Ford Focus Ecoboost 1.0 2012, loss of acceleration, and “chugging”

tom1ie

Hi all,
Car has developed a problem with a loss of acceleration and a “chugging”
At the same time the engine management light comes on for 1 sec then off then on, about 5 or 6 times.

Don’t think it’s the petrol as I filled up in a topaz that would have a good rep.

Had issues before with engine management light staying on before and it was a lambda sensor that had to be changed out.
This happened twice, so both sensors changed (I was told there was two sensors by mechanic)

Any ideas?

Just checked the owners manual and it says
“engine warning lamp, reduce the speed of your vehicle immediately. If it continues to flash,(which it is) avoid heavy acceleration or deceleration. Have the system checked by a properly trained technician immediately.”

Not looking good?! I was only doing about 55kph when light starts flashing.

Also the “start stop” function isn’t working and hasn’t worked in a while.

tom1ie

tom1ie wrote: »

Hi all,
Car has developed a problem with a loss of acceleration and a “chugging”
At the same time the engine management light comes on for 1 sec then off then on, about 5 or 6 times.

Don’t think it’s the petrol as I filled up in a topaz that would have a good rep.

Had issues before with engine management light staying on before and it was a lambda sensor that had to be changed out.
This happened twice, so both sensors changed (I was told there was two sensors by mechanic)

Any ideas?

Just checked the owners manual and it says
“engine warning lamp, reduce the speed of your vehicle immediately. If it continues to flash,(which it is) avoid heavy acceleration or deceleration. Have the system checked by a properly trained technician immediately.”

Not looking good?! I was only doing about 55kph when light starts flashing.

Also the “start stop” function isn’t working and hasn’t worked in a while.

Anyone?

richardsheil

tom1ie wrote: »

Anyone?

Have car looked at with code reader I am afraid

tom1ie

richardsheil wrote: »

Have car looked at with code reader I am afraid

Yeah getting that done tomorrow.
I had a quick chat with the mechanic and he reckoned it was probably (I’m not a mechanic and cant quite remember what he called it) the coil pack that had gone faulty and this was causing too much fuel to enter the cylinders which then gets dumped into the exhaust.

Anyone know if fixing this is a big job? Costly?

cml387

If that's all that's wrong it's a small job.

case_sensitive

tom1ie wrote: »

Hi all,
Car has developed a problem with a loss of acceleration and a “chugging”
At the same time the engine management light comes on for 1 sec then off then on, about 5 or 6 times.

Don’t think it’s the petrol as I filled up in a topaz that would have a good rep.

Had issues before with engine management light staying on before and it was a lambda sensor that had to be changed out.
This happened twice, so both sensors changed (I was told there was two sensors by mechanic)

Any ideas?

Just checked the owners manual and it says
“engine warning lamp, reduce the speed of your vehicle immediately. If it continues to flash,(which it is) avoid heavy acceleration or deceleration. Have the system checked by a properly trained technician immediately.”

Not looking good?! I was only doing about 55kph when light starts flashing.

Also the “start stop” function isn’t working and hasn’t worked in a while.

If it's chugging it sounds like the engine is either not getting enough fuel or unable to use it.
I'm not a professional mechanic, just an idiot with curiosity, disclaimer etc. A professional mechanic is the best person to help you with this, I'm assuming you've come here because you want to understand your car, or want to make sure you're not being ripped. Good either way.
If the coil pack is duff, then you'll get fuel that goes unburned in one or all 3 cylinders, so you'll have a loss of power, hesitation etc. But that fuel will enter the exhaust and almost certainly exploded out there due to the heat, and you haven't mentioned backfire.
Engine needs FACTS (Fuel, Air, Compression, Timing, Spark), come at each in order of difficulty. Timing is tough without the right tools, but also arguably least likely.

Fuel; be careful here, but if you have access to a pressure gauge, locate the fuel rail and see if there's 3bar or so of pressure in it. If not, cover the area with a towel, detach battery and put out your cigarette. Depress the pin the in middle of the valve with a small screwdriver. Did you get soaked by a jet of petrol? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8wZVY7XveA
Great, you have at least some fuel pressure. My guess is that you may not have enough, or there's something stuck in the system, but you need more info, so eliminate the other possibilities first.


