20 minutes ago, ianincheshire said:

That's an interesting comment from the dealer!. Does it state anywhere in the warranty a minimum distance/period ? I would be very surprised if it did.

Warranty covers manufacturer defects. The gpf is not defective as such . What would have been helpful if the sales person points out the potential requirements of keeping the gpf functioning prior to selling the car to the customer. Then the owner doesn't have a supprise later on with warning message. Even just pointing out in the owners manual would have been a good move. 

Quote

Warranty covers manufacturer defects. The gpf is not defective as such

Agreed, but one could argue that it IS a design defect if the fault occurs during the normal operation of the vehicle.

TBH I'm playing devils advocate here. Basically it seems that the design/location of the gpf means that under normal (whatever that may be) circumstances, in colder temperatures, passive regeneration does not occur frequently enough to keep the gpf sufficiently free of particles.

There have been no formal stipulations as to how the vehicle should be operated that I'm aware of!. In fact, during early 2019, I'm not sure even the dealers were aware that GPF's were fitted!.

There still seems to be some lack of knowledge that a PCM update is available to alleviate the problem. I'm assuming that the message people are seeing is when the vehicle is attempting active regeneration by weakening the fuel/air mix and that continued driving is required for it to complete succcessfully. I guess the PCM update changes the parameters that force an active regen.

If I had one of the vehicles exhibiting the problem, and my dealer/Ford weren't putting in any effort to fix the problem, I think I might be asking Trading Standards if they considered the vehicle to be 'fit for purpose'

I don't think there is any any mention in the Warranty, but there is a warning in the Owners Handbook under Engine Emission Control that if you ignore a Warning Lamp or Message then you could cause damage not covered by the Warranty.

Presumably if someone ignored the first At Limit and the Second Over Limit warnings then the GPF became so blocked that a Static Regeneration could not be done for safety reasons then this is when Ford could argue that the GPF replacement it is not covered by the Warranty, and rightly so in my opinion. 

I do agree that the section about the GPF is difficult to find in the Handbook and it should be pointed out to owners at the point of sale. 

Just adding a METOO post.

The error was coming up at this time last year but I just about managed to get rid of it by doing a motorway run every couple of weeks, however this year due to everywhere being in lockdown I have had nowhere to go other than a short run to work and back during weekdays.

I chose the 1.0L Eco engine as I wanted something kinder to the environment and cheaper to run but now I am told I have to make unnecessary journeys up and down motorways just to keep the vehicle running properly.  The really annoying thing is that I got rid of my diesel vehicle because I only do short runs and I told the sales guy that was the reason but at no time did he mention I would have a similar issue with the Focus.

I have been to my local dealership and mentioned that I have seen on the internet that there is a software update available and they checked.  They simply came back to me saying that there is no recal on my vehicle and to bring it back if the message stays on the screen.  Obviously it goes off at a few seconds so I took a picture but they wont accept that.  If the fault is not showing when the vehicle is in the service bay then they cant do anything about it.

I'm guessing my next vehicle will have to be electric ?!   

Just to add a note too.  I got this message and then took the car for a proper hour's drive and it went away.  I had noticed in the days before the message that the car had felt a little rough.  After the long drive it's smoother.  I think until I go back to work proper I'll have to have a blast every couple of weeks as well.

1 hour ago, Lanny said:

I chose the 1.0L Eco engine as I wanted something kinder to the environment and cheaper to run but now I am told I have to make unnecessary journeys up and down motorways just to keep the vehicle running properly.  The really annoying thing is that I got rid of my diesel vehicle because I only do short runs and I told the sales guy that was the reason but at no time did he mention I would have a similar issue with the Focus.

Yes, I went back to petrol when the issues with dpf's became apparent, and I don't do a lot of mileage now.

I was assured when gpf's began to appear that they would not be as problematical, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Got my present car just before they were fitted to the Fiesta, but won't be able to avoid it next time.

It does indeed seem silly to have to do unnecessary polluting trips to keep something that is supposed to cut pollution operating correctly.

All part of the plan to persuade us to go electric!😃

 

1 hour ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Yes, I went back to petrol when the issues with dpf's became apparent, and I don't do a lot of mileage now.

I was assured when gpf's began to appear that they would not be as problematical, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Got my present car just before they were fitted to the Fiesta, but won't be able to avoid it next time.

It does indeed seem silly to have to do unnecessary polluting trips to keep something that is supposed to cut pollution operating correctly.

All part of the plan to persuade us to go electric!😃

 

fiestas dont seem to be affected so far. not heard of any gpf issues on them 

1 hour ago, iantt said:

fiestas dont seem to be affected so far. not heard of any gpf issues on them 

Lol, might not buy a Fiesta next time. But that's interesting Ian, any theories on why that should be compared to the Focus, for instance? Gpf installed/positioned differently, perhaps?

Edit: Further thought - is the situation different between Fiestas with gpf on the old wet belt engine compared to the later version (which only went into the Fiesta this year, I think) but the Focus 4 had from the off?

Edited December 4, 20205 yr by Eric Bloodaxe
Extra sentence

Apparantly Ford have been awarded Top Gear's manufacturer of the year.  I guess they must still be paying them the backhanders.  I mean the cars aren't bad but they're not exactly ahead of the game.

