Ford TDCi Stalling/Cutting out

Ford TDCi Stalling/Cutting out

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Discussion

Petemate

1,674 posts

190 months

Wednesday 6th April 2011
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Had a Focus TDdi a few years ago which, although it wasn't a common-rail unit, still had the same technology behind the electronic controls ie when a fault developed with the throttle pedal on came the glow-plug light - down wnet the revs to idle and I had a perilous journey across two lanes of the M4 from well over .7 leptons to the hard shoulder. No mater what I did with the pedal it would not go over idle. Swithced off the engine, restarted it - away I went to worl. Most of the way home after shift at LHR OK until 3 miles from home - did it again. Bleddy dangerous. Got an almost new pedal from the bay for a tenner - sorted. Took the offending assembly apart for curiosity - the contact which wipes over the rheostat was OK but just up from idle the slivers of it were burnt/worn away. Seemed that as soon as the ECU received a confusing signal it thought "sod this - I'm going on break".
HTH

jrobins

1 posts

148 months

Monday 28th November 2011
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I had the same problem with my vehicle Ford Mondeo 2.0 diesel (53 plate) a few days ago. I was travelling to work in the early hours of the morning and the car just cut out (as if someone had taken away the key) so I had no choice but to use momentum to "coast" to the side of the road and call the AA as it was a busy road. The service man was not able to fix the car so towed it to the Ford dealer and it subsequently turned out that it was the crankshaft sensor. At this point I was stuck and could not really shop around. The total cost was a whopping £190.16, I could almost see the man rubbing his hands when he gave me the price over the phone because I had no where to go! I can't help but think that this is a design flaw with the car, there is not much you can do if the car cuts out like this and apparently there is no warning to let you know that the sensor is on its way out and it is not routinely changed in a service. So you are left with this unsatisfactory situation of an unreliable and potentially dangerous vehicle which comes to an abrupt stop. Believe me, when the engine cuts out on a busy road in the early hours it is not a very nice experience. Why can's Ford routinely change this as part of the service or have some fault tolerance of this part. I am not an expert on cars, but I would be interested to know if other car makes have the same issue.

Andrewdwork

1 posts

145 months

Thursday 9th February 2012
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Hi all, my first visit here so if I'm in the wrong spot please bear with me.

We have a 1.8tdci Focus hatch, 02 plate and have had it since 2003. It has now got about 55K on the clock and has been very reliable.... except for the common issue of stalling at low revs. It is generallly the boss's car and she is used to it but I have trouble usually in 2nd, over sleeping policemen or slow corners - it just stalls and has always done this. Ford say it is normal and is to protect the "system".

What a poor idea! After stalling it will not ever bump start, so you have to switch it off an on again to reset some bit of wizardry in the electronics, then it will bump start. Or just off-on and a quick crank gets it going again, but crazy or what?

I have had a couple of diesel cars and none of them ever did this - although they were not Fords they were Renault Lagunas. They will bump start if you stall and happen to be still rolling a bit.

Has anyone found a modified version of the software to overcome this as it is not only inconvenient it is B****y dangerous at junctions? It seems common to all the earlier tdci engines from comments on the internet, and appears to have been cured on later versions, but Ford will not accept any responsibility for what seems to be a built-in design fault. I am not sure if it is the ECU or the Fuel pump managemnt system that shuts the thing down at 700 RPM.

It does smoke quite heavily if I boot it hard for a few seconds, but as she drives it quite gently, I think this is just soot build up in the exhaust getting blown out. It stops after a couple of good blow throughs.

It is also a bit of a pig at very low temperature (sub-zero) starts. It does start eventually after about 12 seconds of winding over. The engine seems to fire but will not run unless the starter is kept going until the engine gets up on to all four pots. New glow plugs last year helped a bit as two were faulty, but this also seems to be a common issue with these tdci engines. It has had a new (Silver Calcium) battery last year as well by the way.

The starter was a bit sluggish, so that was removed and the (starter) gearbox cleaned and re-greased as the old stuff had set a bit like old lard. It turns over a bit better now but still is reluctant to do a clean start on all four cylinders

Any help would be appreciated.

domster

8,431 posts

269 months

Tuesday 9th April 2013
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Just a quick note on this thread; the wife's 120k Ford Focus 1.8TDCi did the usual glow plug flashing, engine losing power/'safe' stall routine. (Hardly safe if exiting a junction, but there you go). Checked forums and threads and replaced fly by wire throttle pedal - no change. Changed camshaft sensor and it fixed it; 65 GBP inc labour and VAT from an independent garage. Part was 16 GBP from memory.

