My 2010 ford focus style 1.6 tdci estate was seviced in my local ford main dealer five weeks ago. I also had the engine diagnostics checked because i had an engine malfunction warning light which had reset itself weeks earlier.When paying the bill i was informed a software upgrade had been done and the system was now ok and the engine running perfect.

Within 5 minutes from the garage the engine malfunction light came on and the engine went into limp mode then a power steering malfunction alarm came on. I stopped and switched of the engine and then restarted it and everything was now ok. Back to the garage and after a check was told i needed a new mapping sensor which was ordered. During the week it took for the dealer to obtain the sensor the car was driven over 600 kilometers with regular malfunction alarms and visits to the limp home mode. Switching off the restarting the engine always reset the limp home mode. The dealer had told me the car was safe to drive.

The mapping sensor was replaced but again on the way home the alarms came on.

Back again to the dealer who took the car to conduct further diagnostics. This time i was told you need a ABS unit but the car was safe to drive. The abs alarm was on all the time.

A replacement unit was obtained ,tested then fitted and reprogrammed. I was then told that the engine ecu needed to be replaced as the system now showed a power steering alarm although the steering was ok. Also the speedo had stopped working.

The dealer told me i could drive the car with no speedo and all the new problems but i refused to do so. A replacement ECU was fitted but it did not solve the problems and i am now told it needs a new cluster.

The car has now been in the dealers workshop for the last 12 days and it is no nearer to being fixed.

Has anyone of the forum members any ideas as to what might be causing the problems.

Hi Gordon,

First off... wow...

Secondly... I would be looking to write a formal complaint to Ford (Ireland, or UK, not sure which part of Ireland you are in!).

They don't seem to have a clue, and I expect you have already paid through the nose. If you are under warranty, ignore this bit, but I would be demanding some money back as you have now paid for three parts

If the software upgrade was seemingly the starting point, the first thing I would be doing is requesting them to install the old software. Limp mode once or twice is better than permanently. That should at least tell you if the software upgrade is playing a part. Secondly, I would assume the issues you are seeing are down to either a sensor, or a faulty gem board. But again, it strikes me as odd, the issue only really started to happen after the software upgrade?

If you had limp mode before, as you suggest you do, then its most likely a case their is a sensor misbehaving somewhere. Not an ABS pump and certainly not an ECU!

Last time I saw these kind of warnings, was when I left an OBD device in my old CMAX and started the car with my phone connected, the ECU got confused, and all the signals went haywire. Alternatively, it has been seen strange things like this happen when the instrument cluster is failing, though I doubt they have even looked in that direction!

Hi Jeebowhite.

Thanks for the reply. The first thing i asked the dealer to do was to reinstall the original software but he said this was impossible to do after a upgrade .Many more things have happened since. I started a new thread Steering angle sensor problem which has generated many replies . You might read it because I value your information .