Started as intermittent fault, no start/no crank/ key not recognised code 13. Now total failure. Change Transponder ring, fitted good ECU no change. Skilled engineer has tried to communicate with three scanners and computer cannot communicate with ECU. Any one experienced this problem. Engineer seems to think it may be a defective or failing part controlled by the ECU effecting it's working.
Any idea's chaps
Thanks
Mick

   

 

Well if its a mk1 it WON'T necessarily  be ELM compatible as it wasnt mandatory before a certain year, and diesels after that, approx 2004 without looking it up, so that means only certain readers will attach, or only a FORD IDS system. So yer bog standard reader won't talk to it. 

I believe fault code reading standard in EU was compulsory in 2001 for petrol, 2004 for diesel.  But it is not clear to me if it only applied to new models from those years on or also models that had already been on sale a few years. I assume manufacturers would have known a long way in advance that it was coming so may have implemented it earlier on some cars, but I doubt that far in advance.

but it could just be a bad connection in a plug somewhere between the fault code socket and the ECU. 

I meant OBD compliant, not ELM. My '02 Mondeo TDCi isn' t,  but a reader from Tunnelrat electronics (>£20) is guaranteed to work... if the OP is considering getting an ELM reader, then email them 1st to check if it works with the. Mk1