Hi folks,

 

Late last year we bought Fred for my other half.  A 2011 Focus TDCi 1.6, he was an auction buy and Herself decided the name Fred was appropriate because he’s a grumpy old man.

Obviously, as an auction buy, Fred was going to have issues.  We sorted most of them, but now we have a new one.  The warning triangle with “Engine Malfunction” started popping up.  Initially it was rare and didn’t affect drivability.  A restart would clear it and it would stay away for a week or so, but lately things have deteriorated.

I saw it ‘live’ for the first time the other day.  Herself was driving and we were merging (gently) into motorway traffic.  The warning triangle appeared, but we carried on the half mile to our exit.  Just as we joined the off-ramp, the speedo and rev counter dropped to zero and ALL the idiot lights came on; the full Christmas tree.  We pulled into a filling station and switched off.  When we tried to restart the starter refused to cooperate.  In the Start position nothing happened.  We gave it five minutes and tried again; it started, but the idle was very lumpy.  Two miles later we were home and Fred was running fine.  The code reader showed no faults.

On all previous occasions the fault has appeared at operating temperature, but yesterday herself was leaving the house and it happened again, but this time Fred cut out completely, leaving her stranded, broadside across the road.  I wasn’t there, but once she had been pushed out of traffic and waited five minutes, Fred restarted perfectly and didn’t misbehave for the rest of the day.

Any thoughts?

Have you had the cluster resolder yet?

28 minutes ago, Cogitosus said:

Any thoughts?

Get the codes read whilst in fault mode as they are self clearing, that should help pinpoint the fault.

But it's probably the EGR valve or the cluster fault

Better than a 90% chance this is the infamous dry/cracked solder joints on the instrument cluster. Get @rd457 to refurbish it and you'll be as good as new 👍

Thanks for the suggestions folks, I have an update.  It seems that it's a 3k fault.  That is, 3,000 RPM.

I managed to trigger the fault reliably; or to put it another way, repeatedly.  If I pick a stretch of clear road and mash the throttle pedal, the Engine Malfunction will trigger at 3,000 RPM every time, and this is accompanied by a complete loss of power.  I had the computer hooked up and monitoring at the time and it showed no OBD2 codes, but it didn't set the MIL either.

I restarted and, with the car stationary and in neutral, I applied full throttle.  It revved up immediately and the Engine Malfunction light did not come on, but it maxed out at 2,994 RPM

When I checked the codes this time, I had a U0073, module communications error.  I could understand that being an issue with the soldering of the cluster, but I don't understand the 3,000 RPM limit.

Any more thoughts?

19 minutes ago, Cogitosus said:

Any more thoughts?

You need Forscan to read the codes that trigger the warning message without the EML.

1 hour ago, Cogitosus said:

Any more thoughts?

Generic code reader isn't going to help you, in fact it is more likely to confuse the situation and lead you down the wrong path.

If you want to fault find yourself then you need to be using FORScan and a vLinker FS cable.

On 4/7/2024 at 8:59 PM, unofix said:

FORScan (for use with Windows Laptop) : https://forscan.org/download.html

It's what many Ford owners use including some Ford technicians.

• vLinker FS, cable for laptop: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vgate-vLinker-Adapter-FORScan-MS-CAN/dp/B0952P4MLP

OR

• OBDLINK EX, cable for laptop: https://www.amazon.co.uk/OBDLINK-EX-FORScan-OBD-Adapter/dp/B081VQVD3F/ref=sr_1_5

For diagnostic use only:

• vLinker FD, for android phone: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vgate-Bluetooth-vLinker-Scanner-Diagnostic/dp/B08H82WC8L
• vLinker FD+, for iPhone: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vgate-Bluetooth-vLinker-Scanner-Diagnostic/dp/B08H8JHWP2

 

Search Tag:   FORScan123

 

Thanks Unofix, I have ordered the interface

I'd like to thank everyone for their advice.  Running Forscan showed up a list of issues, many of which were related to communication with the instrument cluster as you predicted.  Today I removed the cluster and, with a little help from Nigel Ealand, I was able to dismantle it.  Unlike the cluster Nigel was working on, ours did not have any noticeable movement at the cluster connector and the solder looked in much better condition than his example.

Nonetheless I remade all of the joints at the connector pins and replaced it in the car.  Immediately we had an improvement, in that the 3,000 rpm limit was gone.  After a bit of faffing about getting the needles back in the correct places (I advise NOT turning them and just pulling them straight off), I got everything back together and Fred seems happy.

My other half is off to work at 07:00 tomorrow, so hopefully Fred won't disgrace himself.

I'll let you know