Powertrain Malfunction - What's The Cause?

[Charlie555]

Hi my 06 Focus LX has developed a powertrain malfunction, indicated by an illuminated red exclamation mark surrounded by a jagged circle in the bottom right hand quarter of the rev counter. It happened a few weeks ago and then on Saturday 3 times, always at motorway speeds causing loss of power, each time I pulled onto the hard shoulder, switched the engine on and off, the light went out and the problem went.

I took it to my dealer who said with the light out the fault code could not be read and the only possible thing to do was replace parts and see if that solved the problem which was likely to be an expensive exercise in trial and error.

What can I do? Could I buy/hire the diagnostic equipment to plug in and get the error codes if it happens again - any ideas??

[wase16ll]

they're talking rubbish

the light triggers because a fault has been logged on the ecu, vast majority of times that fault stays logged even if it no longer occurs...there are a few exceptions to that, but only way of finding out is to plug a scanner in.

to say they should just throw parts at it is madness as there are numerous reasons for engine to go into limp, including countless possibilities of not requiring any parts at all, could just be down to poor connection.

on what they have told you, i wouldnt trust them myself, take to another dealer or a garage/mechanic that has the software capable of accessing the system

[jeebowhite]

+1 on Tony! they are taking the mick!

have a look around, there are plenty of people who can read codes, in fact I am sure there are people in london who could be close (on this forum) who may be able to lend a code reader and tell you what the error is.

who was the dealer?

[Charlie555]

Thanks very much Tony and James I've booked the car in with a ford dealer. James I don't want to name the dealer I first took it to as they aren't ford specialists but are very local didn't charge for the 2 failed attempts to diagnose and weren't seriously suggesting replacing parts until the problem went just saying its was the best they could do. Cheers Charlie

[jeebowhite]

Aaaah ok Charlie, if they were doing the above they should have been named, but glad they werent! Hopefully the dealer will give you a few straight answers.