FORD FOCUS 06 - Won't start

[Hale08]

Hello,

Looking for some advice on my Ford Focus 06 plate. 

Went to start it the other week and it wouldn't turnover. There is just a clicking sound and ----- on the mileage meter. There is no sound of the fuel pump kicking in. All the electrics in the car work. 

Green Flag tested the battery, the alternator and spark plug. And they changed any fuses that were out in the engine fusebox.

I was advised to get the key re-encoded which made the car work for about 2 weeks. Then it died again.

Was advised to get the instrument cluster repaired which I sent off and have received back. Was told to get the fault codes reset in order for it to work. 

Had diagnostics test done and codes reset and the car will not start. Still the same problem. 

The error code coming up on the diagnostics is U1900 - CAN Bus error.

Phoned FORD who have suggested I get a wiring and unit check. Which I'm looking to do next week.

Have any of you had this problem or do you have any suggestions as to what it could be. So far no one has been able to pinpoint the problem and I don't want to keep throwing money at it if it's not going to solve the issue. 

I have read a few similar threads on this site but no one seems to have the same issue as mine. 

Cheers, 

Paul

[Lilhawki]

I had that in my mk6 fiesta while I was driving and all my dials died which was added by the car telling me there was a engine fault and coolant fault. The instrument cluster got rebuilt and it was the immobiliser that was the culprit. 

[Hale08]

Thanks for your reply. The immobiliser light is flashing fault 16. But I'm unsure how to fix this. And the several auto electricians I have had out don't seem to know either. How did you get your immobiliser fixed? 

[Lilhawki]

i took my car to a local spot and they said they ran across this and no mechanic or technician can fix it, you'll have to get the cluster out and sent off to a specialist which will set you back £300 for parts and labour which is a full rebuild. Sadly I do not know what company they used. Also have you disconnected the battery and left for a few seconds because I did that when my car proper broke down at the lights (stupidly turned it off) because of it and showed those symptoms and it fired straight back up. 

[Stoney871]

There is a company called Clusterrepairuk that do repairs for about £100.

http://www.clusterrepairsuk.co.uk/repair/make/ford?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=ford%20focus%20dash%20repair&utm_content=Ford&utm_campaign=CRManufacturerKeywords

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Phil21185]

Yeah this still sounds like the mk2 cluster fault.

If you're handy with a soldering iron, you may be able to fix it yourself. 

@Tdci-Peterhas excellent guides and stuff about it on here somewhere...

[Hale08]

I sent the instrument cluster off last week and they've repaired and returned it. Said it had a few cracks in it. But even now with the repaired cluster it isn't working. Same fault with the immobiliser. Stuck on what to do next because most of the similar threads said the new cluster fixed the issue.

Thanks for all your responses. 

[Phil21185]

Yes I read that you had sent it off but it still seems likely that this is the problem.

Did they repair it or replace it? I think that a new one (at least new to the car) needs keys recoding to it before the immobiliser will disarm.

It's a tricky one as you appear to have done all the correct things. The thing that's throwing me is that you first said that there was just a clicking sound when you tried to start the car.

If it was an immobiliser fault at that point you wouldn't have heard anything as that sounds to me like the starter motor trying (and failing) to crank the car...

Do you still get the (repetitive) clicking sound when you try to start the car?

Are you still getting the Canbus code as this points to a faulty cluster.

Again, @Tdci-Peter is extremely knowledgeable about this issue. He has also posted which pins in the obd connector can easily be tested with a multimeter to find out for certain. You'd be looking for a certain resistance reading but I can't remember what pins...

 

[Tdci-Peter]

On 10/13/2017 at 1:26 PM, Hale08 said:

Was advised to get the instrument cluster repaired which I sent off and have received back. Was told to get the fault codes reset in order for it to work. 

Had diagnostics test done and codes reset and the car will not start. Still the same problem. 

The error code coming up on the diagnostics is U1900 - CAN Bus error.

What was used to read and reset the codes?

It sounds like it might just be a generic OBD2 type scanner. I had a lot more codes stored in the car than just U1900, but it needed a dedicated Ford system (I used Forscan & an ELM327) to read and reset all the codes. It was only after this full code reset that my car started.

This is a list of the codes I had before reset:

(WARN) [16:46:18.468] DTCs in OBDII: U0073-P, U0121-P, U0140-P
(WARN) [16:46:18.558] DTCs in ABS: C1306-A0, U2012-A0, U2202-A0, U1900-A0, U2023-E0
(WARN) [16:46:18.618] DTCs in EPS: U0073-20, U1900-60
(WARN) [16:46:18.698] DTCs in IC: U1900-20, U2510-20, U2200-60, C1750-20, U2197-60, U1147-60
(WARN) [16:46:19.369] DTCs in PCM: U0073-E1, U2197-61, P0571-61, P1260-61, U0121-E1, U0140-E1, U0001-E1, U0155-F1, U0131-F1

After the dodgy joint in the IC was fixed, Forscan reset them all ok, and the car started.

On 10/14/2017 at 6:48 PM, Phil21185 said:

He has also posted which pins in the obd connector can easily be tested with a multimeter to find out for certain. You'd be looking for a certain resistance reading but I can't remember what pins...

That would be pins 6 & 14, they are the HS-CAN bus pins.

The resistance test is:

Stick a couple of suitable probes (un-bent paper clips can work quite well) in the diagnostic connector pins 6-14, put a DMM across the pair on voltage range, turn ignition on, note reading, turn ignition off, wait till voltage drops to zero (+/- 1 or 2 mV), switch to resistance range to check for 60 ohms.

It should be stable at close to 60 ohms, any deviations would indicate a problem.

PATS (immobiliser) code 16 means comms error, most likely in the HS-CAN bus that is used by the PCM & IC to communicate, and to verify the correct key code. The immobiliser is rather distributed in most modern cars, there is a coil / sensor unit around the ignition key barrel, but both the IC and the PCM are involved in authenticating the key code.