Hello,

My issue started last Friday when the Engine Malfunction warning came on. I drove to Milton Keynes from London to work and it was raining heavily. I switched the engine off and when I drove home it was fine.

Then on Monday I drove to work again and at lunch had to drive about 30 mins for a meeting. Weather was really hot and the Engine Malfunction warning came on again, this time with the Traction Control light. This time, when I restarted the car it cut out and continued to do so. I managed to get the car to the garage and they checked the diagnostics but were unable to confirm the problem. They moved the fuse box and the messages cleared. The issue seems to be a lot worse when the weather is really hot and the problem is continuing.

Can anyone shed any light on what the problem could be?

The reason i ask, is the garage have sent the car to another garage where the Powertrain Control Module has been checked and the engineer wants to reprogramme it. My concern is that they said that this could cause the PCM to crash and would then have to replaced. Is this likely to happen?

The car is not under warranty and any advise would be appreciated.

Cheers

Alan

Take it to a ford garage mate

Hi Alan,

The PCM could be reset, and I would be surprised if they completely brick it, unless they use the wrong PCM firmware onto the board!

It sounds like a bad wiring to me though, or at least a loose connection.

Have you used any other code reading devices other than the onboard computer? the issue could be the ABS module, or the PCM module itself, but without error codes its impossible to tell,m and these codes dont go to the instrument cluster!

I have also had this problem along with "many" other Ford owners. Some have taken their cars to Fords whom end up scratching their head with finding no answers to resolve the issue. 

But finally the answer has popped up in a few places and I took it upon myself when passing a car sales place who only sold Ford Focus's, to show off this knowledge I had discovered, (as they also do general repairs on Fords too). Much to my surprise, the sales person already knew of the fix for sometime. 

The answer lays within your instrument cluster behind your speedometer. The wiring connector block that push fits onto the circuit board inside your cluster has bad connections due to "dry solder joints" on the circuit board itself.

All is needed is to suck off the old solder on each pin and resolder with fresh clean solder. The manufacturers of these circuit boards produced a mass of dry solder joints which created bad electrical connections. Under vibration from road and or engine, the electrical connections would be interupted and cause an Engine malfuction message along with the little yellow car with 2 squiggly lines to be illuminated on your dash and, your car to go into limp mode, (slow drive only).

Upon re soldering these pins and creating a good electrical connection, you will no longer experience this again.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD OF THIS CHEAP FIX (if you know someone with a soldering iron).

HAPPY MOTORING!!!!

Hi thank you so uch for this info.i have an experience with my ford focus TDCI 2009 earlier. I was driving on an uphil on a hot afternoon and  the squilgly light came on and the dash says engine malfunction, i drove bavk home, turn the car off, it turn on fine, the traction light was off on the dash. Buy i did not drive the car. I will observe it tomorrow