This didn't come up on the fault codes initially, but it did come up the second time it failed. 'Intermittent Camshaft Error' or such like.

Turbo waste gate actuator, fuel pump, fuel injectors etc were not to blame in this instance and for the sake of a 16 GBP part I would suggest it is worth changing as a potentially cheap fix. Some dealers would dearly love to change every expensive fuel system component I am sure!

It seems as if the flashing glow plug is a warning that engine input signals are erroneous and so instead of the ECU light coming on, it flashes the glow plug light to warn that the engine is going into a controlled shut down. If it is guessing cam position or some other parameter, it will be doing this to avoid engine damage and that is why it can be restarted fine soon after (when the ECU is started up/cleared again). Note that you will need to turn the engine fully off to restart the car if it goes into a controlled power down - it isn't like a normal engine stall where you can bump the engine going again by releasing the clutch. If you attempt to crank it when the engine is on it will buzz the solenoid, so ensure the engine is fully stalled before restarting. Risky to do when moving but I did this a couple of times.

One final point is that my car generally had the camshaft fault when it got hot (presume resistance in the wire went up or something); never did it from cold.

Hope this helps someone.

sempron

3 posts

129 months

Thursday 21st November 2013
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I bought TDCI 130 in UK in April supposedly fully serviced and ready for a 600 mile drive back to my home in France.After 100 miles EGR valve sticking and car cut out on roundabouts. Dangerous. Greenflag rescued me and cleaned the valve at roadside. I read this forum and blanked the system off cost £4
Engine remapped itself in 100 miles and ran beautifully till month ago when warm start became more and more difficult. (75K on clock) This forum suggested a dealer remap the CPU.
Took car to dealer this week. CPU remapped car runs fine again.
Total cost here in France 26 Euros.
c'est la vie!!

willhill10

1 posts

120 months

Sunday 2nd March 2014
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hello
I really need some help i have just brought a ford transit connect 1.8 tdci 55 plate 2006
after a couple of minutes after driving it goes into limp mode, and smokes white smoke and wont hit above 3000 revs enless i turn it of and on again, then same thing happens again after few minuites


scanner shows -
p0100 = maf sensor
p0243 - turbocharger waste gate regulating valve A-circuit malfunction
p0191 - fuel rail pressure (FRP) sensor-range/performace problem
p1632 - alternator/battery temperature sensor-circuit malfunction

can any one help with what i can do please! does any one know what parts to buy and replace
thanks for your time

Zad

12,695 posts

235 months

Monday 3rd March 2014
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Do those faults show even after you have cleared it and restarted? Otherwise they could logged some time ago. The usual suspect when a diesel plays up the EGR valve sticking and causing the engine management to go into limp-home mode, so I would try looking at that first. Maybe give it a good cleaning with carb cleaner. After that, it is probably a matter of taking it to a local independent garage for their opinion.




gingejp

9 posts

144 months

Tuesday 21st October 2014
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Just in case anyone else comes across this thread, I had the cutting out with glow plug light flashing on my 2004 1.8 TDCi.... I'd tried the cam sensor, fuel rail sensor, fuel filter etc to no avail.... I was on verge of just getting rid of the car, but then found the problem.

It was actually the battery was not secured properly and would slide over to the right and jolt the battery earth lead. This would cut the car out and often would not restart for up to half hour or more. Never any codes stored, just glow plug light flashing when in this 'non starter' mode. I secured the battery properly and it's never happened since in over 2 years.

I'm not saying just check your battery is secure, but worth removing the earth lead between battery and car body and giving everything a good clean.

hornchurchmale

3 posts

113 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2014
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common issues resulting in stalling at junctions is..faulty crank sensor, air leak on inlet side.(check vacuum lines) . these are main two. others also having effect can be . faulty sensor ..throttle faulty ..cam sensor etc
best to check vacuum side and breathing tubes etc first then have scan for fault codes run.

MajorClanger

749 posts

269 months

Thursday 19th February 2015
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Having a similar problem on our 2001 Ford Focus 1.8 TDi. Engine cut out whilst in slow traffic and wouldn't restart (and hasn't since - engine turns over but no fuel at fuel filter). Garage diagnosed 'Injection Module Malfunction', no previous warnings or symptoms. Suggested to replace fuel pump with integrated injection management module. Estimated cost ~£1200.

Anything else worth checking?

MC