Hey guys,

I recently bought a 2007 Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi, but it's been trouble ever since I got it. It started with it having trouble under accelerating, it would just shoot a lot of black smoke and soot out of the exhaust, give some really loud knocking noises and when I lifted my foot from the accelerator, the RPMs would go up to about 3000-3500 without any input. Thinking it was a blown intercooler pipe, I checked all of them but to no avail. I then got the fuel filter changed, again to no avail. More recently, it started giving off white smoke instead of black, and now it won't even start - it's cranking, but not firing. I hooked up ForScan to read out the error codes, and there were a bunch of them:

• P0098-61 - Intake Air Temperature Sensor 2 Circuit High Input
• P0238-E1 - Turbo/Super Charger Boost Sensor A Circuit High
• P0087-21 - Fuel Rail/System Pressure - Too low
• P0704-28 - Clutch switch input circuit malfunction
• P1180-21 - Fuel Delivery System - Low
• P0405-22 - EGR Sensor A Circuit Low
• P0113-21 - IAT Sensor Circuit High Input
• P0100-64 - Mass Or Volume Air Flow A Circuit
• P0102-62 - MAF Sensor Circuit Low Input
• B1318-20 - Battery voltage low

However, I think most of them came from having an almost flat battery. P0098 and P0238 are the only ones that stuck around after charging the battery, and the only ones that were there before having an almost flat battery.

My own money would probably be on faulty injectors, but I'd like an second opinion before doing anything about it, as it's quite expensive, as you probably know.

 

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks

Sounds like the turbo to me, black smoke from underboost, plus the oil leaking from the seal will cause the revs to rise on their own - it can totally run away at max rpm but sounds like you were lucky there.

Pop the intake pipe off and see if theres any play in the turbine shaft.

Alright, thanks! I'll try to see if theres any play, but shouldn't it be able to start if it was the turbo?

 

Edit: I've checked the turbo, and there wasn't any play in the turbine shaft, however there was a bit of oil. Is that normal?

I got it started! I tried cleaning the injectors, and it now fires up – but it doesn't sound healthy, however it's better than before. There's also a lot of white smoke coming out of the exhaust at idle, and if I rev it, there's an insane amount of smoke. Furthermore there's white, dense smoke coming from the turbo in the engine bay. Any ideas as to what is causing this, are much appreciated!

Edit - lol, I posted before I saw your reply

A small amount of oil in the turbo is normal from the crank breather.  It should still start as long as the turbo feels fine, even if it has a leaking oil seal.  Unless so much oil got into the cylinder that it hydrolocked - have you checked the oil level?  And the coolant level as well?

Neither low boost or air temp sensor should stop it starting either though so those codes aren't too helpful here.

 

Smoke from the turbo doesn't sound good, is there a leaky join between that and the DPF or has the turbo casing cracked?  Dense white is either massively overfuelling or burning oil, I'd check the oil level before anything else.

 

I checked on it today again, and it's clear when it's light out that it's not white smoke, it's blue smoke coming from the exhaust. Also checked oil and coolant levels, and both were good. Neither of them have mixed either. I also checked the turbo, and I'm not able to see any cracks in the casing, however there is some oil present, looks like it's coming from the oil feed to the turbo. That explains the dense smoke coming from the turbo, however I'm a bit stumped at why it's burning oil all of a sudden

Edit: Forgot to mention that all error codes have cleared after I cleaned the connectors

Alright, I have an update. The reason for running rough and smoke is the fuel pressure fluctuating. Without any throttle input the pressure just tanks suddenly and stabilizes after 5-10 seconds.

 

Any ideas what to look at? Fuel filter has already been changed

Fuel pump?

Also is it possible that whatever crud was on your injectors has been dragged through the fuel system from a nearly empty tank at some point?

Start cheapest or least invasive and work up.

I'd start with redex but then your smoking turbo doesn't sound good...

34 minutes ago, Phil21185 said:

Fuel pump?

Also is it possible that whatever crud was on your injectors has been dragged through the fuel system from a nearly empty tank at some point?

Start cheapest or least invasive and work up.

I'd start with redex but then your smoking turbo doesn't sound good...

Smoke from the turbo has been corrected! Turns out there was a hose that wasn't fitted correctly, causing some oil to get on the turbo and burn off.

Might be some crud as it worked alright for 100km after getting the new filter, I'll try with some redex tomorrow. However I don't think that it's the fuel pump as there's still fuel going to the engine. When it registers a drop in pressure it overcorrects, resulting in a rich air/fuel ratio and giving black smoke. Maybe the sensor that registers fuel pressure? I might be wrong though

Thanks!

No, your logic seems good to me.

Just to update; turns out it was the high pressure fuel sensor, car drives as was it new now. Still got a really small turbo leak somewhere though, and the GEM has a short to ground causing the doors to unlock/lock at random, so not done with it yet.

Happy days though, still!

Thanks for the help