Hi, newbie here. We own a Ford S-Max 2012 2.0 diesel. Hasn't been used much past 6 months. Needed a jump start to get to service few weeks ago and service didn't pick up any problems.  Been struggling to start past week (cranks and eventually starts) and blamed it on low battery.  Had a 4 hour journey planned so figured it would recharge on trip.

Started car for trip yesterday - very cold evening, got it started after some cranking but car kept cutting out when idling. So we started it again and set off with high revs in low gear.  Got an engine malfunction message so we figured it was because of high revs (have had this before when I changed to much-too-low gear accidentally) and decided to press on, fingers crossed (stupid I know), thinking that problem will resolve as battery charges along the route. Managed to idle at red light 10 min after setting off OK so thought things were looking good and got onto motorway.  Got an Engine Malfunction message again during journey and stopped once at services, was able to restart with some cranking again.  Then we experienced a feeling of lack of power when trying to accelerate and once my husband felt the car cut out whilst we were on the hard shoulder but he managed to restart it straightaway.  Ended up driving for 90 min on motorway at 55 mph as didn't feel could safely accelerate or be away from hard shoulder.  When we got the engine malfunction messages we also got the EPS (car with skid marks) sign.  All the engine malfunction codes disappeared after the car was restarted.  Got to our destination, phew, but it was very stressful as we don't have RAC/AA membership.

Car cranking this morning but not starting.  Unsuccessfully tried to jump start it (cranks but doesn't start).  Starting to think it might not be the battery.  Have had a read of various posts and maybe it's the fuel pump?  Neither my husband nor I are car experts.  We've not had previous problems.  We're going to try and clean battery terminals but they're not green or white with deposit residue.  We looked into getting a code reader but we will still need a car mechanic so not sure it's worth it as they can use theirs?  Does the above ring any bells for anyone about what this could be please?  It's stressing me out that we're now potentially stranded 4 hours from home with no local mechanics available until late next week.  Golden medal and feel-good-factor galore if anyone can help/advise - I'd be so grateful. I'm hoping it's not something mega major as I've been reading horror stories of complex faultfinding in other posts.   Merry Christmas everyone!!!

 

Also, to add I put in 25L of diesel yesterday afternoon to make it up to half-a-tank.  Still have just under quarter of a tank which seems low usage? Added just in case it's relevant.

Are you stranded 4 hours north or south of Lancashire?

In that situation and being the Xmas period I'd probably just try a new battery myself.

The 2.0 TDCI in these doesn't use an electric fuel pump.

A code reader for example from tunnel rat electronics with the extra switch on is about twenty quid.  Forscan software for windows is free or about 6 quid for Apple / android version.  The code reader works on other makes of car with other free software.  It’s money well spent as a garage would charge more than that to read the codes.  I know this isn’t an immediate solution due to waiting for the post to arrive.

Best and most cost effective solution at this immediate point in time is spend the £150 or what ever it is and join a recovery service and get you and the car relayed home and then sort the problem after Christmas. 

Hey everyone, thanks so much for the replies. In the end we got it towed to a local garage on 23rd (they couldn't jump start it either), they read codes which apparently said something about the problem and so they replaced fuel filter and fuel pressure solenoids.  Then it started OK and they took it on a test drive and even dropped it off at our house on 24th as we were out and not answering phone and they wanted to give it back before closing up for Christmas. We have yet to take it on a test drive. We'll definitely look into getting a code reader.  Thanks again everyone - I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.