Hi,

A few months back my S-Max started developing a fault where complete boost would be lost. The Engine malfunction message would come up on the dash board together with the skid marks light. Once the car was stopped and started again the car would be back to normal.

I was told by a couple of garages, including Ford Dealer that it required a new turbo, because the vanes were sticking.

And I did!! I purchased a refurbished turbo and had it installed.

The car run perfectly for the first 2-3 months, but the light, message and skid marks light came back on today. Any ideas??.

I am intending to do a very long trip and I am now getting scared of something going wrong.

Thanks

Hi Oscar,

First things first, do the trip computer test to find out if you have any obvious error codes. If you have the OK (left right up down) steering wheel, turn the engine off, press and hold OK then turn the key to position 2 and hold, this will get you in test mode, then press OK repeatedly to go through the menus and find DTC. If there are any codes, then great! if not, you will need to buy a code reader (info in my signature - click "Got an error on your car?") I highly recommend the Modified ELM and FORSCAN for more detail and the bluetooth OBD and Torque for portability.

If you have a refurb turbo, go back to whoever you bought it from and advise of the issue. You may have a faulty unit.

The Skid Mark Icon I believe is the ESP light that your referring to, it could be an alternative issue which is causing the similar symptoms, so dont dispair, it may not be as bad as it first feels!

Hi Jeebowhite,

No clear code errors found.

I would be surprised if I replaced the turbo and the replacement ha exactly the same issue!! I will ring them though!!

Could it be that the issue is with something else that is allowing to much dirt into the turbo and hence allowing the vanes to stick!!

Just a thought!. Maybe a flow sensor, or something else!

Thanks

At the moment Oscar, with little information its almost impossible to say. It could be a dirty or stuffed sensor, or it could be as serious as the turbo or perhaps worse still. It really is an open ended scenario.

If you got no error codes from the trip computer, then you need to buy a code reader as mentioned. If you want the best full picture you can get - buy yourself a modified ELM config cable with switch, and download FORSCAN, This scans all the modules and works very well indeed. If you buy the bluetooth code reader and use Torque or similar, it gives you a good picture, but can only scan a few of the modules at best. My car currently has 3 error codes, picked up by FORSCAN that are not picked up by Torque, or the trip computer.

You can buy from the SMAX Owners club a "home branded" ELM cable, I dont recall the cost though. But I do believe that I have a spare ELM cable at home which if you need it, would be happy to sell it to you.

Alternatively if you need answers much more quickly, I would suggest you get the AA or whoever out to do a check. They should be able to advise you further.

Thanks Jeebowhite.

Any chances of sending me a link to purchase the modified ELM cable with Switch??.

Regards

Didnt realise how much they were charging but here you are:

http://www.smaxownersclub.com/elm327.html

I can help here - had exactly the same issue & now sorted.

Have you resolved it happening now ?

We also replaced the Turbo, which as it's transpired wasn't the issue and is massively annoying as it wasn't cheap to install the Turbo !

Claire22 what did you do to stop it then? I have a 2007 tdci 2.0 Zetec. Mine is doing this and seems to be getting worse. Computer shows no faults! Need to sell it soon so need it fixed. Thanks, Jo.

Hi Jop,

We took it to an AutoElectric place who resolved it.

They, I think took it to Ford (or did this themselves) but got the Electrics / Software reset and upgraded and it's sorted the issue and not happened since.

Much cheaper than getting a Turbo done and was cheap getting the software reset and updated.

Hope that helps ?

Hi everyone,

I recently sold my s max 2007 to a lovely local couple and the car was absolutely perfect. 2 days after she bought it from me I think it did a similar thing to all the above. The car loses power and then they switch the engine off and it's fine again. I think this has happened about 3 times over the last few months. Is it possible that this sort of thing can just happen with out any warning signs? It was running so well before I sold it, that I was actually thinking about keeping it!!! They took it to Ford and the fault code was P2263 and they were told it needed a new Turbo...very expensive job, so as you can imagine, they are not happy, and not happy with us even though we knew nothing about it. Can someone please advice what I can tell them......should they try the software reset? J

Hi JP15, hope you're well.

Absolutely sounds highly likely to be the same thing, to me.

