I drive a Fiesta Van with this 1.4 diesal engine, A PSA derived unit used in many small euro boxes.

Any way over the last 18 months, on and of the ECU engine warning light has been coming on for anything between 1 sec and 1/2 hour, then engine also goes into "limp home mode" Two dealers have had a go without success. The last one , changed the fuel filter having said they saw the problem during an extended test drive, followed by a new alternator as this was over charging . When i questioned the technician he had been given the wrong information by reception and was paddling up the wrong creak. So I went for drive with him for 2 hours with no luck all was fine, he plugged in his lap top and there were no recorded faults in the history. This has always been the case.

So my diagnosis is that the ECU is going into limp home mode of its own accord with no external inputs from sensors etc.

Ford technical , says this would be be virtually unkwon and if the ECU is to be changed it would be at our cost!!!!!!!!! WHAT I SAID !!!!!!!!

So I asked what they intend to do about it then , and the answer has been they don't know, but maybe when it goes ape again maybe I could head to the dealer to get it checked with the problem showing, some chance as I pointed out due to the unpredictable nature of the fault and duration.

SO if you think Honda are bad try Ford, they don't give a fig,

We await another response from Customer support dept, who it seems think i am dreaming in lar lar land

Just thought i would have rant

 

Good luck; a combo of PSA bits and Fraud customer disservice is likely to end in tears. Or a hostage situation.

For years, Pugg made cars that stalled at traffic lights and never fixed the overrun cutoff issue. Grosse connes...

 

Nick , I knew you would be along with some sage comments at some time. carry on

I didnt get a chance to hone them today and insert some lace holes in the apropriate orifice, but tomorrow i am in the desk so watch out FMC. I also have another form of attack in reserve !

 

We had a couple of new Peugeot Bippas at my last job, these would do similar, ecu light then limp, Peugeot had one of them for weeks and could not find the fault, it would appear but not give them a code and reset ok for a while, it was ongoing when I left, so far my 60 plate Bippa has not exhibited these faults yet.

 

God Ford are a joke, today after another frustrating conversation with customer non service , I asked if I could speak to the technical guys and maybe try and explaing the problem to someone with a bit more of and idea technically. Oh yes they said , heres the number it's premium rate number £1 per minute, god to sort out there own problem. Needless to say I am going to find out the normal number the Walsal Office, or does any one know it?

Then it went into limp home mode again , LOL spoke to customer care and they arranged for me to go into Dagenham motors 2 mins away from where i was at the time and meet a technican with laptop to try and find fault. Oh no sir u cant park near workshop, you cant drive into workshop , you cant park in disabled bay, go to reception book in and we will see what we can do. Reception denied any knowledge of communication with Ford and said they would drive van around to workshop it was still running outside, receptionist took it around after about 15 mins and returned to advise that when he drove it no warning light was showing, He said as a favour to me they were still going to plug in and check for fault codes, i pointed out it was no favour to me but but a favour to Ford. 3/4 hour later tech reported no fault codes showing, Well i blew my top.

Drove out , and it did it again went to the original dealer in Romford, phoning them on the way , thier tech was waiting in the car park with lap top , plugged in with warning light flashing, and wow no fault codes showing. Van booked in from Monday for a week with free car for full investigation.

We shall see!!!!!!!!!!!

 

have you tried pulling the connector off the ECU/open up the ECU?

i seem to recall on the older fiesta's ('95 model) that water would get into the loom, run down into the ECU and corrode the ECU pins causing similar issues, without fault codes.
i know there's the 'lemon' law in the US, is there a similar law in the UK? ... if they cant fix it then they give you another one.

 

Do you really think we'd have a similarly strong law over here? Neither do we have the influential Consumer Reports magazine.

There is a very good reason why the clownbrands such as PSA, Rover group, FIAT etc etc got ejected from the USDM.

 

Interesting the technician at Allen Ford who is going to try and sort it next week said his first port of call will be the wring loom around the ECU as he has had problems on other Ford vehicles.

The ECU is mounted in the most ridiculous place just behind the nearside headlight, he even commented on this , and joked that it should be in the passenger compartment , nice and warm and dry. But must admit the problem does not seem to be related to rain etc.

Law in this country is made by to many people with vested interests, to much pillow talk in high places. I often wonder how much Influence Dennis had over Maggie after talking to his chums in the city, coming home pissed and whispering in her ear. Sell the utilities to my chums at knock down prices and they will sell them to the foreign jonnies and make a nice fat profit! and then the poor people can pay through the nose and keep the germans and frenchies bill's down !

Another rant , god i feel old

 

You think it's different anywhere else?

It's been a carve-up between the super elite and state zombies for decades.

Interestingly, since Thatcher's time, the top 1% and the bottom 9% have actually swapped their share of wealth; the rich have got richer and the scum poorer. That's socialism/totalitarianism!

 

A friend of mine has a 2007 VW Passat and his car would do exactly this. Simply replace the word Ford with VW and this would be an identical story.

Apparently it too was water getting into the ECU and corroding the pins - looks like Ford are in good company.

(PS no idea where the ECU is located in a Passat!)