paultbott@live.com

Hi All,

I was hoping to find an answer to my Focus 02 1.8 tdci problem before selling it spares or repair!

She has 157k, black and ran really well, comfortably managing 120mile/day commute for the last year, until.....

Just before Christmas started to drop power with Glow Plug light flashing. Turn off, turn on, all fine.

Checked forums and checked Cam position sensor, removed, cleaned, and cleaned elec lead and plug. Seemed to solve the problem. 2 weeks later, started again, so replaced CPS....... NO improvement. Checked forums, possibly the throttle pedal, changed that (2nd hand) NO difference. Checked fault codes on dash 'dtr' nothing.

Struggling to start in the cold, so new battery, started a lot easier, still same GP light/power loss issue.

Then 3 weeks ago, struggled to start, and when it did, knocking from engine and smoking, white smoke. Struggles to rev, as if it is missing and then will rev, but not too well, knocking and smoking very heavily.

Checked forums again, changed fuel filter...NO improvement, checked glow plugs, all seemed okay, (and as the car runs, surely the GP become redundant as soon as the engine starts?)

Symptoms seemed typical of stuck injector. RAC homestart came out, stuck on diagnostic....injector fault. Taken to diesel garage in Aylesbury, diagnostic..... No.2 injector. Quoted £300 to replace and re-code (Why the hell do they need coding.....scam!) BUT, he says, if one inj has gone it is likely at 160k that they will ALL be on way out and pump may follow soon....do I really want to start spending money on the car?

Mmmm'd and Aaaa'd a bit but decided that £300 was worth a go. He then really tries to put me off, so in the end I decide to sort myself, having been told fault, bring the car home, ordered a new injector and changed inj No.2........ NO difference!

Various sites indicated that the replacement inj should work NORMALLY in the engine but that the re-coding allows the ECU to ensure it works at max performance.

Replacing the No.2 injector made NO difference at all, so I changed each inj in turn to see if I had been told the wrong inj...again, no difference in symptoms.

So now what?

The car is worth about £1200 running well. I reckon I could get £400 Spares or repair on ebay, (it has T&T, SH, 4 new tyres, new battery, top stereo etc) and I can see me throwing £100s at it blindly trying to correct this fault, new IMV, new pump, whatever it may be.

(And I was looking to get a newer car anyway.)

So, anything cheap and simple that I can try? Or can someone say, hand on heart that they know exactly what the problem is?

Thanks for your help.

Paul

uruk hai

Very hard to say what the problem is exactly but have you given any thought to changing the crankshaft sensor and have you actualy changed the glow plugs as they can cause problems if they are on the way out ? On a car of that mileage I would have expected them to have been changed at least once and although the car should run without the injectors being coded I wouldn't under estimate the difference it may make ?

It really could be several things so I wish you luck

GVK.

Did the garage do proper leak off and fuel pressure tests or just a diagnostic scan on the ECU?

Sounds like the Focus TDCI I recently worked on, with the above symptoms. It needed 3 injectors.
Customer didn't want to spend £1100 so car was towed away.


LOTS of info about Delphi TDCI in this thread...

https://passionford.com/forum/ford-m...lp-please.html

paultbott@live.com

Thanks Gents,

If a glow plug had failed, surely the fuel would still ignite under compression? I am getting huge amounts of white smoke which I believe to be unburnt diesel? This suggests either excess fuel, ie a permanently open injector, non combustion of the normal amount of fuel.

I can change the GPs as this is cheap and easy. Curious as to how the Crankshaft sensor would give these symptoms.....but I guess these TDCIs are so bloody complicated that anything seems possible.

Surely three injectors going at once is a symptom of something like a pump failure?

Anyway,

Thanks for your advice. Will let you know how it goes.

Paul

GVK.

As above, it needs proper diagnosis, please read the thread I linked to above.

sparkyaka

cam belt has slipped a little bit needs adjusting

mine had same problem, i also new someone who had same problem with the nocking noise and the cam belt had moved on theirs as well

Rowe

i think he probably sorted it out considering the threads from 4 years ago hahahaha