bl**dy fords.

One day a 12-year old boy was walking down the street when a car pulled up beside him and the window was wound down.

"I'll give you a bag of lollies if you get in the car", said the male driver.
"No way, get stuffed", replied the boy.

How about a bag of lollies and £10?" asked the driver?
"No way", replied the irritated youngster.

"What about a bag of lollies and FIFTY QUID, eh"? Quizzed the driver, still rolling slowly to keep up with the walking boy.
"No, I'm not getting in the fricken car!" answered the boy

"OK, I know what you want; I'll give you £100 and a bag of lollies", the driver offered.
"NO," screamed the boy.

"What will it take to get you into the car"? Asked the driver with a long sigh.
The boy replied, "Listen Dad, you bought the Focus, you live with it!"

:D
 
whitewash said:
never heard that one before tbh!
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You've never heard about power spikes killing the microprocessors within control modules?

You can safely jump them, but not many people bother to learn to do it correctly.

It's always safest to connect the slave to the vehicle and allow it to charge for 10 mins before trying to start it....if there is no time to wait for that, turn on the headlights, any power spikes will usually be absorbed by the bulbs....a couple of Halogen bulbs are cheaper than an ECM :lol:
 
digitalfailure said:
You've never heard about power spikes killing the microprocessors within control modules?

You can safely jump them, but not many people bother to learn to do it correctly.

It's always safest to connect the slave to the vehicle and allow it to charge for 10 mins before trying to start it....if there is no time to wait for that, turn on the headlights, any power spikes will usually be absorbed by the bulbs....a couple of Halogen bulbs are cheaper than an ECM :lol:
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I hadn't heard that one neither.
If your only jump starting off another 12V battery, why would you get a power spike?
 
As you remove the leads a power surge is induced.

Loads of stuff on the web about it if you google jump start + power surge

:D

They'll expain it better than I can.........:D
 
Steep said:
One day a 12-year old boy was walking down the street when a car pulled up beside him and the window was wound down.

"I'll give you a bag of lollies if you get in the car", said the male driver.
"No way, get stuffed", replied the boy.

How about a bag of lollies and £10?" asked the driver?
"No way", replied the irritated youngster.

"What about a bag of lollies and FIFTY QUID, eh"? Quizzed the driver, still rolling slowly to keep up with the walking boy.
"No, I'm not getting in the fricken car!" answered the boy

"OK, I know what you want; I'll give you £100 and a bag of lollies", the driver offered.
"NO," screamed the boy.

"What will it take to get you into the car"? Asked the driver with a long sigh.
The boy replied, "Listen Dad, you bought the Focus, you live with it!"

:D
Click to expand...

:clap: :lol::lol::lol: Very good!!
 
yup. always let the car with good battery put something in to the flat one before you start.have the good car running so you dont drain its battery too.
my lads car aint going yet.:'(. if it had been a bloody old landrover, i,d of had it sorted by now, bloody modern electronics.
a proper mechanic is coming out tuesday. as opposed to his mate (the idiot) who reckons the fuel pump is going, and its only fueling two injectors.
the original fault was stauling at slow speeds on VERY slow corners or when dipping the clutch to stop.. hes also changed the crank sensor, cos someone told him to change the cam sensor, and he misunderstood. pillock.. :eek: fired yesterday morning , then died.
would reseting the fault codes sort anything?. did that after changing the crank sensor, and it ran better.
already had a fuel filter.
 
i once threw a conrod on an old 550 honda. missed a gear and over reved it, a touch.straight out the front of the engine. oil all over, and me on my arse. b****r.
bent the conrod and shattered the piston. just a few lumps of it hanging on to the pin. most of it in the sump, or on the road. oops.
 
The crank sensor needs to be set up in relation to the flywheel, if the air gap is too big then the engine will run poorly or fail to start.

Cam sensor is fit and forget.

Fault codes don't need to be wiped post repair, but it's best practice to wipe them, old codes will be overwritten if the ECM carries out enough self checks / drive cycles

Has the car been checked for fault codes?
incorrect diagnostics on a common rail system will enter your wallet quicker than a greedy whore in Amsterdam!
 
digitalfailure said:
As you remove the leads a power surge is induced.

Loads of stuff on the web about it if you google jump start + power surge

:D

They'll expain it better than I can.........:D
Click to expand...

