Hi Folks,

I had my 2012 Mk3 Focus Titanium X 1.6TDCI go into garage for a timing belt and water pump replacement. At the same time i had air con re-gassed and a front spring replaced. When the work was completed the car would not start. it would run on brake fluid being squirted up the air intake, but would not on the diesel. on the computer the only code was for glow plugs, which we have now changed, with the code no longer coming up. i have had a second mechanic take off the belt and re-fit it, it still will not fire up. we are thinking that the events are unrelated, but it may be bad timing that the problems started when they did.

anyone on here have any ideas, car has been with an auto electrician for an age, with lots of head scratching. i dont want to scrap the car.

is this old tractor one where the timing of the diesel pump can be impacted by how you reassemble...   quite likely - its a bit like ignition timing - well exactly - as it controls where in relation to TDC the fuel gets in there to try and burn

 

which when you throw additional fuel in could be why it fires up - I just posted this on a bike forum - seems its catching - sacked MacDonald's burger flippers don't make great motor vehicle techs - but that's all they can find today - but its OK as McDonald slid to trafficked immigrants

 

 

Common rail diesels don't have a timed injection pump.  (Early 2000s onwards)

The HP pump just creates pressure in the rail, nothing more.

The injectors open electronically when the PCM tells them to.

 

However, I do suspect a timing fault.  Either crank sensor damaged or signal wheel behind crank pulley.  Unlikely to be crank wiring without a fault code.

Agree with @TomsFocus I think you need to find the rare breed of diagnostician that can use their equipment to find crank/cam correlation, check that both sensors are working and timing is correct plus any other faults that are preventing a start.
It's just too suspicious that this has happened after a timing belt change with nothing done to fuel pump?

Very uncertain that brake fluid is even combustible and would not add it to engine (do they mean brake cleaner or Easy Start which, I think is ether based?)

Some ideas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoo7Q04Ss78
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjjuT_S8hVc

 

As Tom said crank sensor or signal wheel, easiest first check is to log rpm whilst cranking.

13 hours ago, Shearers said:

Very uncertain that brake fluid is even combustible and would not add it to engine (do they mean brake cleaner or Easy Start which, I think is ether based?)

Hopefully they meant brake cleaner.  But given the title, it could also be this:

There's also (which should flag up timing errors?):

 

7 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Hopefully they meant brake cleaner.  But given the title, it could also be this:

Ah, the Australian version of Easy Start! 

Just noticed this, a £30 ish tool that could save a LOT of dismantling and that every good (or bad) tech should be able to use to prevent changing a lot of parts - diagnosis is the key?:

 

A bad tech should not be in charge of a teaspoon, let alone an oscilloscope. These cheap digital ones have their uses but they also have limitations, mainly their inability to see glitches.

On 10/23/2024 at 3:34 PM, anon said:

A bad tech should not be in charge of a teaspoon, let alone an oscilloscope. These cheap digital ones have their uses but they also have limitations, mainly their inability to see glitches.

I agree in general, there don't seem to be many good techs around (apologies to any reading!)

If there is a really minor glitch, it will take a better piece of equipment (and a dual channel device like the much more expensive Picoscope and associated skilled person) to find it but, for the price of a cheap scope, I believe a lot of faults could be detected and the size of the parts cannon reduced as well as unnecessary dismantling but that is, as ever, just my opinion and others are very entitled to theirs!

Quite so but as new scopes are now ridiculously cheap, £30 will buy something old( admittedly mains powered) with some decent bandwidth and that can look at CAN and LIN buses as well. Like any complicated tool, results depend on the skill of the operator and a  man with an old scope probably knows what he is doing.

21 hours ago, anon said:

Quite so but as new scopes are now ridiculously cheap, £30 will buy something old( admittedly mains powered) with some decent bandwidth and that can look at CAN and LIN buses as well. Like any complicated tool, results depend on the skill of the operator and a  man with an old scope probably knows what he is doing.

This search brings up dual channel scopes:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p4432023.m570.l1311&_nkw=oscilloscope+2+channel&_sacat=0

Actually, I have used Picoscopes and the software was free making it a relatively cheap and very versatile storage scope possibly better than an old dual channel device but totally agree with your comment on the skill and understanding of any operator.
The main thing is to either find someone who has those rare skills or, if you are prepared to learn, spending on the equipment may be far cheaper than dismantling without any positive reason.
Perhaps like doctors who IMHO usually want to know exactly what the problem is and what to do before cutting into a patient for a major operation!

I couldn't agree more. To measure is to know- if you know what to measure!