40 days ago i was cruising along and felt a brief loss of power a few times. Over the next few miles heading home it got worse, was flashing EAC FAIL on the dash and i struggled to get the speed up on the 60mph A road.
I limped into the village garage who changed the fuel filter - no joy. I took it into town to get it on to a machine to observe live data. They told me they were getting low pressure from the pump and that it needed replacing - perhaps the injectors too. So, i got a 2nd hand pump, had it fitted elsewhere, new timing belt, new starter motor as that packed up too - no joy, exact same problem (having thought it had been resolved though, the mechanic took it in for its MOT which it sailed through). It then went to another garage to be put on the machine. He then said air flow meter was coming up and throttle position sensor was worth looking at. So, its had a new pedal because that has sensors in it, and its had another air flow meter (MAF Sensor) - no joy, excatly the same! I've disconnected several connections and used contact cleaner - no joy. The mechanic is now scratching his head. All of this has taken over 6 weeks.

It starts up first time no bother at all. The revs are fine when idling, no jumping around, nothing erratic with the revs. There is no pattern to it losing the power, it just does it when i try to accelerate too quickly. It then flashes EAC FAIL on the dash, i come off the power and it stops flashing it, and i could then accelerate IF i do it gingerly - anything heavy footed and there's no power and its off flashing the dreaded words at me again. It NEVER cuts out requiring restarting. The engine management light does not come on at all.

 

The throttle body's on these have a tendency to give up Also I'd check the belt isn't stretched as these are also common hence why its playing up under load

 

My mother's is doing something similar but engine management light comes on aswell

 

Thanks for offering a suggestion, where is the throttle body in the engine? From the air filter housing the first thing you come to is the air flow meter (MAF sensor) then........

 

Directly in front of you the intake pipe goes down thought the inlet to the throttle body, and the body is held in by 4 torx bolts, when you remove that also check the breather behind as they collapse and suffocate the engine

 

same as the 1.25 gingerturbo?

 

So i can just take it off, clean it up - nothing i need to be aware of?

 

Yeh take it off give it a clean you can also take of the cover that shields the gears and carbon strips (potentiometer) but be very careful as you don't want to damage the strips or the brushes

 

Yeh all those zetec types use the same design with looped inlet at the front apose to the proper zetec where the inlets are at the back

 

I found the breather hose split,the one that goes from the front of the block to the throttle body and when I replaced it with a new one the car wouldn't run at all.

 

That's about right, the engine gets so use to adapting to the smaller diameter that once you change it and feed it more air it can't cope they start up then cut out, you normally have to plug a machine into the car to reset the throttle body's parameter back to default

 

Are you getting the EAC FAIL message too?

 

yes mate,goes into limp mode also.

 

The OP has a diesel!

 

Whether or not i understand LIMP MODE is still to be determined but my car isnt restricting itself to a certain speed, neither does it hit a 'rev ceiling' that it will not go beyond. I can get away with carefully accelerating but as soon as i push it too much it flashes EAC FAIL and wont accelerate one bit. I come off the power for a second or two and then i can carefully accelerate again and the EAC FAIL has stopped flashing. I can get away with high revs to a degree, just as long as i don't try to floor it to get them. Also, i got it into town doing up to 60mph so i am not getting restricted to a certain speed either. Again, as soon as i stop being careful with the power it gives me nothing and flashes those horrible words.

 

I think something is being said here, but i don't know what.....

 

That it doesn't have a throttle body. I've seen EAC fail on a fiesta before, new throttle pedal fixed it.

 

Yes, my mechanic said that to me today. In the last six weeks i have heard contradiction after contradiction. Strangely enough eBay has about a dozen throttle bodies all claiming to be suitable for a 1.4 tdci Fiesta. One says it came off a tdci.
Sadly for me, a changed the throttle pedal yesterday - no joy....

 

A diesel engines rpm is governed by how much fuel is added, pressing the throttle merely injects more fuel, whereas a petrol engine relies on the throttle body to open and allow more air in to increase revs.

I might be wrong in saying it doesn't have one as I certainly have never seen a diesel engine with one, but it might just use it as an emissions thing, or maybe even an air shut off valve when the engine is switched off.

