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Ecoboost cutting out at high revs


Buggington
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Hi guys,

A couple of months ago my 2014 Fiesta Ecoboost (125ps) had a failed fuel pump and broke down. A replacement fuel pump (genuine Ford part) was fitted by my trusted local independent and I was back on the road.

A week later I was accelerating hard at high revs onto a dual carriageway in second gear, and it suddenly had a brief hiccup, as though I had hit the rev limiter (which I hadn’t). Later that week I did the same thing, full throttle and got the cut out. I now know it happens at 5600rpm, and it clears as soon as the engine gets past that speed.

This happens 90% of the time that I go past 5600rpm. The car has been back to the garage twice for this; the first time they checked the fault codes, cleared a fault on the exhaust temperature sensor, but to no avail. The issue hasn’t generated any more fault codes either. The second time they road tested it, changed the spark plugs, retested and reported that it now happens less frequently (but still happens). I only got it back today, but my tests have shown it’s a bit less frequent, but it still happens. Time will tell if it does actually reduce the frequency, but it’s still not fixed either way.

I’m convinced this didn’t happen before the new fuel pump, but the garage are very confident that’s not at fault (but so far are doing this investigation free of charge :wub:).

I’m wondering if changing the spark plugs making an improvement of any sort indicates a problem with ignition, or just that there is a loose connection somewhere under the bonnet that’s been jiggled a few times in the work that’s been done on it lately. 

Has anybody come across this before, or got any suggestions please?

Thanks :)

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Do you really need to rev up to near 5600 ? If this is regular unless it's on a race track then perhaps I maybe wrong but not surprised there are problems.

Possibly the new fuel pump has a defect, my 2014 fiesta tit, Mine had the factory fitted one on and packed in at 14000 miles, no warning lights etc. A genuine ford part doesn't guarantee it's not defective. Try putting some injector cleaner through it to clean the pipes.

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Sounds like it’s a fuelling issue to me, if the ecu detects that the engine is not getting enough fuel I would have thought cut out is the logical result. Probably worth having your garage inspect the replacement fuel pump and the rest of the fuel system to check.

And there’s nothing wrong with revving the engine out! 

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Why not just change up into 3rd before hitting the higher rev range?

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Im not sure if its the same as a problem i had but it was a coil pack. It used to cut at hard acceleration, Ford changed the spark plugs in warranty and it happened but less, i really had to force and hard accelerate to feel some minor "cutting" feeling. But i wasn't convinced, and finally after changing a coil pack car was and is perfect :D!

 

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There should be no need to shift early to avoid problems. The engine is built to rev up to it's redline and should be able to do so without issue.

Obviously you shouldn't do it on a cold engine, but it sounds like the sign of an issue that I wouldn't ignore. Seems odd it happens at a fixed RPM though, a fuelling issue would surely vary by load not just RPM.

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I am assuming this occurred whilst you were in 2nd gear? Have you tried to replicate the issue in 1st or 3rd? (Yes I am aware that 3rd @5600rpm will push you above 70 mph :confused:, probably best not to condone trying that one).

As people have said above it sounds like a fuel supply issue to me. 

Out of curiosity have you checked your turbo coolant pipes as described here:

 

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Thanks all for your excellent responses.

@auldreekie, it’s good to hear that other people are having problems with their fuel pumps. I’m surprised yours failed so quickly - frankly I was a bit shocked (and annoyed) when mine stopped at 67,000 miles. Good shout on the injector cleaner though - I’ve never put any in and I doubt the previous owner did either, so might be something worth doing for a bit of general maintenance.

@alexp999, the fixed revs thing has really been baffling me too. I would imagine 5600rpm to be pretty much peak load at full throttle, but I would imagine a fuelling issue would have some variance in the exact load/rpm that the problem occurs at.

@dansallis, yep this is second gear. I do run up to those rpms in first too, but I don’t feel the problem, but I wonder if the low gear means I zip past those revs too quickly to really show the problem, especially as I would probably just be going for a gear change then. I reckon 3rd gear would be about 85-95mph at 5600rpm, so maybe best not to try that, but it would be interesting to know! Thanks for the note on the turbo coolant pipes - I’ll have a poke around when I get home and see what everything looks like.

However, I think @axesuso might have it cracked here. My ‘skipping’ sounds a little worse than what you describe, but the partial resolution from the new plugs sounds very similar. I think my next step might be to replace the HT leads and coil pack and see if that cures this once and for all.

I’ll post back with how I get on, but please do add any other suggestions if anyone comes up with any :)

 

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I'm going to go with @auldreekie you don't need to rag these engines in any gear. I'd be lying if I said I didn't push it occasionally but that may be once a fortnight.

Use the extra torque and drive it like a diesel rather than thrashing it through the first 2 gears, you'll be putting unnecessary strain on everything if you drive it hard every day.

There's no VTEC to aim for

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3 hours ago, sioneon said:

I'm going to go with @auldreekie you don't need to rag these engines in any gear. I'd be lying if I said I didn't push it occasionally but that may be once a fortnight.

Use the extra torque and drive it like a diesel rather than thrashing it through the first 2 gears, you'll be putting unnecessary strain on everything if you drive it hard every day.

There's no VTEC to aim for

Regardless of whether or not you NEED to red line, you should be ABLE to red line it.

Saying just to change early is ignoring the fact that there is something going on at high revs which shouldn't be. Just shifting early and hoping you don't encounter it means you are likely to then encounter worse problems later.

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Constant red lining is only going to age engine and gearbox components prematurely whether you are ABLE to do so or not, not to mention saving fuel. 👍

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Reading this reminds me of my 2014 ecoboost. Brand new, fuel pump failed at around 180 miles! 

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12 hours ago, Matt12341234 said:

Reading this reminds me of my 2014 ecoboost. Brand new, fuel pump failed at around 180 miles! 

Jeez, I thought I was unlucky at 13000 miles

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Applying the logic displayed here, if the back door on the driver's side didn't open, that'd be fine. Just use the other side on the rare occasion I needed to put someone in the back.

Yes, it's not typical usage but I should still be able to do it.

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On my drive home on Friday I actually tried this in 2nd gear and noticed a slight hiccup at 5600rpm.

I tried it again but was unable to replicate it the rest of the way home.

This shouldn't be a problem for me (unless a larger game is afoot Mr EcoBoost) because I rarely reach those kinds of engine speeds.

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