Hi all, thought I would share this with all Ford owners, especially S-Max owners.

Before and after the work, the engine started, revved and performed brilliantly.

A mechanichecked the exhaust tailpipe, was very dirty and oily and very black. The exhaust should be clean, save for a little dirt. He said the engine was burning oil. The engine and exhaust fed did not show any signs of this at all.  So I Google Ford Duratec HE consuming excess oil. I saw many posts relating to Black, blue or white smoke, pointing to engine related problems. But if none of these was evident, to inspect the PCV filter and Breather hose.  Today, to remove the inlet manifold, we removed the whole front end, bumper, headlights, front panel a little forward. Removed 8 bolts to discover a split PCV hose. Top tip, buy the Genuine parts from Ford. Cost £51.60 for the hose and pcv. Changed both bits, cleaned the inlet manifold, put back together.  Job took 7 hours. The S-Max has limited room to get access to all the bolts unlike in Mondeos  and Ford Focus.  If you have black sludge in your tailpipe, and everything is normal,  change your Breather Hose and and PCV filter. 

Thank u for reading.

S-Max 2.0 Petrol, 2006 56 Plate 101,688 Miles.

Cheers.

Hi,

I know this an old post, but I am trying to do the same thing to my S-max. Where did you got the original Ford parts?