March 2013
We placed a £500 deposit on a ford focus 1.6 tdci studio 59 reg DPF that has 58,000 miles on the clock that is costing 6500
I will be using it to commute back and forth from uni on the weekends that is a roundtrip motorway journey of 140 miles and occasionaly 5-10 miles during the weekdays in the town and estimate about 7000-8000 miles a year.
We found this car and thought it would be a good buy because of the fuel economy (and i personally find diesels a better drive) but from what i may be reading, this might be a trap. It is an ex-company car so it has been fully serviced by ford dealers but nothing has been mentioned about a DPF replacement. I wanted to ask a couple of questions:
1) Is the ford focus a good buy for my type of driving or would it end up costing me more in the long run? Would you suggest an alternative?
2) With the potential DPF problems up ahead, am i heading into a trap with the car i'm buying?
3) Is it worth possibly losing the 500 deposit to look at an alternative option? Would it be possibly to get the 500 deposit back? Read more
The ideal replacement car for my wife would be a VW Golf Automatic but having read so many "horror stories" from owners about the problems encountered with DSG transmissions we decided to locate and drive one ourselves and, yes, there was hesitation then "kangaroo jump" etc. We see that VW has now extended its warranty on DSG in China Autralia and America to 5 years.
So why-... Read more
I have just had a very similar problem with a four year old car with 47000 miles on the clock. Am awaiting a response from VW, please can you tell me what the outcome of your problem was? It may help in my case.
I'm looking for some help in tracking down a weird immobiliser issue on my Focus Mk2 1.6 tdci late-2005.
First attempt to start in the morning always fails - immobiliser led flashes for about 1min then gives code 1:6 "Faulty link between PATS and EEC-V module". Remove key, wait 5 mins, then car starts first time and is (so far) OK for the rest of the day.... Read more
Difficult to read the above post as it is one big block of text !
I suggest you follow the advice above and remove the instrument cluster and either re-solder the connector pins or send it away for repair as this is a well known fault on a Mk2 Focus....
I own a five-year old Mercedes E220cdi, bought from new, and paid extra for Artico (man-made leather) seats. I have done approx. 8k mile p.a. and though I weigh less than 12 stones, the driver’s seat is cracked and disintegrating. I always had the car serviced at the Mercedes dealership and no third party has been involved in any way with the car.
The dealership asked Mercedes whether there was anything they could do, and I have followed this up since with Mercedes Customer Relations, but the car is out of warrantee. Potential buyers should know: the Artico seats won’t last more than the warrantee period, even with very minimal usage. Read more
Looking at this man-made leather discussion from another angle, could it be possible that that having Artico man-made leather available as an option is a marketing policy to pander to the non-meat eating veggies who wouldn't dream of sitting on the skin of a dead animal?
The E class I had was the Executive model and came with the Artico (vinyl) seats as standard. I sold mine with after 50k miles....
Help
Ok on Tuesday I received my long awaited Audi A3 1.6 tdi s-line which for economy reasons was replacing my 2010 Golf GTD.
The audi has been running at around 39 mpg over 400 miles since Tuesday which I am concerned about, this is also with AC off and me driving carefully. I know it's early days but still !
I have had a brand new audi a3 before (1.9 tdi 105ps 2009) which immediately performed amazing on mpg and was noticeably better from the off than my 53 plate 2.0 tdi 140ps
My golf (GTD 2.0 170ps) was averaging around 41-42 mpg on a quoted 50+ combined but the Audi is quoted at 74 combined.
I am going to pop into audi today to get some advice but am concerned at some forums discussing this exact issue with lots of disappointed owners.
What are others finding as I'm feeling I wish I kept my golf at this rate !?!?
Read more
I had an F10 520d and an E91 320d before that. Both got hammered up the motorway and both averaged 46mpg
My car (307HDi 110bhp 2003) had the particle filter changed at 100,000miles, I now have 191,000miles and the "unblock particle filter" and/or "antipollution fault" comes more often. I run it at higher revs to burn it off but getting a clutch smell!
I topped up the eolys fluid 6 months ago but the particle filter might have reached its shelf life providing that the liquid is being injectedand notblocked too. I should have marked the refilled level on the fluid tank at the time.... Read more
I have seen online a few ways of removing a DPF whether they work...
One seems to just remove it, either emtying the content or replace with a stainless steel tube and remap the ecu,...
Just picked up a 51 plate Ford Focus Zetec 1.4 Petrol 90000 miles on clock. I thought it would be a bargain at £300 but the previous owener had clearly neglected it. I am wondering if some of following fault are common.
1;) Checked oil on dipstick which was fine but then on motorway Oil light started flashing butbefore I could pull over stayed on engine starte making a noise and cut out. Now wont start AA Bloke said it was Big end ! ... Read more
Agreed that you should get rid!
I just sold my 1999 1.8 Focus on eBay for spares/repair and got £360 for it, and that was in a dreadful state! ...
I have a ford focus Mk 2 2010, I have noticed water ingress into the boot and a water test has shown it to be from an inadequate roof seal.
Ford will not allow the repair work to be completed under warranty even though manufacurers defecs are covered, see below. I know water damage is not covered, though I do not require any repair due to water damage, only for the manufacturers defect to be rectified.... Read more
We had a similar Focus and the steering wheel leather (which was wafer thin) split and disintegrated. Just holding the steering wheel made your hands go black. After an hour or so they were filthy.
Similarly we had the wear'n'tear versus defective row with the dealer but got nowhere. (We made other warranty claims, mostly electrical, none of which were successful.) ...
Hello all. I took my car to a garage for a diag check - the above code (121 I think) came up. They cleared off the code and the light went off. But as soon as I put the car in reverse WITHOUT touching the throttle, the Engine Management light came back on.
The car drives most of the time ok, but when I start off in 1st gear, the revs sometimes suddenly drop down , making the car lose power and go slow which at times can be dangerous when joining a roundabout etc or in traffic as someone may run into the back or side of me!... Read more
If you do buy a Haynes take it with a LARGE grain of salt. For example their ideas of how to replace the brake light switch beggar belief as they tell you to remove the entire dashboard! WRONG! What one actually does is to remove the steering column nacelle (three Torx head screws). One can then drop the steering column by removing four nuts which are 13 mm AF. A bungee can be useful to hold the steering wheel out of the way. There is an oblong hole above where the steering column used to be. The hole is about 3" x 2" and the switch is inside it. Although the hole has sharp edges the switch can be pulled out by its wires as it simply pushes into a gripper rather like a towel gripper.
As to drive-by-wire systems, just remember that you are dealing with a computer. Now the number one golden rule with computers is RUBBISH IN = RUBBISH OUT. This means that if one has a faulty sensor giving a false signal THE COMPUTER WON'T KNOW!...
We bought a VW Up with9000 miles on the clock a month ago and then went on holiday for 2 weeks. On our return when we started the car we noticed a noise when the clutch was in idling mode. We have asked the garage to rectify this and they tell us it is not detrimental to the car and will not affect its performance. We generally like the car but having traded in a 12 year old Focus with no problem except age, we are disappointed to have this slight rattling noise on the new cars clutch. VW customer service were no more helpful saying they all do it once run in!!
Any ideas would be welcome... Read more
They should follow your method and still be nowhere in four years.
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We had a C-Max 1.6 TDCi and never had a turbo problem. In fact in 5 years of ownership the only part replaced (other than tyres) was the alternator belt that started to crack. I suspect most of the problems are caused by inadequate servicing or cheapo garages using the wrong oil, Ford are very specific about specification but the oil is not expensive.