58 Plate 1.6Tdci Mk 2 Focus - Problems

[EmmaSmith04]

Hello

sorry this may be a long one, its made me really mad and i am worried about driving my car now....i will put the basic issue at the top and further details in the story below it....2009 58 plate mk2 focus with 78600 on the clock.

aside from the garage issues (details below), has anyone had this kind of issue before? - kangarooing while reving up between 30 and 40 mph and a sqeak/squeal noise that seems noiser inside the car then outside when my foot is on the acelerator no matter what speed along with a massive drop in fuel consumption? its gone from 55-60mpg to 45-47mpg (I know still not bad but i have lost about 120 mile out the last tank of fuel used - not impressed!)

i have had my focus a year now, got it with a warrenty from a garage in preston. its a zetec but with some additional bits on it. it had 58k on the clock when i got it, it had been run as a reps car and would continue to be so from me too. within a month, i had to call the warrenty people to discuss a lag in power between 1st and 2nd gear. they advised me to go to my local authorised repairer. so off i toddled and it had fault codes on the DPF filter which they cleared and re-gened the filter for me. (non-warrenty work suprise suprise)

fast forward 11 months and 20,000 miles more and i am on the motorway (23rd Feb) on a windy day. it feels like a big gust of wind has hit the side of the car and the car starts gently kangarooing. pulled into the left hand land and slowed up. the kangarooing stopped. 10 days lateron 6th March, it happens again following a feeling of a big gust of wind hitting the car whilst on a country road along with a quiet sqealing noise. So i call the warrenty people and they send me off the to the same garage again. i leave the car with them on 8th March to diagnose the problem. i pick the car up later - a 10 min diagnostic test, which thank fully they didnt charge for, has shown up fault codes on dpf filter again. they have cleared the faults but not regened. they advise me to drive the car for a few days and see what happens.

12th march - car goes in for new tyres and MOT at Kwikfit, gets it home no problem. set off that evening and about a mile down the road, a large gust of wind hits the car and the kangarooing starts again, this time with an intermittant squealing/sqeaking noise which doesnt seem to be heard outside the car. early next day, i take it back to the garage, describe the feeling of wind battering the car. they say that the problem sounds like a part which is broken inside the filter which is moving with jolts to the car and blocking the filter. they advise that the cost of a new filter would be £600 alone plus labour. I leave it with them to work out what the heck is going on. They do a diagnostics again and call to tell me that the warrenty wont cover a new DPF filter as its a consumable as this is what the problen is and this is the solution. i go to pick the car up and ask them for their quote, they then agree to hold the cost quoted to the warrenty people of £480 fitted. - so we book it in for the next day and leave it with them over night.

go to pick the car up and i didnt think to enquire further over the removed part and was it broken. anyway i paid up and drove away feeling happy as the cars power was better. noticed however that the fuel consumption wasnt improving much. just blindly hoped for the best really!

yesterday, i am off out for the day and what happens, the car starts kangarooing and the squeak/squeal starts again! and then again on my journey home last night. i am sure you can imagine my frustation!

today, i have called the warrenty people to reopen the claim as its obviously not the DPF at all. I ring the garage and enquire whether they ever checked anything mechanically on the car which the branch manager said they should have done but he was away the day they did the 'repair'. i had said the sqeal sounded more like a belt slipping or something mechanical. they had obviously ignored me completely. i have agreed reluctantly to take the car back to them for further diagnostics but emphasised that i will not be paying any further diagnostics on the motor and that i am not happy as we have now paid for a part which perhaps wasnt necessary - just another regen would have sorted it for now.

any help/info is much appreciated!

regards

Emma