Mondeo TDCI Woes

[Transmitter Man]

Ideas from the brain trust would be much appreciated.

2003 130 horse model.

Difficult to start. All glow plugs new and working.

When it does start no response from throttle pedal for several minutes with rather a lot of smoke out back. When throttle starts working properly a good blat down the end of the road and all seem fine and smoke clears.

Carried out full service replacing all filters and used Ford oil.

Carried out leak down test on all injecors and all is fine.

Intend replacing EGR with blanking panel even though I don't think this is the cause of my poor starting and not ideal running as the car does seem way down on power.

Recently had completely new DMF fitted (all new Ford parts) and all seems ok in that department.

What else is worth checking or replacing?

Thanks in anticipation.

Phil

[jds32]

Has the camshaft sensor been changed at all. They seem to be a common failure item. From what I remember they cost under £15 on eBay and only take 2 minutes to change. Mine went and the car wouldn't start at all, it didn't throw up any fault codes either. It's worse a shot seeing as you have done pretty much everything else that does go wrong.

[Transmitter Man]

Hi JDS,

Thanks for that.

It's not been changes since I purchased the vehicle so as you say, worth a shot at that price.

I'm fitting an EGR blanking plate today (even cheaper than a cam sensor)

I'm determined to not let this beat me but I now know why there are so many cheap TDCI mondy's out there:-(

Thanks again.

Phil

[HustleRussell]

Sounds like injectors to me. When the camshaft sensor went on my Mk3 Mondeo TDCI 130, the engine would cut out alltogether and throw up a warning light.

[PaulKemp]

Change fuel filter for a Ford one, check engine codes
Hope its not fuel pump or injectors

[Lawbags]

Injectors or diesel pump.
Either way, very expensive unfortunatly.

[vetrof]

Does your car have the electronic actuator for the turbo? Mine does, when I first bought the car it ocassionally was difficult to start, when it did the idle was very rough and there was no response to the accelerator pedal. It normally cleared itself after between 20 sec and a minute. I did some reasearch and found one or two people complaining about the same thing. One said a software upgrade frome Ford cured it. I was a bit sceptical about this. But off I went to the dealer, they did sw upgrade to the ECU and much to my suprise, I have never had the problem since.

While you have the EGR off take off the whole inlet manifold and clean that up too.

[Transmitter Man]

Thanks guys for all the good suggestions.

Yesterday fitted the EGR block off plate.

Diagnosed a duff alternator which is being changed today and we all know how a lack of charging can effect engine running.

Will update later and in any case, I like the ECU s/w update.

How much does this cost from Ford as I imagine only a main dealer can offer this?

Phil

[vetrof]

I don't remember the exact cost of the ECU flash, it was here in Czech Republic, but remember it not being outrageous. Perhaps the cost of less than 1 hour diagnostics.
By the way, my car is a 2004 130tdci (although according to VIN decoder it is a German model with a 125ps engine!)

[Transmitter Man]

HustleRussell said:

Sounds like injectors to me. When the camshaft sensor went on my Mk3 Mondeo TDCI 130, the engine would cut out alltogether and throw up a warning light.

Carried out a leak-down test and all is well with all four injectors.

Phil

[Transmitter Man]

PaulKemp said:

Change fuel filter for a Ford one, check engine codes
Hope its not fuel pump or injectors

Hi Paul,

All filters have been changed.

What problems with aftermarket fuel filters have been reported with this particular engine?

Phil

[Transmitter Man]

vetrof said:

I don't remember the exact cost of the ECU flash, it was here in Czech Republic, but remember it not being outrageous. Perhaps the cost of less than 1 hour diagnostics.
By the way, my car is a 2004 130tdci (although according to VIN decoder it is a German model with a 125ps engine!)

Thanks Vetrof,

This is now added to my list.

I don't want to think about diesel pumps

Phil

[Steve H]

Leakoff being OK doesn't mean the injectors are OK, pumps are pretty rare so I wouldn't worry there. Next step for me would be a decent diag check using IDS but if it doesn't show anything I think you are in to removing injectors for testing.

[Zoobeef]

Injectors out and get them tested.

[vetrof]

What does the turbo actuator do on startup? Pretty much as soon as the car is started the actuator should turn the arm to 'setup' the vanes. A symptom of my problem was that the arm on the actuator wouldn't turn properly initially. Then would suddenly 'remember' it should do some actuating!

[shoehorn]

As soon as the ignition is switched on the turbo actuator should cycle once to full travel then return to rest in 1-1.5 seconds.

[Transmitter Man]

Thanks gents.

I'll first check out the turbo actuator and if that's OK will take the injectors out.

Car is immobile so would have to confirm ECU s/w update cost before dragging the old girl to a main dealer.

Car is currently in Willesden, NW London.

Phil

[PaulKemp]

Some cheap fuel filters font filter small enough particles, this affects fuel pump and injectors
Of you do fit cheap filter change more often and avoid cheap supermarket fuel