56 Plate Focus 1.8 TDCI engine fault message
Discussion
Evening All,
I am trying to help a neighbour diagnose an engine fault message which came up on Friday during the hot weather.
It says : ' engine systems fault'. The car was serviced 3 weeks ago by a local garage which he has been going to for 10 years. The car does not have DPF.
The engine appears to have gone into limp mode i.e veery little power and I cannot hear the turbo spool up when revved at idle which makes me think MAF, EGR valve or turbo failure. He has plugged it into a fault code reader at the garage and nothing has shown up.
We took off the top part of a pipe pictured which we think links intercooler and EGR valve and the valve base is full of black burnt oil. There is also wet oil underneath the pipe.
The car is driven mostly short journeys but at least once a week is given a 20 mile run and every 3 weeks does 100 miles or so.
So has anyone experienced this and know where to start. With the absence off any fault codes my neighbour doesn't know where to start and obviously wants to avoid throwing good money after bad.
Many thanks in advance for any help.
Si
I am trying to help a neighbour diagnose an engine fault message which came up on Friday during the hot weather.
It says : ' engine systems fault'. The car was serviced 3 weeks ago by a local garage which he has been going to for 10 years. The car does not have DPF.
The engine appears to have gone into limp mode i.e veery little power and I cannot hear the turbo spool up when revved at idle which makes me think MAF, EGR valve or turbo failure. He has plugged it into a fault code reader at the garage and nothing has shown up.
We took off the top part of a pipe pictured which we think links intercooler and EGR valve and the valve base is full of black burnt oil. There is also wet oil underneath the pipe.
The car is driven mostly short journeys but at least once a week is given a 20 mile run and every 3 weeks does 100 miles or so.
So has anyone experienced this and know where to start. With the absence off any fault codes my neighbour doesn't know where to start and obviously wants to avoid throwing good money after bad.
Many thanks in advance for any help.
Si
Hi All,
I am the owner of the offending Focus, the problem was solved today by the fitting of new glow plugs. I've written the following for info in case anyone else has this problem.
The first garage I went to did not seem to have a decent diagnostics device as no fault codes were found, although I was worryingly advised that my turbo could well be dead and that I should consider getting rid of the car ASAP (a very precise attempted diagnosis, considering the lack of fault codes!). I had also tried the "dashboard check" by holding in the trip meter button while turning the ignition key to "electrics" - no fault codes there either. The second garage had Snap-On diagnostics machine which instantly gave me a lot more confidence, and the glow plug circuit error had been documented in other forums I'd read. It is often simply a failed glow plug rather than any associated relays or ECU. I fitted the glow plugs myself as the 2nd garage was fully booked (I have zero experience with diesels and did not realise how simple it is!). Lo and behold the fault message disappeared, and on my test drive the "dead" turbo gave a nice rush of boost as it should.
From reading around on the internet, it appears that limp mode on some cars with variable vane turbos can deliberately move the vanes so that no or very little boost is produced. I suspected the car was in limp mode but did not realise quite how much the power would be limited (rev limit <3000 rpm and very little torque over 2000).
The oil on my intercooler-EGR hose seems unrelated but has shown up in internet searches, the hose seems prone to splitting but I could not find a split on mine, and I am getting decent boost now the glow plug issue is sorted. The passage into the EGR unit does seem dirty, a light dusting a millimeter or so thick, with some oily fluid on the floor. Some pics on the net show centimetres of carbon stuck on the walls - I am hoping mine is not a problem (yet!).
James
I am the owner of the offending Focus, the problem was solved today by the fitting of new glow plugs. I've written the following for info in case anyone else has this problem.
The first garage I went to did not seem to have a decent diagnostics device as no fault codes were found, although I was worryingly advised that my turbo could well be dead and that I should consider getting rid of the car ASAP (a very precise attempted diagnosis, considering the lack of fault codes!). I had also tried the "dashboard check" by holding in the trip meter button while turning the ignition key to "electrics" - no fault codes there either. The second garage had Snap-On diagnostics machine which instantly gave me a lot more confidence, and the glow plug circuit error had been documented in other forums I'd read. It is often simply a failed glow plug rather than any associated relays or ECU. I fitted the glow plugs myself as the 2nd garage was fully booked (I have zero experience with diesels and did not realise how simple it is!). Lo and behold the fault message disappeared, and on my test drive the "dead" turbo gave a nice rush of boost as it should.
From reading around on the internet, it appears that limp mode on some cars with variable vane turbos can deliberately move the vanes so that no or very little boost is produced. I suspected the car was in limp mode but did not realise quite how much the power would be limited (rev limit <3000 rpm and very little torque over 2000).
The oil on my intercooler-EGR hose seems unrelated but has shown up in internet searches, the hose seems prone to splitting but I could not find a split on mine, and I am getting decent boost now the glow plug issue is sorted. The passage into the EGR unit does seem dirty, a light dusting a millimeter or so thick, with some oily fluid on the floor. Some pics on the net show centimetres of carbon stuck on the walls - I am hoping mine is not a problem (yet!).
James
Gassing Station | Ford | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff