System Engine Failure

[Guest]

Hi,

Yesterday while driving home a flashing cog with an exclamation mark appeared on my dashboard. It's been on since - haven't noticed any decrease in performance but i haven't revved the car over 2500 while driving afterward. Not sure what this could be about - the light showed up shortly after a gear shift but that might just have been a coincidence. I have a ford fiesta 2007 diesel 1.4. i ordered a odb2 bluetooth to diagnose it should arrive tomorrow - any advice on what i should do until i get to the garage on Saturday?

 

Thank you,

Cristian

[isetta]

if the car is not in limp mode I would not worry. If the brain of the car considered it to be serious it would have gone into limp mode. It might clear itself. There are some faults that set a warning light, but if the car is then driven a certain number of times without the brain detecting the same problem, it puts it down to a one off and clears the warning.  I can't be specific on what faults are cancelled after how many times you drive it with no re-occurrence of the detected fault.

I would of course do a basic check on oil and water and anything else obviously untoward under the bonnet 

[Guest]

Thanks for that! I'll check all the levels make sure everythink is fine and hopefully i can diagnose it tomorrow see if i get more details! It's just more of a scare when something pops out on your dashboard!

[Guest]

Off topic - everything* 

 

How do you edit a post? 

[Blatto]

there's an edit option at the bottom of the message you have just typed

[Guest]

It must be that I'm on mobile and it does not show up. On topic - can anyone confirm that this is the case - a fault can clear itself if it doesn't occur in a certain amount of time? Mine is still there, unfortunately.

Thanks!

[zain611]

I had the engine light come on once on my mk6.5 fiesta. At that time the car was sitting on the driveway for 2 months and was driven in and out the garage. The fault code was to do with the Egr valve. The code was cleared with a diagnostic unit and since then it hasn't popped up again. It's been about 4 months since. 

Also I wasn't sure about editing a post. You can edit as soon as you post it but cannot after some time. 

[GaryPL]

9 hours ago, CristianG said:

It must be that I'm on mobile and it does not show up. On topic - can anyone confirm that this is the case - a fault can clear itself if it doesn't occur in a certain amount of time? Mine is still there, unfortunately.

Thanks!

The fault won't clear itself after a certain amount of time. The ECU doesn't actually detect the vast majority of faults - it just picks up on the symptoms it detects with one or more readings not being within normal parameters/tolerances.  A loose electrical connection for example may throw up a fault code - but if this settles down and the voltage goes back to normal, the warning light will probably go away.  But it doesn't mean the fault is gone - the loose connection will still be there.

The code will be stored.  You should get it looked at as drive on damage is always a possibility until you know exactly what's wrong.

[Guest]

Hi people. I have an update - ran some diagnosis with an obd reader and finally got the error code attached. I'm not very good with cars but I take it it's nothing too serious and could be an easy fix? 

[isetta]

so if you clear the codes, hopefully the light will go off. but will it come back on?

Glow plugs warm up the cylinder to make the car easier to start when cold and make it run smoother once started until it has warmed up.

The glowplugs stay on for a while after the glowplug warning light goes off. The glowplug warning light going off does not mean the glowplugs have switched off, it means they are up to temperature for starting the engine.  In practice you rarely see the glowplug light. It might come on for one second in the middle of winter.

If a glowplug has failed it means the car might not start so easily, or might run a bit rough before it has warmed up and you might get some smoke when starting. 

Glowplugs sometimes snap off when trying to remove. My previous Fiesta had one or more failed glowplug but it was easy to live with it and not worth trying to fix.

I do not know if your problem relates to a glowplug itself or the switching circuit that controls when the glowplugs are on / off

 

[zain611]

How does your car start in the morning? Your fault codes point towards the glow plugs. Have you cleared them to see if they come back?  If you ever think of changing them be very patient when taking them out as you do not want to snap any off. My dad changed the glow plugs on my 1.6 diesel fiesta and that took him 4 hours to do. The car would smoke for about 3 seconds and would idle rough until its warm up a little. Sadly these symptoms still persist and it's looking to be a leaking injector. 

[Guest]

It starts well fine, never had issues, lowest temp in the morning since I had the fault was +2 celsius. I've only noticed that it idles at around 850 900 rpm instead if 750 but other than that everything seems to be fine. Thanks for the tip, I will first of all get some guides on how to change he glow plug. Should I change all of them or only the faulty one? Do they have a lifespan? How many does a fiesta 1.4 diesel have?

[isetta]

four glow plugs. one for each cylinder. can't really advise on whether you should change all four. I think access is tricky so once you have gained access it might make sense to do all of them. but then if one that has not failed snaps off you will be kicking yourself. 

Have you cleared the code, did the warning light come back on and code reappear?

as I said above ' I do not know if your problem relates to a glowplug itself or the switching circuit that controls when the glowplugs are on / off'   best to see if you can find this out for definite before buying parts / getting tools out

[Luke4efc]

On 08/11/2017 at 12:47 PM, CristianG said:

It must be that I'm on mobile and it does not show up. On topic - can anyone confirm that this is the case - a fault can clear itself if it doesn't occur in a certain amount of time? Mine is still there, unfortunately.

Thanks!

You only get so long to edit a post. Usually located next to the quote button.

[Umesh Raj]

Hi all,

I am also facing the same issue with my ford fiesta diesel variant.Can any one help on this  

I have attached a video link here.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wtbWfy0NObxvZ_Pvb9xoDXIyBrIr2SXq/view?usp=sharing