Focus TDCi cold starting continued....

[mekondelta]

My 1.8 TDCi Focus (100PS) has been playing up all winter when starting from cold.

Starter motor has been changed and glow plugs. Ford have looked at it and thought it was glow plugs. Situation has improved but not perfect yet.

Problem is I have to crank the engine for about 5-10 seconds on full throttle before the engine fires and stays alive. During this time the engine will fire then die about 3 or 4 times before finally starting.

The Ford guy said that once when they were testing with diagnostics they got an error code from the cam position sensor but I've got no other information on what it could be.

The CPS is about 80 quid fitted I believe. Is it worth doing? Anyone got any other suggestions. The glow plugs are non-Ford parts as Ford had a 2 week wait before the parts would arrive...

Any help appreciated. Chris.

[mekondelta]

J.J.McClure said:

This is my first time on pistonheads,sory to bring such happy news

I'm happy to report my car doesn't do this. I think I might just get the CPS done and hope for the best!

[mekondelta]

DJ_AS said:

To the OP: my Mondeo has a hidden 'diagnostics' mode on the dash which will display the error codes. IIRC on the Mondy you hold down the trip meter reset button as you switch the ignition on. You can then cycle through the different modes (inc. error reporting) by pressing the tripmeter reset button. Or something like that.

May be worth looking into. Of course, you'd also have to find a list of the error codes from somewhere!

Didn't work for me. It just reset the trip meter... :-(

[mekondelta]

Well, the starter motor has gone again. That's 6 months/6000 miles. Great.... starting had got a but easier recently too....

I did run down the amount of diesel in the tank to almost nothing so maybe the fuel filter needs changing? Am going to try that as well as a new starter motor.

Any other ideas? How can the DMF be tested to see if it is that. I can't replicate the symptoms from the previous poster.

[mekondelta]

Just a quick question, what is the difference between a starter motor new from ebay with 1yr warranty for 50quid and one from a main stealer for 200quid?

Are they easy to fit yourself?

[mekondelta]

andy_quantum said:

The ebay starter motors are more likely recon ones packed up to look new. Theres nothing wrong with having a recon starter, I got one on my Mondeo at the same time as the DMF and clutch but you might want to check you're not getting the knackered parts bin ones that Ford have taken off and skipped, and it has actually been recon'd.

Thanks Andy, this is the one I was looking at ebay item

andy_quantum said:

As to the original problem, I dont think thats a DMF related problem, although turning over for that long isnt going to help the flywheel. I think I remember reading that the throttle isnt used until the car reaches target idle anyway, everything is done from the ECU. So it would make sense to me that it's either a coolant temperature or cam position sensor problem.

Either way, it's not the sort of thing I'd think about doing some time in the future, if it's rattling the DMF you'll end up with a bill of 4 figures

Edit. Idle pulley??

The car has been starting OK for the last 4 days on the button. I'm starting to think it was because I was running low on fuel and ran it down too far. I'm just really confused about the whole thing. When the Ford dealer had the car in, they saw a Cam Position Sensor error appear once otherwise couldn't find anything wrong. That hasn't been changed yet but I don't know what to change right now as at this very minute I have a working car. Argh!

[mekondelta]

wibley said:

This may help. I had the same problem over the winter 2003 Focus TDCI 115 after changing the glow plugs it started fine and then cut out. So I cleaned the cam position sensor which when you remove the plastic cover is on top the cam cover and then went round spraying wd40 on every connector i could fine and it hasnt happened since. Ive been told of people having the fuel pump changed only to discover its the cam sensor.

Excellent! I'll give this a try. Thank you.

[mekondelta]

Right so the starter motor has been replaced as it just refused to start more and more often. Did it myself, 90 quid from ebay for the part. Pretty easy to do.

I found some metal shavings in the starter motor itself, probably about 5 of them 3-4mm long.

Does this mean the dreaded dual mass flywheel problem is imminent?