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Glow Plug Light Comes On And Car Cuts Out (2003 Mk3 Mondeo)


mch1991
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Hello,

I was driving my 2003 Ford Mondeo Zetec (2.0 TDCi 130) earlier, with no problems. I generally drive the car on a daily basis, and have never had any issues. Today, however, I was driving along, waiting at a set of traffic lights I pulled out and the engine was fine, but changing into third gear I noticed a complete loss of power, followed by a flashing light on the Dash Board (Orange Coil?). I also noticed the SnowFlake symbol started flashing as well.

Luckily the road was not full of traffic, I was able to bring the car to a stop, turn the ignition off and restart the car (key to position 2) waited for the glow plug light to extinguish before turning the car over (which it did fine), and drove off with no problems. Was able to drive to where I was going, and home again with no further issues.

The car has done 186,000 miles (been a trusty work horse), the clutch, gear box and engine is spot on and I've never had any problems (starts with no problems on cold morning).

I put £30 of Shell Diesel (Vpower?) in the car yesterday, and my partner filled the tank with Morrisons Diesel earlier today (could this be a problem?), we've ran some of that Redex Diesel fluid through the car the other day and no problems.

My only concern is obviously this fault is quite dangerous, especially if the engine cuts out at a roundabout or busy junction.

I've read some posts in regards to this issue which relate to maybe the EGR valve? Injector problem? Fuel contamination?

Would be great if I can get some advice, obviously i'm slightly concerned that there could be something seriously wrong with the engine.

Many thanks,

Michael

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I'm sorry I can't run to a full reply to all of your questions, but..

Hello,

I was driving my 2003 Ford Mondeo Zetec (2.0 TDCi 130) earlier, with no problems. I generally drive the car on a daily basis, and have never had any issues. Today, however, I was driving along, waiting at a set of traffic lights I pulled out and the engine was fine, but changing into third gear I noticed a complete loss of power, followed by a flashing light on the Dash Board (Orange Coil?). I also noticed the SnowFlake symbol started flashing as well.

The 'Orange coil' glow plug lamp is also used as an 'ECU confused, bad stuff is going on' indication, so I guess that is what is happening; not sure about the 'combined with the snow flake' symbol, though; does that have a special meaning, or is it just a symptom of whatever bad stuff is going on?

two suggestions:

  • find out whether there are any fault codes
  • check for electrical problems

Well, when I say check for electrical problems, clean up any obviously bad connections, and maybe squirt any multi-conectors with contact cleaner and work them backwards and forwards. If you don't feel happy doing this, go to a diesel specialist.

Also, if you have had any serious work done recently, particularly anything even vaguely near a cam or crank sensor, consider those sensors, their wiring or their cleanliness suspect.

I put £30 of shell Diesel (Vpower?) in the car yesterday, and my partner filled the tank with Morrisons Diesel earlier today (could this be a problem?), we've ran some of that Redex Diesel fluid through the car the other day and no problems.

Neither the Morrisons diesel nor the RedEx is much liked around here, but I haven't had any trouble with either.

If you mean the 'ordinary' RX (about £4, not the more expensive, 'does everything' gold product) there is a warning about not using it with high levels of biofuels. The levels of bio in ordinary fuel have been going up, so be very, very careful if you use any fuel with high bio content (either home made, or commercially available) as this is likely to be problematic if you have any RX in the tank.

Morrisons, I haven't had problems with, but I'll only use supermarket stuff every third top up, or so (I don't know where I came up with that rule, but it sounds vaguely plausible). Now, lots of people 'slag off' supermarket fuel, but in some ways, getting fuel from someone with a high turnover of fuel is less risky than getting fuel from someone who only has a customer every other day, and has lots of chance to get water and all sorts of crud in their fuel.

Shell sell good quality stuff, but there is a difference between their V-power and their 'ordinary' diesel (however, I can't get technical about what it actually is, apart from that you are likely to get more additives in the (substantially) more expensive stuff).

I've read some posts in regards to this issue which relate to maybe the EGR valve? Injector problem? Fuel contamination?

I wouldn't think any of those were the most likely for this symptom: Maybe, if you had general poor running, but for a one off, sudden, fault, that then goes away, I'm not sure. that's why I think something electrical or ECU related is more likely, but it is always difficult to be sure.

My only concern is obviously this fault is quite dangerous, especially if the engine cuts out at a roundabout or busy junction...obviously i'm slightly concerned that there could be something seriously wrong with the engine.

That really is a serious concern, but I don't know what to say. I don't think that there is something really serious wrong with the engine...that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be easy to find, unfortunately. A diesel specialist could still be a good idea, if you are worried.

Edit: Sorry about the bad formatting - not my fault.

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Thank you very much BOF, very informative (thank you for putting the time to write that).

I took the car for a 30 minute drive around the town, some main roads and bypasses, and neither could replicate or repeat the problem (pulling out at both roundabouts and junctions the car performed perfectly).

I can only assume that perhaps some impurities or material maybe got into the fuel system and the injector(s).

Thanks, I'll update if I have any other problems.

Have a great Christmas.

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The 1st thing i would do is fit an EGR valve blanking plate (solid, stainless steel) this will eliminate possible EGR valve problems (and stop the continual coking up/ contamination of the inlet by the EGR) and as your car is a Euro3, it can be blanked with no problems

Give the car a good service, the problems may just be from the fuel filter, change that, and the oil/ filter & air filter (if they have not been done recently)

Aqquire a code reader or have the codes read, your car is not OBD11 compatible but has the same plug, only the Bluefin or the F-super work on it, it can even cause dealers (that, incedably, were ignorant of these things) problems

If you take your car to a deisel specialist they will probably recommend changing the injectors, this is because they often think injectors are the beginning, middle and end of diesel fault finding - i have read the horror stories of Ford owners spending £1000+ to have their injectors changed, to find their old ones were ok and it was something else (like the EGR) all along

If you need work done on your injectors, go to a Delphi specialist (after blanking the EGR, a service, and having the codes read, and i recommend you have the inlet manifold taken off and cleaned properly too)

Modern pump diesel is low-sulphor and contains between 5 to 7%, this came in in about 2007, the Mk3 (2000-2007) was never designed for low sulphor diesel (the (high) sulphor used to lubricate the injectors) and the injectors tend to wear at a faster rate, the bio-diesel helps to lubricate, but is different, some owners add 2-stroke oil or a little extra veg oil - some additives contain solvents that can damage seals etc and the 2-stroke was designed for 2-stroke petrol engines, and there are 3 basic types of 2-stroke oil, some of wich cannot be mixed and who knows how it will mix with modern diesel

Some pump diesel contains detergents that may strip out the sulphor from your injectors, some motorists use regular diesel (without detergent) normally and then use diesel with detergent (eg V-power) every few tank fulls,

The fuel is only safe for modern diesel engines and not for pre 2007 engines

The Delphi injectors are "soft"

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