Hey folks, 

This is my first post after joining up, quite handy with the tools and have been maintaining our S-Max for a few years now myself, this time I’m a little stumped with what’s been happening! 

Out of the blue 2 weeks ago, my wife called me and said “I can’t turn the car off, it’s in park and I press the button, and the engine carries on, even though the instrument cluster flashes to off and so does all the AC and stereo”

we called the AA out as why not, they arrived and scanned the following codes:

 

U0418

P0135

P2244

U0140

U0129

 

based on this, I’ve checked around all the fuse boxes, looked for a sticking relay, pulled the carpets in the front to check for any damage or water ingress. 
Dropped the BCM and checked the fuses, so far everything checks out, but the issue is persisting and getting worse.

I do have a video of the issue occurring if that helps, and at times the display will show “move shifter to P” even though it is set in Park. Moving the shifter forward or back doesn’t change the message.

 

any thoughts or possible direction on where to go before ending up at the dealership are truly appreciated. One very stressed wife at the moment !

 

thanks all :)

 

 

 

 

 

Traction Control Module (TCM).

Check for damaged/corroded wiring in the connectors of the TCM.

Have a full read of this thread about an Ecosport automatic that also would not switch off.

 

Hey Unofix!

Thanks so much! I will have a look at this tomorrow and see what I find.

 

incidentally I just noticed a flickering rear light, fiddled with the left hand boot loom and everything started flashing, just spent the last 2 hours repairing the loom, 6 cables had worn through and were shorting!! 🤔

 

 

Okay, so fixing the rear boot loom seemed to solve the not turning off issue, however when I’ve connected Forscan today to clear all the stored codes, I’ve run into a problem.

I’ve attached the codes that show up from Monday and today, to me it looks like the issue you posted Unofix? When I connect the car and scan, the instrument cluster comes up with lots of different messages such as immobiliser active, hill start assist inactive, transmission limited function etc etc.

The TCM on this model appears to have a barrel connector on the front of it, which I’ve inspected and cleaned. All was good there. (2.0 tdci Automatic)

I’ve removed the battery and tray to check all the looms and all the wiring  and this all seems okay.

I’m now looking at the ECU, working on removing the bolt at the bottom of the metal frame to remove it and check the connections there too.

if anyone has any thoughts on the codes, I would be really grateful!

 

thanks 🙂

What is the battery terminal voltage? 

Sounds to me like you now have a battery with a low state of charge, possibly less than 12.32V

U codes are comms issues

Main culprit on S-Max/Galaxy is the large connector in the LH front wheel arch check that for broken wires

Is transmission performing OK?

14 minutes ago, unofix said:

What is the battery terminal voltage? 

Sounds to me like you now have a battery with a low state of charge, possibly less than 12.32V

I’ve just popped it on charge, it was 12.7

8 minutes ago, DaveT70 said:

U codes are comms issues

Main culprit on S-Max/Galaxy is the large connector in the LH front wheel arch check that for broken wires

Is transmission performing OK?

Hey DaveT70

Transmission is all good, no issues there at all when driving. After removing the battery and reconnecting, everything is fine, as soon as I scan it, that’s when all the multiple failures appear 

1 minute ago, chiefcayenne said:

Hey DaveT70

Transmission is all good, no issues there at all when driving. After removing the battery and reconnecting, everything is fine, as soon as I scan it, that’s when all the multiple failures appear 

OK, good.

There are multiple earth points around the engine bay, one main one from the battery negative to the body, engine ones and two transmission ones. Make sure they are clean and contacting correctly

27 minutes ago, DaveT70 said:

OK, good.

There are multiple earth points around the engine bay, one main one from the battery negative to the body, engine ones and two transmission ones. Make sure they are clean and contacting correctly

On it as we speak, I’d already done the main earth point to gearbox, Just doing the ones underneath the fuse box, and the ones near the coolant reservoir.

I’ll update once done!

 

Right, thanks for bearing with!

All the earth points are shiny in the engine bay, the ECU was loose in its plastic surround so that is now secured, the connectors were okay too, cables were nicely lubed as well.

Initial scans showed pretty much the same issue with comms faults on multiple modules, after an hour of battery charging I was able to clear all the DTC’s, so maybe you were right @Unofix and the battery is on its way. The one persistent code that’s returns is U0126.

Just also used the car for school run, and when switching off, the “hill start assist unavailable” message flashed before the cluster turned off…

 

I wonder if it's poor solder joints on the cluster?

Surely Focus can't be the only one that suffers with it?

Okay, that’s worth a look, still have the persistent ABS module coms fault, everything else now seems ok which is good, at some point I’ll remove the battery and tray to get into the back corner of the engine bay.

thanks both of you for your help so far :)