Am i being spun a story

[ClaireBritchford]

Ok, this is a long on but i would really appreciate any help what so ever.

This is my first ford car, i have a 2014 firesta ecboost, got the car ive wanted for ages and i love it!!! The battery died on me so went to Halfords to buy one, the guy told me that a stop start battery is compatible with my non stop start car (about 6 months ago) so 2 weeks ago, car works fine all day until the evening, i get 5 doors down and it keeps pinging and a message saying "transmission malfumction, service now" 🤦‍♀️ got it straight home, slowly (lossing power once) turned off and it wont start again. 

Mechanic guy comes and runs a diagnostic. Told me im lucky the battery hasnt blown up, its damaged my alternator and messed up my trasmission. He wipes the codes, says his reprogrammed the transmission and starts the car, movea it back and forth. 

I buy a new non stop start battery, car lights up but still have yellow spanner and doesnt start. 

Now, a second guy (says his a ford tech) says this first guy doesnt know what his talking about, it wasnt the battery or alternator its actually the TCM (Transmission Control Module) even more costly by my knowledge, i dont know what to believe, first guy is coming tomorrow to recondition my alternator but am i wasting my money here, to which i do not have much. I desperately need my car, im a healthcare worker and need it asap but feel im being spun a few yarns.

Can anyone shed some light? Has this happened to anyone else?

[Luke4efc]

Seems unlikely it's related to the battery. Before you get the alternator changed, you need to figure out if it's actually broken by determining whether it's charging the battery. A broken alternator won't stop the car from starting if the battery is fully charged already.

You don't simply reprogram a transmission lol, idk what that's supposed to mean.

What do you mean by the car won't start? Does it turn over and just not fire into life? Does it just make a clicking sound when you try and start every time? Or is it as dead as a dodo?

You need to read the codes and come back, a yellow spanner could mean anything.
 

[ClaireBritchford]

Just going on what he said, knowing how my old vauxhall was, it had to be reprogramed all the time but that was easy-tronic, so i thought what he said sounded a little off 🤔

The car does tick over at all, when i turn the key the lights come on but then flicker. The new battery is brand new so there should be no issues with that. 

Thanks for your input 😊

[ClaireBritchford]

Is there a way to bring the codes up do you know? 

Pedal test etc?? 

Or do i need the diagnostic

[Luke4efc]

8 minutes ago, ClaireBritchford said:

The new battery is brand new so there should be no issues with that.

Test the battery with a multimeter to see if it's still charged.

5 minutes ago, ClaireBritchford said:

Is there a way to bring the codes up do you know? 

You need to plug in with a code reader. Don't bother with the dash trick, you'll get nothing useful out of it. We recommend a modified ELM327 and Forscan on a laptop.

[ClaireBritchford]

Ok, i will look into that now, thanks for your help, much appreciated

[ClaireBritchford]

Just incase anyone knows what they are looking at, ive attached the printout of the diagnostics

Stevens 3871 main.pdf Stevens 3871 d.pdf Stevens 3871 c.pdf Stevens 3871 b.pdf

[Meta55]

The only real difference between a stop/start battery and a normal one is, the SS ones are built with thicker  lead cells, just like a leisure battery, to cope with the abuse they get constantly starting cars. It will cause no damage what so ever, to any component in the car. 

[Guy Heaton]

A dodgy battery usually manifests lots of random codes, but these do all seems to be around the TCM.

Might not help now but for the future, search on here and get yourself a tunnelrat cable, and the free forscan software.  Less than 20 quid and well worth it cos you can read the codes yourself and get an idea before you go to a garage