Can anyone help.
The engine has cut out on my focus twice now, very intermittent, happened in July 07 and Sept.
Brief outline:
Driving along, usually on slowing, ignition light is first to come on, then followed by engine light, then all the cluster lights come on and the power steering fails. I brake, stop the car, (fortunately have not been hit on each occasion!), restart and it fires up ok and carrys on as normal. (I have not noticed the speedo dying as I'm consentrating on stopping the car so not sure if this is a speed sensor prob, as this seems to be common).
On the 2nd occasion, it restarted fine, but when traveling through town, the igintion light came on 3 seperate times, when breaking or slowing, but it went away and hasn't happened since.
First time I took it to ford for a diagnostic but nothing came up. The car idles fine, accelerates fine. The only other v small quirk is that sometimes it won't start up on first turn of the key when the engine is warm (say if I have used car and gone back to use again after 20 mins or so) - but usually starts on the 2nd attempt.
Can anyone help. It's obviously quite dangerous and I know it could be so many things, a mechanic has recommended I use shell petrol instead of Tesco and run a higher octane through the tank once in a while. PLEASE HELP!
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The ignition light flicked on and off on my 2002 1.6 Zetec about a year ago but I ignored it. A short while later with my wife driving on her own, the car came to a sudden stop at the side of the road with everything electrical going haywire and then dead. Fault was a duff alternator which we had to have replaced. Fortunately this happened on a relatively quiet road. If it would have happened on a motorway in the outside lane it could have been very dangerous.
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Hiya - did the car start after it had stopped and carry on unhindered, or was it ocmpletely dead? Can I ask how much the alternator cost to replace?
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I would suspect the speed sensor intermitently failing - the fact the diagnostic didnt pick it up and that it isnt happening all the time means it is working most of the time but it will only get worse. I have had one replaced for about £90 all in (from memory) so its got to be worth doing.
Cheers,
Pad
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Hiya Pad - I've been reading several forums and loads of speed sensors have been mentioned causing similar problems. Can I be nosey, did you have the same things happen, or different?
I realise this could be so many different things, so trying to pin it down before going to the garage again. I figured it's a relatively low cost solution to at least try and it knocks your confidence a little when the car just dies in the middle of the road and you're just hoping you don't get hit.
I had thought about the alternator (lose wire or something) but the battery is good, and everything seems to keep charge etc.
The car has only done 37, 500. I'm reluctant to take it to Ford as they are sometimes unhelpful and on top of the diagnostic last time replaced the passenger skuttle panel as we thought it might be water getting in (which it obviously wasn't).
I'd be grateful if you could let me know what symptoms your focus had.
Thanks
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Sm
That's an oddball effect you've got. Not a typical VSS fault at all.
The battery light is a now direct feed from the engine ECU. It's more of a charge-fault malfunction indicator than anything else and if the ECU has commanded it, then it will have stored a code at the same time.
These "smart" alternators are under direct ECU control and the ECU keeps a close eye on them.
This could be an engine control relay dropping out, a short in the wiring, an over-charge fault, a faulty ECU, or a wayward connexion or earth.
Finding it could be difficult if any code has disappeared before it's read.
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HI SL
Not being car minded, do the codes get wiped after a while, are they not stored, and is this something that would normally get picked up during a diagnostic?
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Sm
Some can be dropped after, say, thirty engine cycles without recurrence. As voltage codes aren't normally very important, they may fall foul of the "tidying" regime. The procedures of the ECU software are permanently closed to all but the writers.
However; these cars are CAN networked, so similar codes may be stored anywhere from the airbag to the parking brake ECU - get the garage to do a global.
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A global diagnostic? Sorry, not sure what a global is.
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Sm
Yes; that it. Instead of linking to only the engine ECU; a global communicates with all responding ECUs on the car - anything up to thirty - and shows which ones have stored codes.
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Thanks SL. I've booked it in to a garage tomorrow, that specialise in disgnosis of electrical problems, fault finding so hopefully they will be able to find the fault.
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Had a similar problem on my Focus 1.8 at 84000 miles. Cut out twice but resolved itself before garage could look at it. Third time fault was traced to electrical cable chaffing on bulkhead causing an electrical short.
David G
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I had this problem on my 2001 1.8 zetec and it was in and out of ford 5 or 6 times but they never cured it. Strange thing was it never did it when the air con was on - not once. No flicker of ignition light or anytyhing but the technicians didn't want to know. Said it couldn't be anything to do with the air con. Ended up trading it in as it was getting so unpredictable and dangerous i didn't want the car anymore
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