shift into 7th?
• Range estimate is extremely slow to adapt/very pessimistic. I've put 18+ gallons through the car averaging about 26mpg and I get a range estimate of 260 miles when the car is full, up from ... 240 when it had 11 miles on the odometer. I'll have a quarter to a third tank remaining indicated after I've used up the entire estimated range.
• The little upshift indicator is the most aggressive (aggressively short shifting) I've ever seen. I thought the arrow nags in my old Mazda3 and RX-7 were aggressive, but they seem to come on in the BRZ when I feel like I'm lugging the engine in the _current_ gear. 100% guaranteed to piss off everyone behind you in the burbs if you obey the arrows.

The turn signals have a habit of hyperblinking at times, and then stopping once I cancel them (or once I signal the other way because I have not managed to cancel them correctly).

When the car is very cold, the redline on the display changes to below 4000rpm, and always reverts back to normal when I am looking away from it, refusing me the pleasure of seeing the animation of the redline going up.

The filler piece used to cover the hole where the heated seat controls would be can be used as an extremely small trash can for straw wrappers.

If you accidentally hit the voice input button mid corner, and then vehemently swear at the ensuing request for a voice prompt, the system has the good sense to cancel the inquiry.

The dead pedals shifts side to side slightly, and makes a squeaking noise akin to an irritated mouse running away from a malfunctioning washing machine.

When you pull the seat forward to access the rear seats, pushing the seat back to lock has it latch in a seriously vertical position.

Elbow opening center console is interesting...

Still lost as to why I have a traction control button and a track button that both have the same function

So happy that the wheel mounted volume controls are on the correct side of the steering wheel, even though that means the multifunction display controls are on the opposite side of the screen you are adjusting

I'm so glad I'm not the only one this is happening to!

What’s wrong with the fuel door? IMO the push to open the door is far more intuitive than an inside release.

When the doors are locked, the fuel door locks too. My example is I had been driving the car, and when I started the drive I locked the car doors using the power button on the inside of the drivers door. When I got to a gas station, I unlocked just the drivers door from the handle. When I tried to open the fuel door, it was locked. I unlocked the doors using the touch button on the outside drivers door handle, and the fuel door unlocked.

TLDR, the lock state of the fuel door is tied to the power door locks.

The exact same as my 2013 Mustang GT and my 2013 BMW 135i.

Track mode doesn't fully turn off traction control. Just allows more slip than normal and also gives better throttle response (at least from my foot dyno).

Traction control off button is the same as track mode except TC is off all the way. I assume they did it this way so you don't have to hold down two different buttons to fully turn off TC and be in track mode.

Also yes, my elbow keeps opening the center console too. Very annoying!

Yup, and there is a little graphic in the manual that explains it for anyone who is curious. This is how I've found it working:

- Left button pressed once turns off only TC, and only up to 50 km/h, and the VSC will still clamp down if you slide too far/fast.
- Right button pressed once puts everything in track mode (so the TC and VSC will still engage to a point, and I think I can still feel the brake LSD a bit).
- Left button held down turns everything off, including the brake LSD, but leaves the ABS on.

So sort of three different levels depending on how you want it.

When using CarPlay to send text messages, the "sending your message" at the end is garbled.

Also, not a fan of the door locks. I feel they should auto-lock on drive away and unlock on shut off.

That’s a problem with your phone, CarPlay streams all assets from the phone.

That bothered me initially, but now I'm getting used to it.

Only thing that bothers me is the seat belt chime that comes on as soon as you move.....why not at 5mph instead?
And the stupid shadow thing you get with the headlights. (premium)

What shadow? Both trim headlights should be the same except for the turning portion.

Too bad, the Aussie woman is usually on point, I'll have to try someone else.

Yeah, I find myself just driving with the doors unlocked :iono:

I'll say it again...that frickin center console. My elbow opens it up nearly every drive.

So does this mean pedal dance is no longer required for track?

Mandatory link to the "other quirks and features" :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYV3TwIkqC8

Sorry, that answer is a bit beyond me. I never had a gen 1 car, and I'm not versed enough in electronic brake force distribution to understand whether the "off mode" changes that. My butt dyno tell me that I've felt the brake LSD in track mode, but not in "off" mode. However, that was only after I read the manual and did some investigation, so I could be interpreting more than is there.

According to the manual, it should not be required (if it even still works). The TC Off button seems to actually turn everything off.

For all the limited owners out there. Heated seats... how are they? Over here in the UK the first gen heated seats were next to useless.

The high setting is VERY strong. I use the high setting for the initial warm up and then low setting to keep the seat warm but even then it does get too warm sometimes.

True story, I have renamed them "the assburners".

The back seats are much less usable this gen than the 1st gen.

Last gen, I was able to use the back seats (not often) in a pinch to carry two passengers on a short drive. Yesterday, I tried doing the same thing with the same two passengers on the 2nd gen but there was absolutely no room (seats seem to be bigger?)

I think the space under the seat is also shallower which effectively limits legroom. Regardless, it's not great at all...

Maybe the battery operated homelink in the GR86 has an advantage here as power would always be on. But, I don't see the BRZ homelink as a disadvantage since I always close the garage door with the wall mounted remote once I'm out of the car.



There's not a setting in the infotainment menu to change this?

Not on the MT, maybe on the AT.

What is the "brake LSD?"

Individually apply the rear brakes to get the differential to send power to the desired wheel.

I'm not exactly sure what purpose it serves on the BRZ given that we already have a mechanical Torsen LSD.

But going by the fact that it gets turned off in full track mode, I assume the use for it is for something like loose roads or snow vs performance driving.

Electronic brake force distribution is not mentioned, so I am assuming it is still on. This was turned off with pedal dance in gen1.

The real question is whether pedal dance still works in gen2.

I couldn't get it to work. Maybe I did it wrong.

This is correct. Torsens don't work well on uneven surfaces with large differences in grip. The brake diff (which most cars have) is more effective as pushing torque to one side in those situations, though at the cost of sucking twice as much power out of the other side.

On the third morning I had the car all of the MFD settings had reset. RPM limit, beep etc, has not done it since. On my 15 wrx it had a similar bug with the middle mfd when it was too cold out. It was fixed by a software update I think.

Tell the to sit cross-legged.

:lol:

Am I trippin or does this car not tell us, how many miles until empty? [emoji848] Trying to drive mine down to the wire then fill up with Premium since the dealership filled her up with regular :(.


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One scroll down from the voltage and oil pressure gauge. It's the bottom piece of info below your gas mileage and all that.

That’s what I was thinking, but wasn’t sure. Mine goes in increments of 10. No gas light yet, but says I have 30miles.


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Low fuel warning comes on at 20km remaining. Much lower than anything else I've had before.

I think it's because it's a very conservative/pessimistic gauge. My mpg is ~29.0 and it's reading 120 miles of range at the halfway mark.

29mpg, wow. Highest I've gotten is 25.X. You're either on the interstate all the time or I'm driving like a complete @$$hole.