I am having a very similar issue. My car has been to 3 garages including Ford. Cluster and ECU has been to ECU testing and still no joy. 

I have told the garage the car has gone to not to rely on it being the cluster as it has been rebuilt twice and to be looking at the wiring of the car. 

I noted when I took the clocks out the bolts were missing so they had been removed previously, also that the internal fuse box was second hand indicating some type of electrical issue in the past. 

 

Will be intersting to hear what the garage says.

1 hour ago, guy woodbridge said:

Will be intersting to hear what the garage says.

Ka-ching!

14 minutes ago, Carl123 said:

Ka-ching!

What makes you say that? An all day diagnostic is £99

1 hour ago, guy woodbridge said:

Will be intersting to hear what the garage says.

Should hear back in the next couple of days, its having other jobs done as well, they have a lot of contacts including auto electricians that come up and can do all day diagnostics for a reasonable fee. As long as its fixed I will be happy. Seems strange its was fine for a year then one day started happening

yeah sometimes you need an expert. My local garage has a fella who they get in for the really complicated jobs. Its not just the equipment they have (usually come in A loaded van full of gear). But also alot of experience and can pin point issues. At the end of the day its worth it.

OK time for an update.

So car went in Monday and got it back today, both cambelts done and aux belt as well. They didn't find any faults with the car and the boss even took it home which was a 60 mile round trip. Ran fine!! 

So here is what I am thinking, clocks went away to be rebuilt and they got returned to me rebuilt but when I went on a test drive the fault was still present, even the gauge sweep went beserk so they got sent back and the company said they couldn't find a fault with them but "rebuilt them anyway", not sure why you would rebuild them when no fault found, clocks come back and car working fine again. I never test drove it when I got the clocks back it went straight to the garage.

I am thinking someone cocked up the first time and either didn't do a good job rebuilding them or missed something as now (touch wood) the car seems fine.

FIngers crossed for you mate.

 

Thanks, hopefully this time it will work ok 🙂

And failed again, driving along dual carriageway and beeping and engine malfunction though this time engine keeps running, feels sluggish. Pulled over, read the codes as now leave the code reader in the car and exactly same fault codes as before.

Clear codes, mile down the road, same issue though now its reduced acceleration, car still running, again sluggish though driveable, dont bother clearing codes and make  it to the shops as was nearer to them than home. 

Went shopping, car started, nothing on dashboard, got home with no warning lights though drove sluggish the whole way, codes are still stored.

No idea what to do now, might be time to take it to a proper auto electrician rather than the local garage

I want to ask anyone who knows about car electrics, or rather the Ford electrics a question. 

So I get up fault code P1935 amongst all the U codes which seems to indicate a fault with the Brake Switch/Sensor Signal. Now I did notice that before all the other craziness with engine malfunction etc the brakes did seem a little rubbish, just before engine malfunction or reduced acceleration and beeping I would notice the brakes not being as good as they are normally.

If one part of the can fails like the brake electrics or system can that cause other can errors?

I might be clutching at straws but trying to narrow down this issue.

Hope that made sense! 

Ok to tidy this up and a final update.

Car went to a proper auto electrician today, diagnosed the issue is not the instrument cluster but is the can connection somewhere in the lower wiring loom, booked in for about 3 hours to have the loom taken out and each wire looked at to find where the fault is. Apparently a known Ford issue, not just on Focuses so that should be that! Wallet will be a lot lighter but better to have a reliable car.

On 1/22/2021 at 10:51 PM, jonj1611 said:

So my son has a 2009 1.8TDCi, its a MK2.5 . So after a year of faultless running today get in the car and it says engine malfunction.

Plug Forscan in and nothing, cannot read the ECU, can't even connect to the car, so I have a look at the fusebox, all ok, I disconnect the battery, leave it 10 mins, reconnect and the car starts, but now says reduced acceleration or something, I had a cheap bluetooth reader so plugged that in and it actually read the ecu, don't have the list on me now but there was a whole list of U errors and some powertrain ones, I cleared the codes and the car started straight up, nothing on the dash.

So thought a run down the road may clear its system as its been sat around for a week or so, get on the dual carriageway and the clocks drop to zero, rpm to zero, engine malfunction on dash, engine still running but if I press the accelerator nothing happens. So armed with my ratchet and 10mm I disconnected the battery, plugged it back in, again read and cleared the codes and managed to get it home again.

Any idea what on earth is going on? I have read a few threads from people with similar things but I wonder why after the battery has been disconnected it will then reconnect to the obd adapter when before it wouldn't etc. 

Is there anything that stands out for anyone? Anything I should be looking at?

 

Your dash pack contacts have cracked on PCB and need resoldering

1 hour ago, Pete P said:

Your dash pack contacts have cracked on PCB and need resoldering

But many be not after fully reading your post, makes me wonder if mine's got same harness problem yours had. 

Problem was fixed today, it wasn't anything related to the dash, and it wasn't the can wire as they said, turned out after they got the loom out it was a faulty pin on the multi connector in the fuse box that's under the glovebox.