low fuel rail pressure advice needed.

[clayton88]

Hello guys,

I am a woman and have zero knowledge about cars! 

I bought a ford fiesta 2010 reg, 70,000 miles 1.6 tdci in March from a car sale place. One week after purchase the 'engine malfunction, service now' message and light came on. I called the RAC man (previously owned Peugeot 107, not technical at all and only light that ever came on was the oil light!) Anyway he ran diagnostics, got no fault codes and said to book in for a full service which included a fuel filter change. I did this a week later. 

 

Over the last 2 months the car occasionally did it again, coupled with loss of power. I would turn the car off and back on and usually it went. However, the last week its got even worse and kept stalling on me/cutting out. I had a 3 month warranty with the car and extended this to 12 months with the RAC gold policy. I messaged the car sales place in first instance but they did not get back to me, perhaps because they are not in due to Covid? 

Anyway, I am a midwife and I need my car for work. I contacted RAC and took my car to a garage locally that is RAC approved. They ran diagnostics and gave me the following codes:

P2290-00, P0087-22 and P0087-21. Injector control pressure too low and fuel rail system pressure too low. I have been quoted £202 for parts and labour to replace the fuel regulator. Currently waiting for RAC to tell the dealer if this is covered. But anyway, does this seem like it will be the solution to the problem? and is it possible for this problem to have existed prior to me purchasing the car as it only started happening a week after purchase.  

I do not have a lot of money, and it is our only car so I want to try and minimize the amount I spend on it. I am worried this will not be the solution after paying another £200 seeing as the fuel filter change didn't help.

Thank you if you managed to read that and have any advice 🙂

 

 

[Luke4efc]

3 hours ago, clayton88 said:

and is it possible for this problem to have existed prior to me purchasing the car as it only started happening a week after purchase.  

Yes, and if you informed the garage of your problems within the first 30 days, it's down to them to prove it wasn't there when it was sold to you, not the other way around. If you informed them after this then it's down to you to prove the problem was there when you were sold the car. That's pretty much impossible lol.

[nicam49]

It's a bummer that they'll charge you that much and no reassurances that it will fix it. They're just guessing. So if the fault isn't fixed after shelling out all that money, they'll go onto the next costly part. No, the only way is to take it to a diesel specialist, who has the test equipment and experience to test the fuel system right from tank to injectors. Else you'll be saddled with bigger and bigger bills and still no solution. That's why diesels end up in scrap yards. A proper diesel specialist can test all the injectors for overfuelling, in a test jig, also measure the fuel pressure being generated by the pump to see if its in spec. A garage will just change stuff till you run out of money or they stumble across a fix. 

[clayton88]

Okay thank you, yes that was what I was afraid of, that its just guess work and this isn't necessarily the end of it. I have not agreed to any work being done yet so if the RAC warranty doesn't cover the cost I will look to get a second opinion at a diesel specialist. 

So in the future should I just go back to petrol then? 

[clayton88]

2 hours ago, Luke4efc said:

Yes, and if you informed the garage of your problems within the first 30 days, it's down to them to prove it wasn't there when it was sold to you, not the other way around. If you informed them after this then it's down to you to prove the problem was there when you were sold the car. That's pretty much impossible lol.

When the problem happened, the warning light and loss of power one week after purchase I contacted the garage straight away. As the breakdown man thought it was the fuel filter they gave me £60 as a 'gesture of good will' towards the full service which included the fuel filter change. Does this count as me alerting them to the problem? Obviously as time has gone on the car has got worse and started stalling during most drives but I still think it was probably there beforehand.

[Luke4efc]

1 hour ago, clayton88 said:

When the problem happened, the warning light and loss of power one week after purchase I contacted the garage straight away.

Yes that definitely counts as informing them, although be prepared to have to prove as such (emails are the best way to communicate as you have proof of what they've said). I'm not sure if a call history will count as proof, I'm no legal expert lol.

They should've fixed the problem rather than pay towards a service... 

1 hour ago, clayton88 said:

So in the future should I just go back to petrol then? 

It all depends on what sort of milage you do. Diesels are no good for driving around town, and doing the school run. They are meant to be motorway cruisers.

[clayton88]

9 hours ago, Luke4efc said:

Yes that definitely counts as informing them, although be prepared to have to prove as such (emails are the best way to communicate as you have proof of what they've said). I'm not sure if a call history will count as proof, I'm no legal expert lol.

