rondetto

My car's engine oil light has come on, I checked the oil and it's full. Any idea why the light is on? It had a full service 2 weeks ago.

boost monster

The oil pressure switch could be faulty. I’ve had it happen before.

rondetto

Thanks for the quick reply, does that mean I have to take it to the garage where they did the service, and is it urgent?

Caddyshack

I would always treat the oil earning light as very serious, if the pressure really is low the oil pump could be faulty and damage happening. Get it checked asap

RichieST

iTrader: (2)

Is it your fairly new b max? I would not drive it, contact the dealer straight away. It could be a faulty switch or something, but if it does have no oil pressure then it's good bye engine.

rondetto

ok Thanks

RichieST

iTrader: (2)

Another thought, does the oil symbol have a wavy line under it? If so that is a warning of oil contaminated with diesel, usually caused by too many interrupted dpf regens.

rondetto

oddly enough I've just nipped out and now the oil light is off.

DavidK

I had this happen decades ago on my TR6, again, just after a service. It turned out that when changing the oil filter, the garage had left a sealing washer inside the filter. Needless to say, it was washed by the oil flow towards the nearest obstruction, which was the distributor junction, where it lodged, blocking the oil flow downstream.
The oil pressure gauge take-off was upstream of the blockage, and so read normal. But the oil pressure light take off was after the blockage, and so the light remained on. Stupidly, I assumed that the light was faulty, and that all was well. Expensive mistake . . .

rondetto

The warning light came back on today so. So rang the garage up this morning and they told me to go down there straight away.
They say it's nothing serious but they need the car in for a day, tomorrow. Because it's diesel they say the exhaust gets soot in it if you don't do any long journeys. Recently we haven't been anywhere so I guess that's why. Something about doing a DPF on it whatever that means.

Fjaimo10

Diesel particulate filter blocked
Its like a catalitic convertor for a diesel
Needs to be cleaned will do its self unless too many short journeys

rondetto

Thanks for that explanation.

Caddyshack

Often a regular good blast sorts it, many cars regenerate once they are fully hot and have been travelling over 50mph for x length of time, I think my Rangie does it after 15 mins at 50 if needed...it burns off the soot.

rondetto

Caddyshack you may have hit the nail on the head there. I usually do a few long runs a couple of times a month but for the past several weeks my wife has been ill and all I've done is back and to, to the supermarket. I don't think I've done more than 5 miles at a time for a few months. I probably should take it up and down the dual carriageway and put metal to the pedal a few times.

GVK.

We discussed this a while back when you posted about your fans being on.https://passionford.com/forum/genera...-on-b-max.html

It's really important not to do too many short journeys in vehicles equipped with DPFs as the soot build up will cause the exhaust to be blocked and if you're not doing long or far enough trips to allow the regeneration (self cleaning)to take place.

Salesmen never tell new car customers how important this is either, you're better off buying a petrol engined car!

nick46

No need to thrash it. Not sure how it works on Fords but for BMW's you just need to have the engine at full operating temperature and once you get above 38mph the dpf regen will begin. Then you just need to keep it above 38mph for a 20mins or so to let it complete the cycle. All this happens without you even knowing. Again, not sure about Fords but BMW's will also do some kind of regen during short journeys. I think it might be called a passive regen. Dont think it's as good as a full proper regen though. I think my 330d was in the middle of one when I got home from work yesterday which is just a short trip across town. The tell tell sign was that when I got home, the fan kicked in when I switched the engine off suggesting the temperature had been increased to perform the regen. No problem though as I'm off on a long drive tomorrow, so the full regen will then complete.
Some things that will prevent a regen from happening (again this is for BMW but may be similar with Fords), is a failed thermostat preventing the engine from reaching the required temperature. Also faults with glow plugs and/or the controller will prevent a regen from happening.

The whole regen process might be completely different on a Ford but at least it gives you an idea of what happens.

RichieST

iTrader: (2)

Fords will do a passive and an active regen, where a passive regen is the dpf cleaning out just by normal use of the car at steady higher speeds, an active regen is where it is injecting more fuel into the dpf system to raise its temperature to burn off the particulates artificially as it were.

I have 2 fords with the same 2.0 tdci engine, my cmax in the 3 years I have had it I have never noticed it doing a regen, my focus on the other hand does it quite noticeably, usually around once a month or so.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Funnily enough I did a static regen on my mk4 2.2tdci mondeo at the weekend gone. I must do about 12 mile a dad going to and from work. Its 90% dual carriage way. I noticed at least twice a week when I slowed down for the roundabout and booted it. There would be a puff of smoke out the back.

So yeh I did the regen with a computer on my drive. I don't know if it's just me but the car feels like it's got a bit more power/performance back????

rondetto

They've had my car in all day today and not sure whether they just cleaned the filter or changed it. But hopefully all is well now, they did tell me to try and open it out once or twice a month for about 20 minutes. I wish I'd known all this before I bought this damn diesell car, the price of diesel has been going sky high every day this week.

rondetto

It's like a Formua one car now, much zippier than it was.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Its mad isn't it. I think we don't realise that our cars are getting slower cause the dpf.s are slowly getting blocked up.

rondetto

It's taught me a lesson Glenn, I'm going to have to give it a good run now and then rather go through this again. Thanks for your help.

rondetto

Apologies for bringing this up again but it's been a month now since they cleaned the dpf and the car was going great until today. The oil warning light is back on. Since you guys told me, I have once a week done a 30 mile journey to keep the filter soot free. There's something not right so will ring up the Ford dealer again tomorrow morning. In the past two months it had a full service then 3 weeks later it was in for a day to clean the filter.

RichieST

iTrader: (2)

Is it an oil can with a wavy line under it, or just an oil can?

rondetto

Just the oil can Richie

rondetto

I have rang the garage and they've booked it in for Thursday. I told them this would be the third time they've had it in and each time they said it was the dpf they cleaned. I don't think it is though, because it's only been 6 weeks since last time and I have been doing a fair bit of mileage since.

rondetto

Update: Right they had my car in all day yesterday. Finally I picked it up and asked what they had found. Th ey said that the oil was full to the top which made the oil warning light come on.
Well, they did the service so whoever filled it up did something wrong.

cossynut2

Reading this thread I am so glad my new daily is a petrol ecoboost engine !!

rondetto

Don't blame you, I'll never have another diesel car. When I bought this, diesel was 10p a litre cheaper than petrol anyway. I can't understand why it's so much dearer now.

RichieST

iTrader: (2)

It is because the government like to brainwash the public into thinking diesel is bad. They raise the cost of driving them, so people are more inclined to line their purses by buying new electric / hybrid cars.

Once everyone is driving these, I know what will happen. The government will say the production of lithium batteries is bad for the environment, there is not an endless supply of lithium etc etc so prices will rise massively. Then I bet we will be back to super efficient diesel engines, thus paying more VAT buying new cars again!

nick46

I dont know how long you've had your car, but as far as I'm aware diesel has been more expensive than petrol for about the last 15 years, maybe even 20 (its definitely been a bloody long time). At least it has been down here in the south west.
And yep as soon as everyone jumps on the electric band wagon they will then be seen as bad and hammered for tax.
Give me tractor power any day!

luke19790_3

Guy at work had a 2014 1.0 focus estate, car spent more time broken then working😂 I feel sorry for person who had it after him because it would of been super low mileage😆

modern fords are over priced

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

You get good and bad cars with every manufacturer..I also think VW are dear for what they are. I dont see the fascination with VW they look boring as fooook to me.