Engine management light flashed at me...

[SD1992]

I took my car (52 Mondeo 1.8 Duratec) for an "Italian tune up" today, since it has been pottering around at 30 for the last couple of weeks.

I drove it carefully until the engine was fully warmed up, then accelerated through the gears on the 70 mph dual carriageway from 30 mph to 70 mph.

First couple of times it was fine, a little flat at high revs in second, but otherwise fine. I changed up at 6000 rpm, and the redline is at 6500 rpm.

Then when I did it going uphill, I noticed the EML was flashing at me. This did not happen the other 2 times.

There were:
- No funny noises
- No loss in power
- No smoke that I could see
- No funny smells

When I put it into 5th and carried on at 70 mph, it went off and stayed off. It has not come on again since - and I gave it some revs again on the flat to make sure.

Drive back was fine, nothing abnormal.

After I parked the car I had a look round - no sludge under the filler cap, and no loss of coolant. I will check the oil later, as I could only park it on a hill.

Nothing like this has ever happened before, and the car is always very well looked after. In the 12 months I have owned it (and 12k miles) nothing has gone wrong. It flew through it's MOT in December with no advisories.

Does anyone have any idea what this could be? There is hardly any petrol in it, fuel light is about to come on, so maybe that has something to do with it seeing as it only happened on a hill?

I can take any photos or videos to help. Thanks for any input!

[TheEnd]

Maybe to do with the EGR valve.
You'd need to have the codes read to find out

[SD1992]

TheEnd said:

Maybe to do with the EGR valve.
You'd need to have the codes read to find out

That is a good point, I didn't think of that!

Where would I get the codes done? And how much would it cost roughly?

I am Aberdeen if that helps.

[TheEnd]

I'd probably just ignore it for now unless you get a problem.
Any garage should be able to code read it, prices can vary quite a lot though

[anonymous-user]

A "flashing" MIL, is due to a misfire detection event, rather than a continuous fault. Maybe there were a few minor misfires (possibly dirty/ carboned up plugs if you have only been pootling around for a bit). As long as it doesn't return you're fine (although a code reader will tell you the "freezeframe" data for the previous MIL events.)

[whitewolf]

Do mondeo's of that age have a 'shift up light'??

normally a small wide flat arrow pointing upwards?? My friend focus does, wasnt that was it??

[SD1992]

whitewolf said:

Do mondeo's of that age have a 'shift up light'??

normally a small wide flat arrow pointing upwards?? My friend focus does, wasnt that was it??

No, they are not that advanced! My company car last year was a 10 plate Focus, so I know exactly the light you are on about, and mine was the yellow/orange engine light.

Seems fine now, if I get time in the holidays I will give the EGR valve a good clean. I assume this is not a very difficult task?

[whitewolf]

off the top of my head I dont know, but tbh I shouldnt think so, if anything it may be a bugger to get off (normally the case) but cleaning is easy