They should've fixed the problem rather than pay towards a service... 

It all depends on what sort of milage you do. Diesels are no good for driving around town, and doing the school run. They are meant to be motorway cruisers.

Yeah I emailed them about the problem. They did offer to look at the car but because it's an hours drive away I said I didn't want to take it that far with an issue so that is probably my fault. 

My work is 30 minute drive away on motorway or A roads so it deff gets used  more for long runs. Thanks again for your help. 

[TomsFocus]

It usually is the fuel filter on these for a low fuel pressure problem.  Have you used Morrisons or ASDA diesel out of interest?  If so, I'd be inclined to run it as low as possible, then fill it with branded fuel and fit another new filter as the cheapest option.  You can fit the new filter yourself, it's only a few bolts and pipes, nothing difficult, just need a hand pump to prime the system (pull the new fuel through) afterwards.

If it's not the filter then the fuel pressure regulator would be the next logical part to try in all honesty.  But it shouldn't be anywhere near £200, how have they come up with that figure!?

If that doesn't work, the only other part it's going to be is the high pressure fuel pump, which would be a very expensive fix.

[clayton88]

The part is quoted at £93, then £150 labour I think and the rest vat? 

 

No I haven't but I do use sainsburys as that's the closest for me. Is it better to use branded each time then? Thanks for all the info and support so far you guys know your stuff! 

[TomsFocus]

10 minutes ago, clayton88 said:

The part is quoted at £93, then £150 labour I think and the rest vat? 

 

No I haven't but I do use sainsburys as that's the closest for me. Is it better to use branded each time then? Thanks for all the info and support so far you guys know your stuff! 

Supermarket diesel isn't all bad, but Morrisons & ASDA in particular seem to be pretty poor at keeping their tanks clean leading to contaminated fuel.  They also use the maximum allowed levels of biodiesel which helps block up the fuel filter.  The filters on these engines are particularly prone to blocking so I'd avoid those 2 personally.  Sainsburys generally seems to be ok, but if you can buy branded for an extra penny or two, that's my preference. 

Regarding the quote, I'd expect more like £50 for an FPR, and around an hours labour at another £50 or so.  So it may be worth getting a few more quotes before going ahead with it.

 

[clayton88]

Ok I will do that 😌 thanks again.

[wild_one]

This is the supplying dealers problem. You need to try harder to get a response. Send a registered letter, and possibly contact trading standards.  Dealerships are starting to open up now, there is no excuse for reluctance to deal with these issues. It's all part of running a used car dealership, some cars come back?

[clayton88]

Hello, so an update..  I thought maybe the garage were being helpful yesterday. The RAC said they wouldn't pay out  under their warranty. So I contacted the car sales garage where I bought the car 2 months ago from via email and one of the guys got back to keep straight away and he handed it over to another guy.

This other guy was going to find out why RAC wouldnt cover it in their warranty. He rang me back again asking for the garage quote and said he would try to get back to me by 6pm which he didnt. I left it until 2pm today, rang RAC and no one else had contacted them regarding my claim but said the garage probably were talking to their area representative. So I rang the car sales garage guy direct on the work mobile he rang me on. First he answered and when I started talking he didnt say anything else like i had been put on mute so I hung up. I left it half an hour and rang again, this time it rang until it went to voicemail. 

I emailed an hour ago via the online contact form, previously I had a near enough instant response on 2 occasions and this time no one has emailed or called me. I really need my car, I cannot keep borrowing my sisters  but I'm worried if I go ahead and pay for it now rather than trying to get some sort of payment or rac/sales garage to fix it then they might say tough luck I shouldn't have gone ahead with the repair... any advice? 

[clayton88]

Dont worry garage is going to pay for it yayyy! 

[nicam49]

So they're stonewalling you. Try contacting  Trading Standards for advice and/or  RAC. Any negative feedback online about your car seller? If you're on social media have a look see if anyone else has had a bad deal.     I'm more about finding a solution to the problem, ie fixing the fault than anything else, which is why I suggested going to a diesel specialist than a 'normal' garage. But of course, you don't want to end up out of pocket AND you want it sorted or your money back. 

[Lapasty]

Hi I've got a 1.6 tdci 59 plate and I've had the exactly same problem for over a year 5 car garages later and a good few hundred spent and still stolling if I don't keep revs up,did you find out the problem hun x