Issue: Mondeo 09, 130BHP estate auto. Been reliable until this morning!!

The first issue that I had was engaging reverse at my daughter’s nursery – the car started ‘shuddering’. I switched off and all was well. Five minutes later turning right to my other girl’s school and I completely lost power. The power steering packed up, brakes seemed really heavy and I just had to man handle the ‘cruise’ into the kerb. Started the engine after 2 minutes and the car drove but didn’t feel ‘right’. During the power failure the oil pressure light came on but didn’t remain on.

I’ve checked the oil and its fine. I will be taking it in to an independent (Ford are not good locally) and won’t be driving my kids around in it again but any ideas as to the likely fault?

Only think I could find on TalkFord was related to an injector problem but no real detail as that person’s car was still in warranty. Never felt so helpless driving a car before, if it’s been a main road at speed I shudder to think what the outcome would have been!!

Any help appreciated.

Boost hose? Sounds like engine had stalled if you lost ps and brake servo assistance.

sounds electrical to me, you should get it to a decent ford indy and have a diagnostic session done

where are you located?

Sounds like engine had stalled if you lost ps and brake servo assistance.

That was my first thought, but it’s an auto. Gearbox fault, or just random bad luck manageing to stall it? If it stalled the oil light would come on.

Juddering, did it feel like the engine just stalled or soemthing more like a FUBAR CV joint? Were you at full lock while ‘turning’ into the school? If the CV joints were really bad could they provide enough resistance to stall the engine?

*I am not a mechanic, but do own an MG so have practice fault finding!

Was it smoking a lot? If so that suggests air starvation. My Volvo (ford engine) did this to me twice in 7 years, there was a plastic throttle on the intake manifold that stuck, either due to temperature or oil mist build up off the egg system. If you know you’re way round an engine bay it’s worth taking the inlet hose off and having a look for a build p of oil.

Rich

I’m not a Ford mechanic, but…

If you’re Edinburgh-ish I’ve got a code reader and software for your model if that’s any use. I reckon the oil warning light is a symptom not cause. And I think air starvation, probably not if it was happening when reversing, low revs.

Did the engine warning light come on at all?

Thanks all, in turn: –

– Boost hose – no idea but I’ve mentioned it to the garage (the car is now there for a diagnostic)
– Located in Macclesfield
– It felt as if the engine did stall (its a push button start so less easy to ‘feel’ than a key start). The gearbox fault was what I first felt it might be when I reversed as it felt as though the gear hadn’t been engaged correctly. Then the later stalling confused that idea… I was almost at full lock when turning but honestly wouldn’t know whether it was CV related.
– No smoking and I have no idea what I’m doing in the engine bay!
– Engine warning light didn’t come on – just the oil pressure light – briefly.

Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll update if I ever get a conclusion. Real dilemma for me is that the mechanic has already warned of difficulty in diagnosing if no fault codes are stored so I’m faced with driving a car in which the same thing could happen again…with kids in the back.

Possible intermittent speed sensor fault, common on earlier Fords but not sure if issue still exists on later models. The lack of signal can cause issues with idle and stalling. At low speeds you probably didn’t notice if the speedo was working or not.

Think I’d notice with the speedo thing as I’m pretty anal about keeping to 30 where needed so tend to look quite often.

No great surprise to hear that no fault codes have been recorded and nothing diagnosed. I assume Ford would just plug it into the same machine so no idea what to do!

Have they checked the battery?
I’ve known vauxhalls to suffer with all sorts of weird and wonderful faults due to a low battery voltage.

Sounds electrical to me too. Maybe a bad connection/earth to the gearbox.