Googled and learnt another tip, negative cable to a ground point on the engine not the battery on the "dead" car.
In 27 years of motoring I've never known anyone to do this. Everyone, I've encountered, jump starting a car has placed the clamp direct onto the negative terminal.
Alot of modern cars apparently have terminals away from the battery for jump starting. I'll have to check this out when I get my new Mondeo. But hopefully never need it.

inaneredstripe said:
i once threw a conrod on an old 550 honda. missed a gear and over reved it, a touch.straight out the front of the engine. oil all over, and me on my arse. b****r.
bent the conrod and shattered the piston. just a few lumps of it hanging on to the pin. most of it in the sump, or on the road. oops.
Click to expand...

That's the only cause of throwing a conrod I've ever come across.
I still can't see lack of an air filter causing it and if it was a poorly fitted oil filter, the oil pressure warning light would have come on long before a conrod could have been thrown.
 
Some of our newer Merc vans have the battery underneath the van itself, completely inaccessible. To charge or jump start you connect the negative clamp to the chassis and the other to a special positive terminal mounted in the engine compartment.
 
transit has had it's bettery underneath the drivers seat since 2000 and a jump point in the engine bay.

New mondeo, s-max and galaxy have a negertive point as the neg on the battery is not accessible.
 
nilagin said:
Googled and learnt another tip, negative cable to a ground point on the engine not the battery on the "dead" car.
In 27 years of motoring I've never known anyone to do this. Everyone, I've encountered, jump starting a car has placed the clamp direct onto the negative terminal.
Alot of modern cars apparently have terminals away from the battery for jump starting. I'll have to check this out when I get my new Mondeo. But hopefully never need it.



That's the only cause of throwing a conrod I've ever come across.
I still can't see lack of an air filter causing it and if it was a poorly fitted oil filter, the oil pressure warning light would have come on long before a conrod could have been thrown.
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I shall assume you missed my post stating I may well have given the information incorrectly not being proficient in this stuff...

For the record I hadn't changed from 5th gear in a while and was doing a steady 70mph on the m40 when it happened.
 
Thats the odd thing with the internal combustion engine, sometimes terminal failure of a component can happen a good while after the causal event.

The con rod could have been fractured some time earlier and finally gave way during a period of continued high rotational speed.
Looking at the failed component under a microscope usually proves the point as you see the beach marks as the fracture progresses through the material.
 
Just spotted this and must agree with the comments about the main agents, My 15 month old mondeo had a minor electrical fault, made worse ie more functions not working post fix. when I spoke with ford customer service they said that the car was too old to fix (by that time 18 months old) not bad a £20k car with 15k on the clock is too old to be fixed. cost over £1k per month to own.:'(
now a further 3 months later and a treat of legal action its been repaired:)
 
inaneredstripe said:
and the egr valve is rattling. a common one on a lot of diesels apparently.
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Yep, had mine go twice on the focus, one at 50k and the other at 70k.
Not nice when they go as all power dissapears leaving you to drift onto the hard shoulder :'(
AA man fixed it first time with a well aimed clout from a lump hammer to get me going to a garage :eek::lol:
 
inaneredstripe said:
... he's also changed the crank sensor, cos someone told him to change the cam sensor, and he misunderstood. pillock.. :eek:
fired yesterday morning, then died.
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seems a trifle harsh - I'd have thought a warning would have been enough!
 
A good end to this :thumbs:
lets hope the AA man has done a good job and not just cleared the codes, a defective battery should have been easy to diagnose....and if it was cranking over I'd ve wary of that being the cause.
The EGR valve, yes it's possible to cause a non start but it'll not fix itself and will have symptoms such as power loss or excess smoke. It's also not a nice job on a 1.8 tdci focus!!

Graham P C

What exactly was the complaint, UK Mondeo has 3yr /60000 warranty, but 2nd and 3rd year are extra cover and various items such as trim,suspension,clutches, bulbs etc are removed as they are deemed wear and tear. If the fault was on a system that has no service attention it should have been covered under warranty anyway. :shrug:
 
Jelster said:
I have really lost faith with just about all main dealers, I even the hear appalling stories from "top marque" dealers too.

