A mate of mine has a 2006 Focus 1.6 TDCI and is always complaining of how underpowered and dull the car is to drive. My previous car being a 2008 Focus 1.6 TDCI I knew that if the car was in good condition it was a pleasure to drive and had quite a bit of pull for a 1.6 diesel.

As he hasn't much knowledge of cars I decided to take it for a spin yesterday to compare it to my old Focus. When he said the car was gutless and dull he wasn't exaggerating! The car is definitely down on power and there seems to be almost no boost from the turbo what so ever.

The car doesn't exactly feel bad to drive or lumpy or anything, but the best way to describe it is it's like driving a non turbo diesel, the likes of the older SDI Golf with the standard diesel engines. There is practically no boost from the turbo. You only get the very slightest feeling of boost when over 2000rpm and even at that it's barely noticeable.

When revving the car at idle you can just about hear the turbo spool up but only barely. When I had a 1.6 TDCi you could clearly hear the turbo spooling when revving.

The car is a 110bhp version with 108k miles on it. Last year the car broke down on a journey from work and he had to get the engine rebuilt but couldn't specify fully what the problem was, something to do with the CAM he said and cost €1500 to repair. I wouldn't say he is exactly great for servicing the car either which doesn't help and its been roughly 12,000miles since it was last serviced.

Had a quick look at the engine bay but couldn't see any visibly loose hoses or cracks in them. Is it possible that the turbo is practically failed but isn't throwing out a fault code or going into limp mode?

And where would be best to start to try diagnose this problem?

Thanking you

First off I would try disconnecting the MAF sensor and see if power is improved, if it is then a new MAF is required if not could be any number of things.

Thanks Simcor, I tried disconnecting the MAF sensor yesterday evening but can't say I noticed any difference in the car with it unplugged or plugged in.

Car seems to be quite smokey at times also but not always

any DTCs? worth checking, even without EML on, some don't show and it wouldn't be the first car to have had the EML bulb taken out,

would be worth connecting it up to forscan with an ELM327 usb adaptor. check boost pressure, air flow, fuel rails etc. If disconnecting the MAF made no difference then it might not be working or working correctly, clean it with electrical contact cleaner and see what figures it comes up with on forscan. My MAF after I cleaned it at idle records between 9.8 and 9.9 g/sec, underload it peaks at 115 g/sec, mine has been tweaked a bit so it might not hit that.

If I had to guess, Id say its smoking because its too rich pointing towards air, that's purely based on the MAF making no difference and your smoke comment so it might not be that :)

Thanks for the reply Dee.

There doesn't seem to be any EML light currently on. Although last month he had the EML come on and the engine bay was covered in diesel and turned out to be a leaking injector so maybe there was a code for whatever this problem is and could have been wiped during that time.

I agree with you with the smoking and it running to rich would make a lot of sense. I have WD40 electrical contact cleaner at home, might give the MAF sensor a spray of it and change the air filter as I'd say it's due and see if that makes any difference. Best to start with the easiest and cheapest possible fixes then work the way up if that doesn't cure it. If it's still the same I'll recommend he goes to mechanic I know to get it forscanned and see what readings come up.

I've been considering myself getting an ELM327 usb adapter and the forscan software in the near future, how much does it cost out of curiousity?

you can get them dirt cheap but id recommend this one

http://www.spanglefish.com/TunnelratElectronics/

its about 15 quid and worth its weight in gold!

I know its a hassle but id suggest staying away from the "convenient" Bluetooth or wifi ones, in my experience they are shoddy, good for seeing stuff like RPM and speed (albeit a bit laggy) but not accurate or stable enough to diagnose anything more complicated. Get the USB one and use a laptop or windows tablet.

I use it to record everything once a month, gives me some background info should something start to play up, its also handy to prove to a garage that something was working just fine until they did work on it, saved me about 50 quid in a new sensor they broke and tried to charge me for!

even doing that tho doesn't always help

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/71718-strange-noise-any-suggestions/#entry493580

still not sure what this noise is yet.

Jesus that's far less that I was expecting it to be...think I'll order myself one this evening. :)

Seems like a very good bit of kit for the money and it's sometime I will end up using quite regularly like yourself, cheers Dee man.

no bother at all, if you need a hand getting it working drop me a line

Forscan has a short but fairly steep learning curve. Its not rocket science but its not really intuitive either, its almost like its had loads of additions bolted on over the years but they haven't quite got around to realising folk who haven't used it before might not have a Scooby how to do it

P2263 where can I find it

Google 'p2263 Ford' and enjoy all the YouTube vids