Hi All,  

recently bought a 2016 Focus MK3.5 and had an engine warning appear whilst on the motorway saying ‘engine power reduced due to over heating’ and it literally shut the turbo off I think. I got home fine, restarted the car and warning gone.

bought a code reader and can see both a P0217 regarding coolant pump from 18th Oct and a P2600 engine coolant over temperature error on the 26th Oct which is when the car went in to limp mode on the motorway.

i haven’t cleared the codes yet but will do so this weekend.

i can’t see any leaks and haven’t had car long enough to check for coolant loss over time.

was hoping for some advice on what to do? Keep driving and check coolant levels? Take to garage for check of coolant system and electrical components ?

any advice would be appreciated.

Car has full Service history and had wet belt changed 12 months / 4K miles ago. Can’t see that the water pump has ever been changed in history. 

thank you.

 

Generally the mechanical waterpump is replaced with the wetbelts, are you sure that wasn't done at the same time?

P2600 is for the additional electric coolant pump though.  I wasn't aware that it was used while cruising, unless towing a heavy load?  It's main purpose is to circulate coolant after the engine has been switched off to prevent hot spots when the mechanical waterpump stops.

First check would be the fuse for the electric pump.  If that's fine, check it is actually plugged in, may have been left unplugged after previous work.  Also check the grille shutters aren't stuck closed.  It may also be a good idea to keep an eye on coolant temps using the OBD reader, as dash gauge temps aren't accurate.

Thank you for the reply, I will check the coolant pump wiring, fuses and see if i can find anything.

Does the 1.0 Ecoboost Petrol engine use the Active Grill Shutter system? from what i read on this they seem to only be on Diesel models? Thanks again for your help. 

They're definitely fitted to some petrols.  Maybe not all.  Very easy to see them through the bumper grill to check.

So today I have:

cleared all DTCs, checked fuses, tested relays (just to ensure they click open / closed), checked wiring of pump and checked grilles to confirm they are open and everything looked fine.

hooked up FORScan with live diagnostics. added the engine coolant temp (ECT) to the dashboard and went for a drive. No errors, the ECT got up to 110ish before it seemed to settle, when I opened the interior heater vents on full heat it dropped to 98, when I turned heating off it went back to around 110. is this normal temp for coolant?

Got home, checked around engine for any spills, nothing obvious, but radiator fan was on full flow and stayed on once engine was switched off. 
I still something is dodgy as the car seems to heat up quickly and fan comes on early and stays on after engine is switched off but maybe this is normal? I am struggling to find anything! 

Is that 110c?  That's way too hot.  It should be around 90c.

Sounds like the thermostat is stuck closed if that's a genuine temp.

Was the Radiator hot? 

FORScan should be able to show you the Cylinder Head and Oil Temperatures as well. It would be worth brining the PID's up for all three in FORScan when checking again, if the Coolant is genuinely that hot then I would expect the other two to be at a similar temperature.

I would also expect a Ford specific fault to be logged if the three temperatures did not correlate with each other at start up to rule out a faulty Sensor although FORScan should be able to show you that, they should all be the same as ambient first thing in the morning. 

Thank you both for the replies it’s really helpful. This a screen shot of the live data dashboard at its highest.

i am leaning towards replacing the thermostat and housing before i try anything else.

i felt around the radiator and pipes and they were hot but not like the pipes at the top of the engine and expansion tank! Making me feel like it’s the thermostat…and probably best to replace whole thing inc housing rather than just the actual thermostat. 

Update and hopefully this is now fixed!

removed the thermostat housing and could see that the gasket had gone (see pics) took the thermostat out and dropped it in boiling water and not much movement, so replaced the complete housing!

also noticed some hairline stresses in the expansion tank (you can see in the picture) so whilst the coolant system was drained I replaced the tank, makes sense when it’s only £15! 😁

all seems to be much more normal now, temp sitting between 89-90’C 

let’s see how we get on in the next few runs but hopefully that’s it! Thank you so much for your help! Really appreciate it. 

 

Yes I also had to change the thermostat two weeks ago.

 

Please after a few runs tell us how will it be.

Latest update! Car seems good! Been driving it around and sitting in traffic and temperature seems to be fine..no fault codes on the Fordscan so hopefully all good. 
looking at fitting a dashcam now before officially handing it over to my teenage daughter to drive! 😁