2011 petrol 1.2 KA. Misfires and engine power loss

[Nocturnalcolonel]

The other half currently owns a 2011 ford KA 1.2L Petrol. This has 11,000 miles on the clock at she has only owned it for a few months...

Initial issue was loss of engine power and intermittent misfiring, the coil pack was replaced and the issue is still occurring. The garage has decided that a ECU replacement is needed. Though struggling to match up the manufacturer codes.

The one already fitted is in the image attached. Any help would be greatly appreciated regarding any pointers or part sourcing.

Cheers 

 

 

[iantt]

bit of a drastic diagnosis? are they sure its a ecu fault? any dtcs to indicate that, cam and crank sensors usually the cause.

[delboy]

i agree its a little ott to say change the ecu after changing just the coil pack. tell the garage you want a second opinion ie from ford

and let the garage pay for it.

what garage tell you the ecu needs changing ??

is there any code thrown up to show what the fault maybe ??? (ask for fault codes)

[Tdci-Peter]

20 hours ago, Nocturnalcolonel said:

ECU replacement is needed.

Like Ian & martin say, it needs pretty positive evidence, or elimination of all other possibilities before changing the ECU.

If you got your own scanner (not expensive, safe & easy to use), you could verify the codes that are behind this decision.

For example, if the fault code was '... Misfire Detected', and after changing the coil it remained the same, then I would suspect the mixture (various sensors, fuel pump, etc).

However if the fault code list included 'Ignition Coil A Primary/Secondary Circuit Malfunction', and after changing the coil & thoroughly checking all the wiring to the coil, this code remained, then I would be forced to suspect the ECU.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Tdci-Peter
Add Examples

[Omendata]

Something I have found from experience and other owners is the whole Ka range from Streetka to Ka is the fuel pump is a piece of krudd and if you drive the tank with very little fuel - it ideally needs 50% to cover the whole pump to keep it cool it will overheat and wear out very quickly.

Get your fuel pump and lines tested - sadly for these heaps of krudd there isnt even a shrader valve on the fuel inlet to do a pressure test so
it requires an alternative method.

Sounds actually like a sensor issue (electrical) - the Map sensor can be problematic (your symptoms are exactly what i had when i first bought my Streetka usually after the engine is hot - ok from cold but once the engine is heated intermittent loss of power, random misfiring - plugged in my OBD tester and up came the MAP sensor fault - see my pics for the exact code and a link to buy one if you dont have one (Petes advice is spot on - every motorist should have a cheap £20 Obd tester in your toolkit - you can even buy ones that work with your mobile phone and Torque app for about £7!!! - will save you a fortune in garage bills) but this should show up in an OBD test - did they plug it into a computer to check the actual ECU?

Sounds like another dodgy garage - not even checking sparks for a possible cracked ceramic or other and just going for ECU which is a big and 
expensive job tells you all you need to know about this garage - take it somewhere reliable - might be a job mind you as 90% of garages are a complete ripoff and licence to print money in my 30 years of car mechanics and building my own kit cars I have only found 1 reliable but expensive guy !

I repair computers/plasma tvs/laptops etc and have repaired a few Ecu's for friends over the years - so if you can remove the Ecu , take it to an electrical repair workshop - Good computer repair shops that do board level repairs , reflowing and reballing (usually laptop and tablet Apple stuff) should be able to fix it even if the problem is the surface mounted control chips - I know a Serbian guy who even reprograms completely busted ecu eeproms which is not an easy job. You really dont need a replacement if you can find a good electronics repair shop. I used to work in Croatia and over there everything is repaired - there is no such thing as replacing a part , they take everything out and fix it manually - same in places like Slovakia, India where they just cant afford to replace parts with new - It really opens your eyes to how wasteful our industries are in this country and the public in general - the number of good plasma tellies i see in the local dump is quite astounding - I repaired a 50 inch Panasonic last week for £10 plus a £15 sub to the guy at the tip that was just lying waiting to be recycled!

[delboy]

if you buy a obd tester make sure it does the correct test as some only does 50% of sensors on the car and may not read the sensor thats down on your car if

it is a sensor. i would take to independent garage to do a diagnostics on it and get your garage the bill for it