2 hours ago, Guy Heaton said:

Apparantly Ford have been awarded Top Gear's manufacturer of the year.  I guess they must still be paying them the backhanders.  I mean the cars aren't bad but they're not exactly ahead of the game.

I was trying to see why. Apparently you need to buy their special awards edition to get the full story, but I did find this:

Top Gear  said: " Ford isn’t stamping out the EVs and crossovers that legislation and the buying public demands with a cookie cutter; it’s making cars we’ll actually want in the process.” It hails Ford for “taking a punt” at leveraging properties like the Mustang in its push to be an EV leader, though it notes that the Mach-E is not everyone’s cup of tea. 

Also the Puma ST is their crossover of the year.

 

Aye well.  Everyone else has a decent midrange auto.  Except Ford.

 

Further to my previous posts on this subject. Arnold Clark did a regen on 27th November, today 20th December I get the warning message again after only doing 120 miles. I have hardly used the car due to COVID-19 restrictions. Back on to Ford UK in morning!

I added this to the history some time back. My dealer did this update I have not had the in car message since. 

5 hours ago, Andyr55 said:

I added this to the history some time back. My dealer did this update I have not had the in car message since. 

Thanks, have booked car in for new year. Will show them this.

I have not had the warning show up all spring/summer or autumn but as soon as the outside temp dropped to 4degrees it started. I have not changed my driving habits but when it wasn’t in for set is at beginning of December dealer said no faults showing up and no updates needed ! but within  one mile warning back up.!!

3 minutes ago, Mac57 said:

I have not had the warning show up all spring/summer or autumn but as soon as the outside temp dropped to 4degrees it started. I have not changed my driving habits but when it wasn’t in for set is at beginning of December dealer said no faults showing up and no updates needed ! but within  one mile warning back up.!!

I think there is a problem here. Best to contact Ford UK and make complaint, if we all do that they may own up to problem. Could be they have not passed on info to all dealers.

Just purchased 2019 . Ford Gran CMax  1lt.  11,000 miles on clock just driven 200miles exhaust filter clean. light came

done what garage told me 35miles on dual carriageway average between 2500&4000 rpm.  6 days later 70miles

warning light on again,went to Ford dealers and was told it needs a good 80miles at least and this car is no good on short journeys  cannot see that in the manual

Took car out on the 1st and within 2 miles up came clean filter warning. Tried the de acceleration idea and it cured it within minutes. So far has not come back, hopefully this is the cure! May do that every time I take the car out.

A week ago the warning notice came back on, I was not surprised as I’ve done only very short journeys due to lockdown. I did the de-acceleration thing again and the message disappeared within half a mile. Been ok since, looks like that’s the cure. Hopefully once back to normal driving it should not reappear.

That will have cleared some of the Soot to below whatever the trigger level for the light is, but if you can it would be a good idea to give the car a decent run to get the Soot levels back to nearer 0.

Not an easy to do with the restrictions at the moment though. 

I’ve a fiesta st mark 8 and has only done 10000 miles. My warning has just appeared I wasn’t made aware of this problem with petrol cars. When u buy a diesel car they make you very aware of this. 

On 1/10/2019 at 11:57 AM, andy2086 said:

I’ve just picked my car up from the dealer due to the petrol exhaust filter. Had the car (focus mk4 titanium 1.0) for 5 weeks, exhaust filter warning started about two weeks ago, then got to the point where it was appearing every day. My journey to work is main A roads for about 20 miles each way, so it gets a good run every day.
The car was booked to go in for them to look at it, but the day before on my way to work it went into limp home mode. Car was recovered to the dealer, who have done a static regen on the filter.
I’m not convinced this has ultimately solved the problem, personally I think this will be a short term fix and I can see myself back at the dealer again in a few weeks. There must be some underlying problem that is causing the filter not to regen automatically.
Plus the fact that I also suffered from the oil pressure switch problem, it means that for the 5 weeks I’ve owned the car, it’s been back at the dealer for over a week. I think I’ll be taking this up with Ford directly now!!


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How did it turn out? Same problem over here. Also got a static regen. Message still pops up.

On 11/20/2020 at 1:16 PM, CAMERON250310 said:

Have this problem with my Focus ST Line, been told by Arnold Clarke to take it for a 20-30 minute run at 50mph in 3rd gear. It’s due to short driving distances. Have also taken this up with Ford UK, who are not too happy with dealer response, they are going to book car in for a check.

Hi, how did it turn out? Got the same advice from my dealer after they did a static regen. 

Thanks

Anyone who got the problem solved since the last post? 

3 hours ago, Riding said:

Anyone who got the problem solved since the last post? 

See my post of 28/01. I’m doing very little mileage at the moment and also very short journeys. The de-acceleration seems to be the answer, straight road of 1/2 mile de-accelerate 3 or 4 times and it seems to cure it for a while, last time was 6 weeks ago. Once we get back to normal it should be gone hopefully. As has been pointed out I’m probably not getting the filter back to zero. Next service is June will ask for a static regen.

By de-acceleration I mean using the brakes, 40mph apply brakes, repeat 3 times. Mind there’s nobody close behind you😀