Would most definitely recommend the software rest @ Ford or an Auto Electrical specialist rather than going thru the new Turbo hassle like we did - only for it not to make any difference at all.

New turbo = issue still existed

Software reset = we're still good to date !

Hope that helps

Good evening. We took the advice from above and had a software reset done about 3 weeks ago. I can't recall the code but thought it was worth trying the reset before the turbo. Only been a few weeks but ok now. Decided not to sell so let's hope it's ok. Josh.

Thank you for the quick response. I will let them know and hopefully it will sort their problems.

Oscar, I know it was a while ago but what did you do please?

Well.....where to start?. First of all DO NOT BUY A NEW TURBO!!! Ford will always try to sell you it needs a new one!

After nobody managed to find the correct cause of this fault, I purchased a turbo cleane called Revive, very effective.

In my opinion the problem is a sensor that does not allow the combustion to be correct, and therefore produces a lot of dirt that goes onto the turbo.

Since I cleaned the turbo, once a week or so I give it a good thrust(as it is my wife's car and is only used for short runs). Once the turbo is activated 2-2.5k rpm. A lot of smoke comes out, cleaning the turbo vanes.

Since I've been doing this, I never had the fault anymore.

I hope it helps.

Hi I new here. I got my 2008 s max zetec 2.0 tdci a few months ago. The esp and engine malfunction came then turns off when you restart the car. This morning the engine light came on but wont turn off. The DTC says C16787 C14000 C20000 C41668. Can anyone shed any light on this for me please?

Where did you get these error codes from?

Just have the same issues, bought car roughly month ago 57 plate 2.0ltr tdci all running fine. Wife travelling down dual carriage way in fast lane car loses power goes into limp mode I guess, car with skid marks came up, took it back to where we bought it and put it on computer, no error codes found, got car back worked ok for a day then happened again so gone back to dealer we got it from, have told him about software upgrade is this expensive and what do they do many thanks. Dave

 

Any issues with the car in the first six months is the dealers liability not yours. So you have no need to pay anything.

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Thanks for the reply Jeebowhite, the garage have since fitted a mass air flow sensor, this has not cured the problem as today the car

went into limp mode with the lights, do you know how much the software update costs and roughly how long it takes to do it. not that I'm going to pay just interested. many thanks.

 

ive started getting this.the other day i went out to the car and it wouldnt start.from experience of when i was fitting heated seats i knew it was the lower plug in the passenger foot well i checked it and the car started.well today went out in car and before i set of the malfunction alarm sounded with pics on dash.keep restarting and it went ok got to tescos and it started up again.any way when i got home i started checking the plug in foot well when i touched it the alarm would sound.i swaped the blue clip over(was going to change the grey plug male bit but the one i have wasnt up to much)i noticed the blue cip bit had wear on the bits thats hold it tight.it seams ok now so will see how it goes.

just thought maybe of help to any one having problams with out finding anything

On 23 April 2016 at 8:58 PM, dave49 said:

Thanks for the reply Jeebowhite, the garage have since fitted a mass air flow sensor, this has not cured the problem as today the car

went into limp mode with the lights, do you know how much the software update costs and roughly how long it takes to do it. not that I'm going to pay just interested. many thanks.

 

It was under an hour and relatively inexpensive from memory ... definitely resolved the issue for us !

It isn't a Software Update per se, it's a reset.

Hope this helps you too.

a free way to reset everything, is to disconnect your battery for a minimum of one hour.

Ok have narrowed this down slightly engine malfunction light came on only once the first time and not again since. What happens now is engine will go into limp mode and esp light comes on  this has happened always going uphill or a gradient when more acceleration required. doesn't matter if car is cold or warm. many thanks for looking. has no issues when driving on the flat drives perfectly normal.

Limp mode with esp suggests it's something to do with fuel injectors. Check all connections are secure and that there is no obvious leaks

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Thanks for the reply Jeebowhite the car is back at the dealers at present they are driving round to try to make it go into limp mode. hoping this gets sorted soon losing the faith at the mo lol.  if it was fuel injectors would it not do it all the time, like if you have a dodgy spark plug on a petrol engine it runs rough all the time.