Steve
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They are and I love them all. ;) Thats why we are so busy repairing all the customers cars that they upset.
I would say to anyone, seek out a local independent specialist who are usually ex dealer trained but care about your custom. They are usually a lot less labour rate also. We are less than half the hourly labour rate of the local BMW and Mercedes dealers.
So long may they continue to supply us with more customers. :D
 
The original problem was with the global opening and closing of the windows, after first attempt to repair (changed the GEM module) seat belt warning lights failed alarm not working properly and numours othe minor functions not working, a different one after each trip to the dealer (on average once a fortnight for 6 months). This is why i contacted FORD, who spoke to the dealer and then because the dealer said they could not fix it came up with the statement that the car was too old to fix. The fix finaly was to load the correct software for the model of car, they had been loading the wrong version!!!!
 
car configuration is a bit of a nightmare, but I can't understand why they didn't spot the problem :( must just be a really silly tech. If they'd have requested a visit from a field engineer it would have been sorted.

Still confused about the too old bit though, after reading your post it's clear that the original concern was a warranty concern and subsequent repairs were the dealerships problem. Sometimes FMC are stuck in the middle with dealers who don't ask for help and then give inaccurate info to the poor sod in CRC who have to liase with the customer. :(
 
Sorry to hear this m8

the EGR valve is part of the inlet manifold and it has a scheduled labor time of either 2.1 or 2.3 hours depending on the engine having an EGR cooler.

Make sure it's diagnosed correctly......this ones going to hurt :runaway:
 
Ford Dealers are generally regarded as useless...good cars though - I've only ever owned Fords and despite looking (very) hard at a BMW 335i M-Sport Coupe this year, I've opted for a new Ford for when I get back from Iraq...

A Ford Mustang GT 4.8 V8... :D
 
any other focus owners out there have trouble with water ingress?
when i park my car at certain angles when it rains, i find a puddle has formed in the passenger footwell. it appears to be coming from behind the dash on the tunnel side...

any ideas? :shrug:
 
StuntMonkey said:
any other focus owners out there have trouble with water ingress?
when i park my car at certain angles when it rains, i find a puddle has formed in the passenger footwell. it appears to be coming from behind the dash on the tunnel side...

any ideas? :shrug:
Click to expand...

very common problem with early Galaxies, area below screen drain point used to get blocked and water would rise into the air intakes of the heating/aircon system
 
StuntMonkey said:
any other focus owners out there have trouble with water ingress?
when i park my car at certain angles when it rains, i find a puddle has formed in the passenger footwell. it appears to be coming from behind the dash on the tunnel side...

any ideas? :shrug:
Click to expand...


Pollen filter housing would be my first point of inspection.

Water gets in off the screen and finds it's way in to the heater box and then drips out of the heater.

Go I get a cookie if i'm right?
 
digitalfailure said:
Go I get a cookie if i'm right?
Click to expand...

:lol: yeah, why not.

just gotta get it up on the ramp one nite and have a look.

god bless my friendly local garage and them not minding me using the premises. came in especially handy yesterday when i filled up with unleaded... in my TDCI :gag: saved me nearly £1000 though i did end up spending £100 on fuel yesterday:lol:
 
I would suggest

take 1 watering can full of fresh tap water

pour the contents of the can over the N/S half of the screen in a slow and controlled manner stopping every so often to check for drips.

remove the N/S half of the scuttle panel (black trim below the screen) and repeat

Mop water out of car

Locate and purchase modified Pollen filter housing and sealing strip

Drill small hole in scuttle panel to allow water from future soakings to drain off in a different position away from the pollen filter.

Relax and harvest mushrooms from the damp interior
 
:razz:

top advice. didnt realised they had modified the filter since...
are you a mechanic per chance?
 
b***dy ford. if theyd build em right in the first palce, they wouldnt have to modify em ever ten mins.
my lads car is now running better than it ever has.
cause of problem. four badly scorched wires running across the bulkhead, and several crap mechanics.:shrug:
 
StuntMonkey said:
:razz:
are you a mechanic per chance?
Click to expand...

I clean the toilets in a predominantly Oval environment.

PM me the Reg or VIN and I'll let you know some further info

inaneredstripe said:
b***dy ford. if they'd build em right in the first place, they wouldn't have to modify em ever ten mins.
Click to expand...

It's called a policy of continuous improvement by the people in power. But to others it's just putting right the results of penny pinching.
 
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