Car = Ford Fiesta MK6 07 Plate (Climate Version) Petrol

I have an issue that I don't know what to do about, so I'm just after some advice really, from people who know a lot more than I do, or perhaps have come across this before.

A few weeks back, I was driving my car into towards the city, when I experienced a judder, or jolt, whilst in 3rd gear. I thought, hmm strange, and continued. 30 seconds later, an orange exclamation mark appeared, followed by a message 'please check owners guide, engine system fault', accompanied by a red light.  I stuck the hazards on, slowed down, put the clutch in and the car died. Lost power steering etc, the lot. Stopped in the middle of the road. I waited 30 seconds, restarted, and moved it round the corner to a safe place. Being that I was 2/3 minutes from home, I decided I would attempt it, if the car would let me. 

So, I restarted, and began the journey. Upon starting, no fault, and drove about 30 seconds before it came back on. I drove it home, but I was certainly in some sort of reduced power mode. There were no noticeable bangs or rattles of any kind, or any sign of a huge mechanical failure.

 

Next step was getting it recovered to my trusted local garage.  They came back to me the following day, saying that the diagnostic tool they had used said "Power Control Unit". Unfortunately I didn't ask for more - so I appreciate that is a bit vague. Nevertheless, they said that it wasn't work they would undertake, (they don't tend to do electrical type work, but I already knew that) and recommenced a local chap, or failing that, Vospers. They did however, clear the code, and told me they expected it to immediately come back on. They didn't hide the fact that they hadn't fixed it, they were transparent which was great.

Upon speaking to the recommended chap, he suggested that because the code was cleared, the history for it will have gone. He also said he couldn't act upon what I had given him, he would need to see it for himself, fair enough. This obviously meant I had to drive it again until it ultimately failed, to move forward with any kind of repair or diagnostic.

Fast forward 2 weeks, and the code hasn't resurfaced. Car has been fine, no obvious problems. It's currently done 49 miles since that.

What are people's thoughts on this? I have a couple of long trips coming up that I'm a bit hesitant about. But I also can't live in fear it'll break down on me every time I get in it. I don't want to get rid, it's only done 78K miles, I'd expect to get that again from it ideally!

 

Any help or opinion is brilliant, thank you all in advance.

Al

Just so we can be certain, is this petrol or diesel ?

Do you know what the code was ?

You need to get a laptop and download FORScan (its free for laptop use) and get an ELM327(modified) cable from TunnelRat Electronics. Then next time it happens you can connect straight up, get all the DTC's and see first hand what the issue is.

FORScan: https://forscan.org/download.html

ELM327(modified): https://tunnelrat-electronics.fwscart.com/USB_Modified_with_switch_ELM327/p4541936_17045457.aspx

10 minutes ago, unofix said:

Just so we can be certain, is this petrol or diesel ?

Do you know what the code was ?

You need to get a laptop and download FORScan (its free for laptop use) and get an ELM327(modified) cable from TunnelRat Electronics. Then next time it happens you can connect straight up, get all the DTC's and see first hand what the issue is.

FORScan: https://forscan.org/download.html

ELM327(modified): https://tunnelrat-electronics.fwscart.com/USB_Modified_with_switch_ELM327/p4541936_17045457.aspx

Sorry, I missed that! Edited now. It's petrol, my apologies. 

 

Unfortunately no, the garage told me the diagnostic tool gave them 'Power Control Unit'. Im sure there was more than that, I only dealt with the chap in the office. Lesson learned on my part though, I should have asked for more than that. Thank you for the links!