Spark is next easiest; it coils ecu-coil packs - HT leads to plug.
Start at the plugs; take out the fuel pump fuse or remove the injector connectors (you don't want fuel to blow up) take them out, ground the body to the chassis and turn over, do you see sparks across the gap? I made a little rig to test this out of a small piece of box section with 4 M14 holes tapped in it for €0.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiZEq8g1oEs
If you do, the ecu signal, the coil packs (ecoboost looks to have 1 per cyclinder, COPS-style),



ht leads and the plugs are fine. If you don't, work back however you can with known good parts (plugs are cheapest, ht leads then coil pack). Ideally you don't have to buy a load of parts that are fine.

Air in a turbo-charged engine could be the Manifold Absolute Pressure Sensor (MAPS); this measures the pressure of lovely clean air going in. If it's out of whack, you'll get either too much or too little fuel.
Only a Ford-specific ecu tool will give you actual values here. A sea-level, the MAP when nothing is happening should be in or around 100kpPa (1 bar, or atmospheric). If it's much higher or much lower with the engine off, this wants a new one.
The ECU could be telling the injectors not to put enough in due to dodgy O2 sensors (1 before the catalytic converter, 1 after, hence 'lamba'), which you say you've replaced.
The crankshaft and camshaft sensors and their wiring can also tell the ECU porkies (Timing), plugging in to a decent ecu tool will point you in the right direction.

My Ford-based project car has an aftermarket ecu and a wideband O2 sensor which instead of telling you "there's something broken, it's probably over here", will give you the actual values for all the above, making diagnosis easier and more fun.
But there are no doors or roof so you'd get very cold on a day like today, so, swings and roundabouts.

tom1ie

case_sensitive wrote: »

If it's chugging it sounds like the engine is either not getting enough fuel or unable to use it.
I'm not a professional mechanic, just an idiot with curiosity, disclaimer etc. A professional mechanic is the best person to help you with this, I'm assuming you've come here because you want to understand your car, or want to make sure you're not being ripped. Good either way.
If the coil pack is duff, then you'll get fuel that goes unburned in one or all 3 cylinders, so you'll have a loss of power, hesitation etc. But that fuel will enter the exhaust and almost certainly exploded out there due to the heat, and you haven't mentioned backfire.
Engine needs FACTS (Fuel, Air, Compression, Timing, Spark), come at each in order of difficulty. Timing is tough without the right tools, but also arguably least likely.

Fuel; be careful here, but if you have access to a pressure gauge, locate the fuel rail and see if there's 3bar or so of pressure in it. If not, cover the area with a towel, detach battery and put out your cigarette. Depress the pin the in middle of the valve with a small screwdriver. Did you get soaked by a jet of petrol? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8wZVY7XveA
Great, you have at least some fuel pressure. My guess is that you may not have enough, or there's something stuck in the system, but you need more info, so eliminate the other possibilities first.


Spark is next easiest; it coils ecu-coil packs - HT leads to plug.
Start at the plugs; take out the fuel pump fuse or remove the injector connectors (you don't want fuel to blow up) take them out, ground the body to the chassis and turn over, do you see sparks across the gap? I made a little rig to test this out of a small piece of box section with 4 M14 holes tapped in it for €0.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiZEq8g1oEs
If you do, the ecu signal, the coil packs (ecoboost looks to have 1 per cyclinder, COPS-style),



ht leads and the plugs are fine. If you don't, work back however you can with known good parts (plugs are cheapest, ht leads then coil pack). Ideally you don't have to buy a load of parts that are fine.

Air in a turbo-charged engine could be the Manifold Absolute Pressure Sensor (MAPS); this measures the pressure of lovely clean air going in. If it's out of whack, you'll get either too much or too little fuel.
Only a Ford-specific ecu tool will give you actual values here. A sea-level, the MAP when nothing is happening should be in or around 100kpPa (1 bar, or atmospheric). If it's much higher or much lower with the engine off, this wants a new one.
The ECU could be telling the injectors not to put enough in due to dodgy O2 sensors (1 before the catalytic converter, 1 after, hence 'lamba'), which you say you've replaced.
The crankshaft and camshaft sensors and their wiring can also tell the ECU porkies (Timing), plugging in to a decent ecu tool will point you in the right direction.

My Ford-based project car has an aftermarket ecu and a wideband O2 sensor which instead of telling you "there's something broken, it's probably over here", will give you the actual values for all the above, making diagnosis easier and more fun.
But there are no doors or roof so you'd get very cold on a day like today, so, swings and roundabouts.

Wow! Brilliant post!
I decided to hand over to an expert though!
Ended up getting 3 new spark plugs and a coil pack for one of the cylinders.

The start stop still isn’t working. Mechanic said if battery goes below 75-80% output that can cause the start stop to not work, however the battery was good.
The only other thing it could be is the micro switch on the clutch pedal I think?