 

could of swore it was a petrol lol

 

It's still related to the throttle response whether its a diesel or petrol so if you have changed the pedal then you next step is to look the other end I.e the position sensor on the engine, these still have a throttle body so its worth someone checking the values on live data on a diagnostic machine to make sure its picking up the throttle pedal

 

Is the position sensor not in the pedal that i have replaced though? Also, its been on to observe live data and that resulted in the first garage incorrectly saying i needed to replace the pump. Then the second garage incorrectly saying i need to change the air flow meter

 

Live data is only useful if you know how to read it ortherwise you might aswell get monkeys to diagnose it, there are 2 throttle position sensors one by the pedal and one next to the butterfly on the body

 

100% on the position sensor next to the butterfly? Ebay has pretty much everything but absolutely nothing came up when i spent time looking for it.....for the diesel. I asked at the local garage and he was confused too, thinking it was only the case on the petrol........he then rummaged around in the garage and showed me one which was exactly the same as the only picture i could find on the internet....and it was off a petrol.
Not possibly getting mixed up with the MAP (manifold absolute pressure) sensor?

 

As its a fly by wire setup it needs to have a sender (TPS pedal) and a receiver (TPS butterfly/throttle body) for this setup to work even though there isn't a removable TPS it doesn't mean it doesn't exist it is integrated inside the throttle body itself so you need to have that tested

 

I think you are sending him up the wrong path, the air entering a diesel engine does not need to be measured for it to run. Pressing the throttle just injects more fuel into the cylinders which increases rpm. I've done a bit more reading up on it, a throttle body on a diesel is usually wide open under normal running and only closes partially to raise combustion temperature, this is required to make sure the egr and dpf if fitted works correctly. It will close completely when shutting engine off to act as an air shut off valve in case of run on.

 

Nice one rich I've never stripped a 1.4tdci to see what's inside the throttle body, it still needs some one who can read the values on live data to see if the throttle pedal is actually doing anything as you have probily read that so far everyone has had this fault has replaced the pedal and still got the same fault

 

I think you can both see how this has taken so long....Throttle body or no throttle body? Location of throttle position sensor? There seems to be a lot of contradicting info at times.
The comment there about the air coming in not needing to be measured - what does the air flow meter (mass air flow sensor) do that is attached to the air filter housing? To my (very limited) knowledge this has metal strips inside measuring the air coming in and then sends off that info to somewhere for something does it not?
For the last 6 weeks i have had one local garage, one auto elctrician, another mechanic, a Ford mechanic (on his spare time) and another auto elec look at the car - they all contradict each other at times and i am left not knowing what on earth is wrong and when its ever going to get sorted.

Here are some other things that have been getting a mention on this EAC issue elsewhere on the internet (in no particular order) -

1/ Software update on the PCM/ECU
2/ Unplugging and cleaning up the ECU connections
3/ Wiring Loom (A few posts mentioned some kind of Ford recall years ago)
4/ ECU replacement and reprogrammed obviously (£50 on eBay)
5/ Throttle Position Sensor (but thought this was sorted by changing throttle pedal)

 

The air flow meter will be simply for emission control, it will run quite happily without it.

What I would do is pay for an hours diagnostics at a Ford garage, might cost you £70 but will certainly save you hours of head scratching and wasting money on parts that you don't need.

 

I'd say the same as you can keep on getting ideas and views on this spend loads of money of parts and it could be a simple calibration issue or even a poor signal due to poor loom

 

Sadly these problems are common on Ford tdci engines.
Look on ebay,there's loads of ford tdci cars selling as spares or repairs as the owners have given up on finding the problem.

 

Well, i changed that pedal as i said, took it for a run. no joy. The next day i changed the air flow meter and took it for a run, no joy. The next day i changed the air filter (becuase it just needed it anyway). Took it into the garage to go on the machine again and it was just the same as its ever been. He then left it on the machine all night and said it wasnt come up with anything. He then took it on a run and it was absolutely fine. I have just driven 20 miles home and its been absolutely fine. Nobody did anything. It could just come back the next time i go out and we could be back to square one but at the moment its back to normal. Some have said that it can take time for the ECU to 're-learn' anything new put onto it. Is there any truth in that at all? Maybe the parts i replaced did the job and it took the ECU a day or two, or a few miles to 'get with the program'. That doesnt make any sense to me personally but........