Hi all, 

Could really do with some advice here

I’ve just been on a drive and it was driving down a dual carriageway in 5th gear, put my foot down to accelerate and at about 3000rpm, a “Engine Service Now” light appeared on my dash. 

I assume the car went into limp mode as i list basically all power. I managed to drive back home (not many places to go at this time of the evening) but i’m concerned as to why this has happened.

For context, I purchased this car very recently, second hand from a local vauxhall dealer, and collected the car yesterday, so it’s a real concern to me that this has happened. Dealer has closed for the day so won’t be able to contact them tomorrow to discuss the issue and what they will do to rectify it.

My car is a Focus Zetec S Red Edition 1.5 182ps. 

When I was enquiring about the car and took it on a test drive, it drove great, nothing out of the ordinary happened and accelerating through the gears was fine, so really confused as to what’s happened now with it and caused the fault.

Any help or advice on this would be great, obviously i’m going to go back to the dealer who sold me the car and discuss it with them and how they can resolve this, but in the meantime any thoughts would be great

Thanks for your time

 

Advise going to a garage or obtaining something that can read error codes.

32 minutes ago, VFR800 said:

Advise going to a garage or obtaining something that can read error codes.

The dealership i bought the car from isn’t open tomorrow so won’t be able to speak to them directly until then. 

I’ll see if i can get something that can read error codes in the meantime 

What i do find strange is when i turn the cat off, and then back on the message disappears, but if i accelerate when in 5th gear it reappears again 

In the last paragraph where you say strange, i don’t think it is strange , that’s fairly common.  Eg if it is caused by low fuel pressure due to partially blocked filter then it will only be a problem when there is high fuel demand.  Not saying it is that, just using that as an example.  We should all have a twenty quid fault code reader in our glovebox and suitable app on phone, very handy.

31 minutes ago, isetta said:

In the last paragraph where you say strange, i don’t think it is strange , that’s fairly common.  Eg if it is caused by low fuel pressure due to partially blocked filter then it will only be a problem when there is high fuel demand.  Not saying it is that, just using that as an example.  We should all have a twenty quid fault code reader in our glovebox and suitable app on phone, very handy.

definitely a lesson learnt here, and i’ve got one on order from amazon in case anything ever happens in the future 

i’ll update the thread as and when i know more and have spoken to who i need to talk to

thanks 🙂

So a little update, i think i’ve found what’s causing the issue; 

I think the clutch is slipping and that’s what’s causing the engine service now light to come on and cause the car to go into limp mode.

I can feel the clutch slip when accelerating, and the revs seem to climb higher without the road speed changing in line with it. Only happens in 5th gear though, not sure if that’s common, i just assumed that a clutch would slip in all gears, not just one? 

Still got to discuss this with the dealer and options moving forward, but this seems to be the cause of the issue from what i can see 

Thanks 

When a clutch starts to slip it wouldn’t be in all gears it would be higher gears or in a lower gear when there is extra resistance eg up a steep hill. If checking a car for clutch slip I would typically try going uphill in maybe third and gently applying my left foot on the brake to impede it’s progress whilst giving it more acceleration with right foot.

4 hours ago, isetta said:

When a clutch starts to slip it wouldn’t be in all gears it would be higher gears or in a lower gear when there is extra resistance eg up a steep hill. If checking a car for clutch slip I would typically try going uphill in maybe third and gently applying my left foot on the brake to impede it’s progress whilst giving it more acceleration with right foot.

Took it out this evening as the roads were quieter being a sunday, and it slips in 4th 5th and 6th gear. engine revs but the speed doesn’t increase in line with the revs, once 3/3500rpm is hit the engine service now light comes on and the car goes into limp mode.

1st, 2nd and 3rd feel fine and the car performs and feels as it should do, i’m calling the dealer first thing in the morning to discuss, so will update once i’ve heard from them and what the plan is moving forward 

Thanks 

On 12/12/2021 at 9:22 PM, gje2410 said:

Took it out this evening as the roads were quieter being a sunday, and it slips in 4th 5th and 6th gear. engine revs but the speed doesn’t increase in line with the revs, once 3/3500rpm is hit the engine service now light comes on and the car goes into limp mode.

1st, 2nd and 3rd feel fine and the car performs and feels as it should do, i’m calling the dealer first thing in the morning to discuss, so will update once i’ve heard from them and what the plan is moving forward 

Thanks 

Update: Spoke to the dealer and they currently have the car, they confirmed it is a clutch issue and will fix under warranty, just playing the waiting game now 

On 12/14/2021 at 5:44 PM, gje2410 said:

Update: Spoke to the dealer and they currently have the car, they confirmed it is a clutch issue and will fix under warranty, just playing the waiting game now 

update:

got the car back thursday from the dealer, all fixed and sorted and everything was covered under warranty. new clutch and flywheel and the car is back on the road and works like a charm 

big thanks to everyone who replied on this thread, appreciate it