Problems with car

[Vorny7]

Hi all

Posted here the other day to say I couldn't get SYNC to work and that was finally fixed, now I have a bigger problem!

I've got a 2014 reg Focus ecoboost.

It started a while back where my auto stop/start butting is always OFF and it won't go on.

Now, when I am on the motorway and got cruise control on, it randomly stops and I slow down so have to accelerate manually. Also, if I am on cruise control and I accelerate, cruise control cancels which it has never done before.

On top of all of that, the steering wheel feels like it's sometimes (not always) harder to steer and finally, the acceleration feels like it's not got a lot of power. I will often have my foot right down on the pedal but it doesn't seem to go as fast as it normally does.

I am planning on taking it to a garage of some form but at the moment I am about a 4.5 hour drive away from home for work. This happened halfway down the motorway when I was on my way to my Grandads funeral - if I hadn't been on my way there I would have turned around and gone home.

The only Ford dealership in the area is Evans Halshaw and they want to charge me £65 to have my car all day just for a half an hour diagnostic check. I need my car to get to work and if I don't work, I won't get paid for that day.

Can I take it to a normal garage? Does anyone have any idea what this could be? I am worried sick about the drive back home tomorrow!

[guy woodbridge]

Of course you can take it to a normal garage. I would not go to a dealership as way more expensive than a decent regular garage. How car savvy are you? Im pretty poor but. Alot of people on hear recomend buying a particular cable which connects your car to a laptop. The software is free & the cable is usually around £14 ish, you can then connect to the car and get any fault codes etc. Ive done it for my car and was a massive help in sorting out issues & saves you the £50 some garages charge for diagnostics. If that sounds to much then the best bet is a local decent respected garage. Where abouts in Lancashire are you?

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by guy woodbridge
typos

[Vorny7]

I’m in Blackpool. 
What is the cable and software called? I’m not car savvy in the slightest but I would give anything a go. 
Personally I would rather scrap the car than go to Evans Halshaw. It was the Coventry branch who sold me the car and it was sold to me broken but they refused to accept responsibility which made way for a huge legal battle which I won but financially it screwed me because I was without a car for 3 months and had to hire cars for work. Was insane!

[FatHead1979]

14 hours ago, Vorny7 said:

I’m in Blackpool. 
What is the cable and software called? I’m not car savvy in the slightest but I would give anything a go. 
Personally I would rather scrap the car than go to Evans Halshaw. It was the Coventry branch who sold me the car and it was sold to me broken but they refused to accept responsibility which made way for a huge legal battle which I won but financially it screwed me because I was without a car for 3 months and had to hire cars for work. Was insane!

Yup EH are a total shower, just take a look at the reviews on Autotrader for virtually every branch they have.

 

The free software is called Forscan and the "cable" you want is called a modified ELM327 cable.  Pretty much everyone on here that uses Forscan (me included) bought their 327 dongle from https://tunnelrat-electronics.fwscart.com/ because most of the unbranded chinese ones don't work reliably.

[Guy Heaton]

Yes, never had a good experience with EH.  They just want to sell you a car and then never see you again.

I have a tunnelrat cable, good investment as we have 2 fords and it doesn't cost a huge amount.

[Vorny7]

Thanks all. I’ll look into getting one!