Ford focus service engine light.

Princess Calla · 19-03-2024 11:34am #1

I had this posted but edited a spelling mistake and the post disappeared, so will try again.

Car serviced in December , I had flagged a rattle but I've crap hearing and it's quite likely the "thingy diesel engines do" the service guy said there was no issue, NCT in January all good.

So diesel 151 car, I don't really do high mileage so that's an issue.

Anyway on Saturday I did about 26km round trip max speed prob 70, majority of journey around 60 km/h. Did notice the rattle but it's not a new thing (I had a petrol car before this and the diesel thingy kicking in still freaks me out 8 years later)

So dropped kids home spun back out for groceries approx 1 km away. On way home as I'm turning in 2nd gear increasing to 3rd as I complete the turn the car shuddered and amber engine service warning and abs light comes on.

So limp car home, literally 3 mins away, at 30 km/h.

Turn car off, then restart it and starts fine no warning lights.

Leave the car be until today, starts absolutely fine, bring it for a spin around the block absolutely no problem with gears or acceleration or braking.

The last time fuel injection went it was fairly obvious something serious was wrong and even just starting the engine the car was bucking. So I'm hoping/thinking it's not that.

The garage has said they'll try to fit me in as I'm supposed to be heading away , but no promises. Obviously I'm not going anywhere near the M50 unless I get sign off.

However in the meantime, anyone in the know care to share why warning light would come on but then not come on next time the car starts...could it just be a lose spark plug or sensor?

As I said car seems to be handling fine but housing estate so not exactly opening her up.

easygoing39 · 19-03-2024 11:39am

Well I can say with 100% certainty that it's not a lose spark plug.

User1998 · 19-03-2024 11:39am

Theres really no point speculating what the issue might be. Nobody here can diagnose your car properly over the internet. Your car is in with the mechanics and they are the only people who can accurately diagnose it right now so just wait for them to give you an answer

Princess Calla · 19-03-2024 11:53am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912167#Comment_121912167

Yeah I know, wasn't asking for diagnosis just more people's experiences.

Usually when I get a dashboard message it appears each time I start the car. I find it weird the warning light isn't doing that.

Not with mechanic for a few days yet, so just trying to prepare myself and bank account.

Kimbot · 19-03-2024 11:55am

Is it mostly small runs you do with the car?

Princess Calla · 19-03-2024 12:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912225#Comment_121912225

Yeah it would be....I bought the car new in 2015. It was abit of a rush job tbh as my 15 yo super dependable never let me down fiesta couldn't be retrofitted for isofix for the baby seat....so off I went with baby brain....I wanted to keep a ford as that's what I was used to. There were no petrol cars that I saw anyway in the dealership....at the time I was doing a couple of M50 spins a week so didn't seem a major issue, but circumstances changed, so here we are.

Kimbot · 19-03-2024 12:15pm

Yeah the short runs will do it no good been a diesel, bring t out on a motorway once a week and give it a good spin and that should help it. The error wont always stay on the dash as it might only be an intermittent issue so upon restarting the issue is clear.

Sonic the Shaghog · 19-03-2024 12:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912167#Comment_121912167

In fairness you might as well wind up the forum and plenty of others too if that's the case. The OP is obviously taking it to the garage, I'm sure they just want to see if anyone has an idea and maybe have an idea of what kinda work the mechanics might come back with to them

Princess Calla · 19-03-2024 12:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912306#Comment_121912306

Yeah I know, I really need to make a bigger effort especially as car is getting older.

We're a one car family and I'm the only driver and I'm not a person who enjoys going for a spin....well not when I'm the one driving 😅

User1998 · 19-03-2024 12:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912318#Comment_121912318

I don’t mean to sound rude to you or the OP but its a pointless discussion to have. I know they are probably anxious to have their car fixed but its pure speculation and it could be numerous different things wrong with the car. Just because someone else from the internet had a warning light on their car does not give any indication that OP’s car has the same problem.

There could be people who have had an engine light come on and off who need a whole new engine or there could be people who never saw the engine light again. Its just very unlikely that anyone here can give an accurate representation of what might be wrong with the car or what it might cost to fix

It would be different if OP was fixing the car themselves as we could point them in the right direction of what to look at first but its in the mechanics hands in the next couple of days so best to just let them diagnose it and try not worry about it too much.

Daniel son · 19-03-2024 3:47pm

Drive the brains out of it on the motorway every couple of weeks. May not be getting a chance to regen on the short spins.

Princess Calla · 19-03-2024 4:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912362#Comment_121912362

It's not really a pointless discussion to have though.

It might be for you if you know your cars inside out, but for someone who knows the square root of zero about the mechanics of cars it's nice to have a bit of an idea what might be said.

It can be quite intimidating walking into a garage knowing you know nothing but also knowing they know that you know nothing. Very easy to be taken advantage of. (The garage is grand I do trust them)

So if you have abit of a list that would cause the warning, you've done abit of reading up on it and the mechanic then diagnosis something that was on the list then you have more confidence that everything is above board.

However if they say it's the left phalange causing the problem and it will be 5k to fix.....

I fully expect the lack of long driving is at play, however interestingly enough a friend of mine, who does alot more driving had similar issue with her focus once diesel went to 1/4 tank full, it happened to her twice, so maybe she had grit etc in the tank that was getting sucked in at a certain level, once she made the connection she kept the tank pretty full and never had an issue again.

