hi everyone, iv owned my 1.0 ecoboost zetec s for under a week and all was fine untill i went for what i would say is my third motorway trip. before this my kids had complained that they could smell farts every now and again. thinking mabey catalyst. but today i got an engine management light up. used my obd2 and it threw the catalytic convertor code up. 

so emailed the garage, im suspecting the cat is buggered. which i hope is covered as its not cheap. 

on the plus side i love the car. for a 1.0 litre its got some pull. 

A defective catalytic converter is a quite common problem on the 1.0 ECOboost. It is usually a result of running on lower quality / lower octane fuel for extended periods.

The 1.0 ECOboost is designed to run on high quality / high octane fuel. It will also run on lower quality / lower octane fuel but performs a lot less and history showed that the life expectancy of the catalytic converter is considerably shorter. I know several cases where the P0420 DTC code showed just shortly after filling up with lower quality / lower octane fuel. In some cases filling up with good quality / high octane fuel solves the problem (temporarily or permanently).

1 hour ago, JW1982 said:

The 1.0 ECOboost is designed to run on high quality / high octane fuel. It will also run on lower quality / lower octane fuel but performs a lot less and history showed that the life expectancy of the catalytic converter is considerably shorter.

that's an interesting post, never knew that.  Wonder what constitutes high octane in Ford world?

I had a BMW bike that was supposed to run on 98 octane, (or operate with reduced performance and lower mpg).  I tried BP (97) & esso (97) many times, I never noticed any difference in the bikes behaviour at all.  Then one day I realised the Shell stuff is 99, filled from fumes to full up, rode 15 metres across the forecourt and it was a totally different bike.  I still can't believe the bike could tell the difference in 20 seconds of running, but everything was different, idling was happier, pick up off closed throttle much better, smoother, torquier and much, much faster.

My 125 HP 1.0 ECOboost always runs on 98 or higher Octane fuel without any Ethanol. The engine runs really nice and smooth and (when it still was) completely stock it did 139 HP on the dyno. Considerably more than expected. 

Last Year I was on holiday in Germany and urgently needed fuel. Unfortunately 98 Octane or higher fuel was not available at the nearest gas station so I had to use (Shell) 95 Octane fuel. Within a few kilometers the engine started running a lot lumpier/less smooth and had considerably less power than before. Apart from this the engine developed quite. A lot of vibrations when accelerating. I even stopped the car because I thought something was wrong with the engine. The next day I needed to fill up again and fortunately I found a gas station that had 102 Octane fuel. Within a few kilometers the engine started running as smooth as it had always been and the vibrations when accellerating were completely gone. 

euro fuel is hideous stuff,

every year the bike gets rough and rougher, tries to stall and makes no power, as soon as u get UK fuel everything smoothes out and it pops wheelies everywhere

wow did not know any of this and i think your spot on there JW1982 as i had just filled up in asda. 

i got in the car today and the engine management light has gone out and no noticable smell. 

iv been to the garage and they said they can book it in when convenient to me which is good. 

i think a trip to get some 98 ron petrol is needed.