Hi all im in need of some help.

my car has been playing up a lot for the past 3 months.

it started off just getting a bit hesitant and became really jerky to drive.

then it started going into limp mode all the time.

so i booked it into ford to get it looked at and they came back with a load of fault codes

basically it was an egr fault and the dpf was blocked along with a couple of other bits.

so ford did the following…

replaced egr vlave
done a manual regeneration of the dpf
replaced a temp sensor
relaced a turbo pipe which was leaking

this lot cost me 700 quid

ford said after the work was done the car was running fine on the test drive.

however since the wife has got the car back it has refused to start once or twice and it still keeps going into limp mode.

my problem is that im down the falklands and cant do anything about it.

ford keep trying to baffle the wife with all the techy stuff but fair play to her she isnt falling for it.

surely if i put the car into a garge for a certain fault(cutting out, limp mode etc), the garge then diagnoses it and repairs it and its still showing the same problems as before then they clearly havent done what i asked??

what should be my next step as im getting a bit pised off now !!

cheers

steve

how old is the car? is the work under warranty (guess not if you’ve paid £700)? if so I’d try and escalate it to Ford UK rather than the dealer/franchise, just have a good list of times/dates & work carried out so far.

If it’s out of warranty try a ford specialist, rather than a main dealer.

Use a ford owners forum to find a decent local place, or just to ask the same question about more ideas about the fault itself.

the car is a 54 plate so well out of warranty, however the work was only carried out last week.

700quid is a lot of cash to spend if it hasnt fixed the problem!

Does it chug along at start up and not gather revs, or not start altogether? If it’s the former, then my Volvo (Ford engine)has doen this – it is the throttle valve that’s jamming, if the latter then I’m stumped.

Is it a TDCi engine ?
They can suffer with injector problems, well the Mondeo’s of that era can anyway. According to the bods on what used to be fordmondeo.org, a local AC Delco dealer is a good start. They can re-code them, whereas Ford usually want to replace at huge cost.
I think the website has changed now.

the car does have a tdci engine.

its happeneing all the time at random intervals?

one minute it wont start, next minute the wife can be driving along and all the power will go and it wont rev above 1000rpm.

surely though if ford diagnosed the problem and then charged me 700 quid to fix it and it hasnt fixed the problem then i should have some sort of comeback??

I would suggest your wife gives Trading standard a call they will advise you on your legal rights and if they feel you have a case may speak to the dealer on your behalf

replaced egr vlave
done a manual regeneration of the dpf
replaced a temp sensor
relaced a turbo pipe which was leaking

this lot cost me 700 quid

Holy cow. That lot should be really easy work. You could probably have solved most of it with some redex and an Italian tuneup. Ie a good hard thrashing.

Still worth trying that mind.

Sounds as if it gets pootled around town mostly.

How many miles has it done? The DPF is meant to be replaced at 75k and the fluid topped up at 37.5k- usually not done as its expensive. Are you getting any othere warning messages / lights? The earth points and harness are known to corrode. The conectors at the base of the n’s b pillar are known also to have terminals escaping, which causes loads of dtc’s and lack of throttle / limp home mode activated.
I personally would never recomend someone to buy one of the early cmax / 04 focus, as they had a lot of new to ford systems fitted, so were a bit of an experimant!

mickasaki… the car has done 113000 miles now and was running fine until this happend.

i had to have the alternator reconditioned about a month ago as the battery light kept coming on.

when they did it they said all the fuse box was corroded so they apparently gtive that a good clean.

ford refilled the fluid last year at 105000 miles and they done a manual regen on the dpf the last time it was in which was last week.

booked in for thursday to see what the score is, wish i could be there to help sort it out!!

cheers for all the advice

steve

I once had a 2.0 TDCi mondeo which occassionally dropped down to low power mode.

Obviously there can be a few different reasons for this.

My experience was injector pressure related.
When the low power mode engaged, the curly-wurly light in the instrument cluster would also flash, a sign, apparently, that the system was detecting low fuel-line pressure. This usually occured during larger throttle openings.
I got it checked out and nothing could be found when the Ford dealer pressure tested the injectors.
I fixed the issue by changing fuel supply. I was buying Asda diesel, and for some reason, the motor didn’t like it.

