Hi, I have a 2009 Ford fiesta 1.6 diesel Tdci and have a a starting problem for a while now. The issue is that when the car is cool it will start 100% of the time every time even if i go out to it very early in the morning when it is super cold. However once i have driven the car and parked it and left it for anywhere between 10 minutes to an hour the car won't start or might take 6 attempts of turning the key even having to press the gabs pedal down in order for it to start. Taken it to an auto electrician and no fault with wiring, now taken to ford and told ecu not working and going to cost 1600 quid??? i find that hard to believe as the car always starts cold!!!  Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks

5 hours ago, JoshM12 said:

now taken to ford and told ecu not working and going to cost 1600 quid??? i find that hard to believe as the car always starts cold!!!

I would be unwilling to believe that too, at least without some bloomin' good evidence or a second opinion.

If it starts cold, and runs ok, then surely all of the main parts (all inputs and outputs) must be working ok. If it is an internal software corruption, it should be possible for a Ford dealer to re-load the software. Only if it repeatedly corrupts the data should a hardware fault be suspected.

One possibility is that I think the pcm / ecu is inside the engine bay, near the battery, on the Fiesta. When parked, with a hot engine, it will get quite warm in there. When moving, it will get some cooler air. So there could be a temperature problem, though it does not sound particularly likely to me.

You could try parking with the bonnet open (at home, maybe), to see if this stops the fault. Or even use a hand held fan (a cheap battery "personal cooling fan" might work), to see if cooling down the pcm helps.

For that price, it does need more than just an unconfirmed opinion from someone who stands to make money from the job!

 

 

Really appreciate your help Peter, I have a strong feeling after you said that it is something to do with the cooling of the car as recently the fan has been blowing on it even during a short 10 minute journey and as the problem only ever happens after i have driven the car it makes sense. Could potentially be what your saying so going to try that once i get my car back from ford. Thanks again for your help