I didn't realise that warning lights could go on and off by themselves.....I thought they had to be reset ....so at least I've learned something from the thread 😊

MacDanger · 19-03-2024 4:52pm

It might be worth getting a code reader, I have a 131 Mondeo and I recently bought one of these to check which parking sensor was causing trouble:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0952P4MLP/ref%3Dpe_27063361_487055811_TE_dp_1

It wouldn't fix your problem obviously but you'd be able to get whatever details are available about the fault and then people on here (or some of the Ford forums) would probably be able to give you some direction

Princess Calla · 19-03-2024 5:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121913721#Comment_121913721

Yeah I actually asked one of the neighbours if he had one as he's the type that would 😊 he didn't....it would be going to the mechanic regardless as absolutely not my skillset at all

fatbhoy · 19-03-2024 5:10pm

First off, diesels don't have spark plugs.

Newer diesels have a DPF attached as part of the exhaust system, which plucks out sooty particles from the exhaust gases, stores them in the DPF (diesel particulate filter) and periodically runs a re-generation on the DPF whereby it (to my basic knowledge) tries to increase the engine revs in order to superheat the exhaust so the DPF can burn off the accumulated particles it's collected.

So in theory you're supposed to do longer runs at say 100km/h for a sustained period and hope that the car's computer initiates a DPF re-generation during this time. If it does, then the DPF gets "cleaned out".

As a newcomer to modern diesels myself, I discovered that my new (to me) 162 VW Caddy 2.0 periodically initiates a re-gen. It doesn't warn me it's doing it per-se, but it gives me clues: it idles at about 1000 rpm instead of 850; when driving, the dashboard tells me to use a ridiculously low gear (e.g. normally at about 40km/h I shift from 3rd to 4th gear, and the dashboard's gear selector indicator is happy with this, but during a re-gen, the indicator will tell be to keep in 3rd till I get to say 60km/h, so basically it wants me to drive in a lower gear more). Anyway, whenever I see these clues, I nip up to the M50 (luckily I live quite close to it) and drive at 100km/h for about 20 or 30 minutes. I know that the re-gen has finished when I see the gear indicators behaving as normal and the idle rpm is back to 850. I'm hoping by doing this I avoid the DPF problems I've been hearing about. I drive a mixture of short trips and longer trips, but mostly short ones.

Princess Calla · 19-03-2024 6:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121913798#Comment_121913798

Yeah the re-gen freaks me out. I always drove petrol, and I've now lost a good portion of my hearing so I have no real reference of what a healthy re-gen sounds like. Hearing aids pick up the noise but certain frequencies are amplified more, hard to explain....but basically I'm not getting a true reading/hearing of the noise.

Yeah I live close to M50 myself and was just saying might start taking spins out to ratoath as that road increases to 120 and not as busy as the M50 if things go tits up. I try keep M50 for necessary journeys only, it's not a pleasant road to drive on for a spin.

Zatoichi · 20-03-2024 2:30am

Before you hit the M50 have you opened the bonnet with the engine running to see if any air intake pipes are split? Apparently it's a common problem with the focus and will put you in limp mode.

DaithiMa · 20-03-2024 2:54am

Was the injectors that caused the exact same issue in my slightly older Focus. Engine warning on motorway, stopped, restarted, all good. A week later broke down same problem. Seemingly it's a common fault. Ended up costing just over a grand. My money would be on the injectors.

Samantha Atkinson · 20-03-2024 3:13am

It could be a loose spark plug or sensor causing the issue, but it's hard to say for sure without a proper diagnosis. Hopefully, the garage can fit you in soon and get it sorted. Until then, it's probably best to play it safe and avoid the M50.

User1998 · 20-03-2024 9:59am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121915392#Comment_121915392

Yeah it’s definitely a loose spark plug, in a diesel car🙄

easygoing39 · 20-03-2024 10:01am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121915967#Comment_121915967

It could be a coil pack???

GavPJ · 20-03-2024 10:17am

Some of the replies in this is just mental and should be ignored.

But in my opinion, I think it could be a slow puncture. Best bet is

to replace all the wheels and tyres.

FantasyFool · 20-03-2024 10:21am

Sounds like an ABS sensor to me- Iv had a similar issue and the exact same "shuddering" followed by the sensor light disappearing on the next spin.

Princess Calla · 21-03-2024 6:23pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121916073#Comment_121916073

This was the answer I was hoping for, anything other than fuel injector or filter!

Turned out to be grease on the abs sensor, so all good!

GavPJ · 22-03-2024 10:32am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121923299#Comment_121923299

I would be sceptical.

I don't think this is the root cause and the problem will appear again.

I hope I am wrong though.

22-03-2024 10:38am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121912217#Comment_121912217

ive been fighting with my civic lately because of starting problems and I can’t say it’s the same issue as you had but I’ve had warning light for airbags come up and go away once car was restarted.

It could’ve been the computer found an engine problem that was resolved on restart for whatever reason (or it didn’t detect it when starting car again so the light went away).

The good news is if it hasn’t come back it might not be too serious? But I’d say if you’re not likely to drive a lot you’d be better off going back to petrol. Diesel not driving much is not great for the engines afaik

unless I’m absolutely wrong the engine is built to drive a lot and they don’t like being driven a small amount

Princess Calla · 22-03-2024 12:24pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925269#Comment_121925269

Well there's no point in saying it could be anything wait for a mechanic to do diagnostics on it, then turning around and saying nah don't like that answer.

It was brought to the main dealers garage, he said he's seen this fault before.

So just because 99% of the time it would be fuel injector or filter that causes the problem there will still be the 1% that it isn't.

A previous poster said they experienced similar and it was the ABS so it's obviously not unheard of.