I’ve got another mondeo now, 115ps 2.0 TDCi, with over 190K under the wheels and it runs very well.
BUT, I do change the engine oil every 5K and drive the car in a fashion that is compatible with a car with such a mileage. This seems to have ensured that the car runs just fine.

Reports of a corroded fuse box may mean that your problems could be of an electrical nature.

Either way, if your brief to the garage was to fix the problems, then its a simple situation.
They recommended a fix and carried out the work. Their recommednations and remedy hasn’t fixed the issue, so the ball is back in their court, and you’d like to know what they are going to do about all the money you have spent, for the problems still to exist.

Call me cynical, but there may be dealers out there who inconvenience customers with older cars, possibly with a view to making the car appear to be beyond economical repair…….

It may also be worth pointing out to the dealership principal manager (constructively), that on the strength of their service so far, all they have done is demonstrate that they don’t know what they’re doing, and that it has cost you alot of money.

Good luck
😉

ford refilled the fluid last year at 105000 miles

I would check,and monitor the engine oil level,to much oil can cause problems with the engine managment sytems listed,there was some confusion as to oil quantitys in some engines of that year. 🙄

Another possibility is the fuel system may need checking,pumps and injectors can suffer from poor lubrication,blockage or previous/owener wrong fuelling.

My experience wont help you that much but thought I would share it.

My sisters did exactly what you were describing and went into ford (Sheffield) so many times I can’t remember the figure, Ford were so shit and offered no help that they took the hit and got rid.

I hope you have a better experience of ford than this!

drive the car in a fashion that is compatible with a car with such a mileage.

What’s that then?

I got screwed by my local ford dealer after they cocked up replacing a turbo and tried to charge me £5k for a new engine. But i looked into it and got them to give me a new car. Email me, i can help 🙂

I’ve had very similar problems to yourself with Focus 2.0 Tdci 2005.

Turns out that the eolys oil thats used as an adative hadnt been topped up during its 37k service and that meant a gradual blocking of the diesel particulate filter.
I went to Ford main dealer and sked why this hadnet happened ( I bought the car at 38K). They explained that the car must have been a fleet car and that fleet managers usually opt not to have it done.
I have two options.
1 – Pay £200 for oil top up/ ECU reset and DPF regen.
if that doesnt work Ford want £475 for a DPF and £200 to fit!!!!

2 – get the car a delete pipe and have the ECU remapped to null the DPF sensors and eolys oil sensors.

Problem with first is the expence.
Problem with second is that I’m not ceratin that it would pass an emissions test during MOT.

Total nightmare.

BTW – before everyone starts to blame Ford, most if not all diesel car manufaturers have used this DPF as a work round to Euro4 which was an emmisions rule introduced in 2005.
VW/Audi are by far the worst as a dpf for audi a4 is £1100 parts only!

As supertaky mentioned, getting a remap at an independant tune specialist can delete the DPF altogether, and you just need to source a replacement section of exhaust. This will still cost above £400 i should think in total. It shouldn’t effect the mot emissions though. This is of course assuming its DPF related fault! You mention that the fusebox was corroded, another common problem caused by water entering the heater air intake. The main CAN system is wired through the fusebox (CJB) and if they only cleaned the terminals there is agood chance that the circuit boards puffed! A likely cause of your fault i should think. I would deffinatly check the connectors at the bottom of the n/s A pillar though.

yep thanks for all the replies lads!!
its been to fraud today and they have said the dpf filter need replacing, they want 500 odd quid to do it.

wife has looked on net and the part is only £217 so i might just fit it myself in november when i get back.

Is that a genuine ford part? If not, and the price is similar, i’d not touch a pattern part on filters/cats. They just dont last long term. Good luck with it though!

most if not all diesel car manufaturers have used this DPF

There are two ways to make DPFs. Some use special oil (Peugot spring to mind) and some use the engine heat and clever catalysis, like VAG. VAG DPFs do not need the special oil.