Hi all. I have an issue with a ford street Ka on a 2006 plate. Around 8 weeks ago the car never started first time but always did second time. It was as if there was a blockage on the fuel system.  Than around 4 weeks ago it started mis firing. Only ever now and again. Perhaps once a week. For only literally half a second or so. Than 2 weeks ago the battery light came on. I took it to Kwik fit. Who said that on idle speed the battery was ok. But when they revved it up with lights an everything on full blast it drops voltage.  They said was alternator and quoted me £500. Gulp

 

 

than last week on starting it up it was mis firing terribly. Took it to a local garage who replaces the plugs, leads and the coil..picked it up and guess what. Ten mins later same symptoms came back.. I took it back and after having it for a week this is Thier diagnose. 

It's mis firing on cylinders 1 and 4 which they put down to the Ecu being faulty   There's an earth problem which is giving out 1.5 v and they assume it's Ecu related. They have quoted me £500  this on top of paying the cost of plugs and coils and leads to be changed .

ironically on taking it to the garage and it mis firing it started driving fine  less than a min from where they are  it's now back to mis firing. 

 

Can an ecu have an intermittent fault, I've seen Ecu doctor who seem to offer a good and affordable service,is there any danger from buying a second hand unit of auction sites, I know they need to match numbers and keys are required. 

 

Is is there anything select that could be causing the prob. 

 

Any idviss would be grearfulky receievd and if anybody can recommend a reliable garage in and around the Birmingham city center that would be fab. 

 

 

Thanks Gary 

 

 

 

 

Its 

Buy yourself one of these - plug it in and post the results back here and we will tell you whats wrong or just do a google search on the obd codes you get.

Garages use these to analyse your car nowadays and charge £60 for the privilege.

You can do it for free and it will save you a fortune in garage bills.

When you know whats wrong you can either fix it yourself or buy the part from eurocarparts on the internet and get the garage to fit them.

£500 is a laugh no wonder they call them Halfrauds and Kwik-S**t!!
Brand new alternator from eurocarparts is only £129.99.
I would also buy a cheap multimeter - its easy to check the alternator output - just use youtube its great for learning how to fix just about anything and it gets you out on Sunday and away from the auld nag lol!

I took my Streetka in for a laugh to see how much an entire new exhasut system would cost and they quoted over £700 - when i told em i could get it new for less than £200 on ebay the guy didnt know what to say - they didnt even know what a macpherson strut was and where it was on my Streetka. You really do have to do the job yourself as 99% of garages I have ever been to are either ripoff merchants or do a right shoddy job!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/D900-Universal-OBD2-EOBD-CAN-Car-Fault-Code-Reader-Diagnostic-Scanner-Tool-UK-/221966699147?hash=item33ae3f0a8b:g:WvsAAOSws4JW8Ujz

Could be faulty injectors or coil - even new ones are known to be bad but it does sound like ECU.
You can check if its the injectors by taking a good one off and swapping them round then see if the same fault has transferred to the new cylinder.

Anything electrical can have an intermittent fault - usually caused by a dry joint or a failed capacitor!
I repair plasma tellys and computers etc and the main faults nearly always come down to dry joints and failed capacitors!

I have the same car (and yer a fellow Gaz lol) so can help ye out just post back once you get the obd tool and have checked the codes.

Sometimes a good bet is to go on ebay and find someone who is breaking a car - I just bought myself a fuel pump with all the pipes for £20 including postage and packing , cant beat that as they are over £100 new without postage. The guy still has the ecu and keys etc its just a body damaged vehicle write off.

My profile photo gallery has pictures of all the disasters this car has caused me and diagnosing a problem when i first got this Pregnant Skateboard and was going to be charged £250 by the garage to fix it but i do all my own repairs so bought the obd tool and ended up costing me £17.50.

most likley on a ka is the connector to coil pack or wiring to the connector, gone brittle /corroded/