Slightly off topic a bit but while there is some experts posting here wouldn't mind there opinion.
I have a 12 reg C max that has been running fine for a year, however last week it started juddering a bit and the engine warning light came on.
Now the AA came out and did a diagnostic check which came up with an injector 4 problem as follows... We have recovered your vehicle.Patrol found the following fault code/s:System : Engine control 1 - 9FA / Diesel CR/EDC SID 807P126400 - Injector cylinder 4. Error Message : Malfunction.P013513 - Oxygen sensor heating. Error Message : Short to ground.U041800 - CAN communication with ABS/ESP control units. Error Message : Signal faulty.
After taking it to my local garage who i used for years and trust checked it all out and confirmed there was an issue with the injector and needed replacing while sorting the problem he came across an issue where at some point the lambda sensor (oxygen sensor) has been disconnected completely from the main wiring loom and the ecu has been re programed to ignore it.
After fixing the injector the car now sounds really bad when idling and revving up to about 1500-1600 rpm (a bad knocking sound, he said in the old days they called it a diesel knock) after this its not so bad the car runs fine as such and gets slightly better as it gets warm. there is no loss in power while driving it but it just sounds rough
Ive been advised that really only ford can now really look into it further as it needs the sensor re connected and the ecu but back to its factory settings ( problem is they have cut the wire somewhere along the wiring loom that connect to the oxygen sensor block) so I'm thinking and he can get his head round why would someone do this? the car does not bring up any fault codes now even though it has the problems mentioned. Could this have been done to try and bypass any dpf filter issues?
Does anyone have an idea on what could be going on? just dont understand why this would be done on a newish car with not that big of milage
The car has done 51k
any input would be great before i book it into fords.
just to add the car has been on 2 different diagnostics machines and neither have brought up any more fault codes after sorting the injector out, and the car as fine before the breakdown could there have been any other damaged caused over time with the sensor disconnected. My garage and the garage that did the injector are completely baffled.
I would take the car to Ford and get them to put it on their diagnostic machine to identify the fault and sort the lambda sensor out. Depending on their mechanic skills they may want to just replace the engine wiring harness, but they should be encouraged to find the source of the cut wire and reconnect it. You may be able to find a Ford specialist garage near you with a good reputation. (We have a Citroen/Peugeot specialist near us and they are quality. Our local Evans Halshaw Citroen workshop is one to stay away from).
Ford will also reprogram the ecu with their current standard program.
The reasons why someone has reprogrammed the lambda sensor out of the ecu is purely conjecture. One of the main reasons to remove the sensor and reprogram the ecu is to de-cat the exhaust. At one time removing the cat was an easy way to gain more power. You maybe able to find contact details of the vehicles previous owner on your logbook and ask him if he can shed any light on it. I doubt he would admit to knowing anything even if he did.)
The lambda sensor measures the amount of oxygen in the exhaust gas and adjusts the amount of fuel accordingly. So this could well be the reason why the engine is running rough. Its either running too lean or too rich. Could this cause injector failure? Possibly.
I believe that that replacement injector also needs to be calibrated in.
There a lot of unscrupulous diesel engine tuners out there that don't know what they are doing. They don't know anything about manipulating the ECU program code. So they buy a program to order from a third party ('hackers' that could be based anywhere in the world) and all they do is flash that new program into the ECU. (I can order a program for my Citroen Xsara 90 hp engine to bring it up to roughly 110hp without any vehicle modifications. Its called a Stage 1 remap. I buy it and they email it to me. As long as I have a laptop with the correct cables and program I can do it at home. I have no clue what I'm getting, I just have to accept that I getting what they say I'm getting.)
Not all local garages are equipped to fully diagnose ecu faults. In my old motor trader days with Citroen OBD diagnostics was a hot potato. Legislation was telling the motor industry that OBD ports were to be "often to the public," (competition legislation, ie. Britsh Gas, Royal Mail etc.) where the manufacturers wanted them "sealed" so only their diagnostic computers could identify faults. The other issue was that manufacturers are responsible for vehicle emissions for the vehicles they sell so need to be tamper proof. (EU legislation wanted their cake and eat it to.)
So manufacturers came out with a 2 tier ecu program. Most cheap over the counter fault code readers could diagnose the basic level of faults such as MAP sensor issues etc. but couldn't read 2 level diagnostics. I think this is still much the same these days.
My gut feel is that the lambda sensor hasn't been programmed out because it was faulty, but rather because of engine tuning. What you might find is that the cat needs replacing. (MOT inspectors do a visual check to see if its there but don't do an emissions check. So the trick is to cut the pipe, remove the cat contents and weld the pipe back on. So it looks like it has a cat on visual inspection. Up till a couple of years ago a catalytic convertor wasn't part of the MOT test and guys just used to replace the cat with a 'straight through' exhaust pipe. Now it is and MOT inspectors need to see its there. )
You might also find that the dpf filter has also had its guts removed. So this could be an expensive repair in the worst case scenario. Sorry!
That ESP fault also needs investigation as its linked to the ABS braking system.
My experience was that the AA were really good trouble shooters. When recovering a car to our workshops we found that their diagnostic skills were right 90% of the time. In fact often the mechanic assigned to the car would ask the AA what the problem was and what was needed to fix it.
