C-Max Owners Club banner

AA to the rescue... I think! [Not! know!]

3569 Views 18 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  lazyb
OH takes the little one to school this morning and all is well... until she tries to get home!
Limped out in my "new" runaround to rescue/see what was happening as the AA seemed to be scratching heads.

What was happening was the car would start, but only just, with very low revs and would just stall and die.
This would happen every time you tried this. Now the AA chap seemed to be second guessing but did not see if any error codes were produced.
After one hour it was towed to a local garage in town with a suspected fuel pump problem.
Just a shame I could not get to Southampton.

Now I know it is not a empty tank issue (60% full of V-power diesel)or even the wrong fuel, but it does seem to be the fuel pump or even (I hope) a blocked fuel filter.
Either way, I'll know tomorrow.Edited by: lawe
1 - 19 of 19 Posts
3
Well update 1:

Garage finally looked at it and so far, from what I am told, the fuel tank is off and would seem that either there is no power going to the fuel pump, fuel pump cut switch defectiveor the pump is how shall we say
!
Told that they will need to contact Ford for diagrams in the morning and only if they let them have them

I did offer the use of the TIS to aid the recovery of the car but will have to see. I did forget to see what fault codes were produced.
I so wish I could get the car towed to Southampton, I'm sure it would of been repaired by now.
Oh well, into day 2 she goes....

MJ, now I know how you feel
See less See more
I would not wish my luck on enyone. I hope you get it sorted soon. If not we can meet up and seewhat goes further under water a diesal or a petrol. Mickey knows of a good lake.
Not a problem, as long as we have had several large barrels full of beer first!
There are several places to get plenty of barrels not too far from the best lake
.
See less See more
Thats not fair guys I dont drink. I guess that means if we ever did decide the river was an option you nowhave a designated driver enyone got a snorkel and a mask.
A lot of fuel injected cars have an inertiasensor that cuts the supply to the fuel pump in the event of coming to a stop in a very short time (crash). The times I've heard of them they are often on the passenger footwell and should only require just resetting to allow power to the pump again

As to the river. If it's any of the ones I'm thinking of I'm not sure I'd voluntarily go for a swim in them
Richard G said:
A lot of fuel injected cars have an inertiasensor that cuts the supply to the fuel pump in the event of coming to a stop in a very short time (crash). The times I've heard of them they are often on the passenger footwell and should only require just resetting to allow power to the pump again
This, and many other thoughts, went through my head.
As to what is happening................
Yep, they are still waiting!
At least they are not charging labour by the day! So this will go into next week. At least I am on night shift and my "new" runaround will earn her keep.
See less See more
2
Just a small update, seeing as I'm nights and all that!

They phoned yesterday and just as we thought, the fuel pump has died.
They tested it and it as powerful as a dribbling nose!
Now I did not speak to them as my OH did all the talking while I snored the day away
I hope to speak to them properly on Thursday for a update as the pump will take about two days to come.
As for the bill... well I'm off to Gordon Brown see if he will buy me out as well for a couple of billion
See less See more
2
ouch that sounds expensive
can you find out what the cause was. May help us 2.0 tdci boys out .... or maybe you never did change that diesel filter
See less See more
6
Well another update and still not good news....

OK, Had a nice long message on the mobile (the joys of working night shifts!) and what they have found is that during the model year, mine being a 54 plate, they made a mod.
Basically, they removed the intank low pressure fuel pump and left the vac pump on the cyclinder head to do the work.
So not only do I have the liquid DPF but also another fuel pump!
They did find some metal filings in the filter housing which, as said, indicates the fuel pump failure.

Now for bullies bonus!
Today, they had her running but have now found leaking injector or injectors

They are trying to see if it is a seal or "something" else. Now here's the best bit... if the injectors are removed they will then need to be reprogrammed at Ford

(How I wish I could of got the car to Southampton) I cannot blame the garage as they are keeping me upto date and seem to be doing a good job but by the sound of the chap, he to is unhappy with Ford

They have unplugged the battery and leaving her overnight to see if this may reset the injector/s and perhaps it may just be a seal (please let it be!)

If anything, this will give some insight to the owners of 2.0 TDCI of this age range and will only help the learning pot to grow more.

Let's hope the next post I make will be one of joys of driving her with a lighter wallet
See less See more
I wonder how if they found leaking injectors that you weren't get a smell of disel

i'm not sure about injector seal. it sounds as though they could go anyway given the environment they are in

I always thought that injectors were just a check valve kept closed by a spring and opened by a solenoid that is controlled by the ECU and the programme within. I haven't heard of them needing re-programming especially by the vehicle manufacturer rather than the injector manuf (like Bosch). have you got a local diesel specialist that might be able to give you an un-biased reason why
Dont know how helpful i`ll be with this idea but just a guess feel free to shoot me down in flames
When i began using the diagnostics on cars i had a galaxy and this had various modules that controlled anything from central locking to climate. I could see each of these modules seperately including the engine module or ecu. When i run diagnostics on my cmax i see one controller which is the ecu i cant read any other modules just this one. Have ford cut all controllers except for the ecu which may now control everything. Having said all of that i dont remember seeing wires to the injectors only the diesel pipe,surely wires would be present if the injectors were smart enough to be able to control injection timings and such.
See less See more
According to the TIS disc
each of the injectors the fuel rail pressure sensor and the fuel temperature sensor have two connections to the Powertrain control module

I presume there must also be a feed between the PCM and the battery junction box where the fuel heater relay is
2
Evening!
Had a chat the the garage this evening as they had left a message (more of that in a mo!).
What they have done is that in order to test the pump, they by-passed the ECU.
Now that all the test was done and the Injector problem sorted, yep a dodgy seal, the ECU now needs to be reset. Yep it has gone into "safe" mode and shut down until it is told that the repairs are done. So that explains the reset the injectors issue.

Now for the message on the phone... Our local dealer will be able to slot the car in to have the reset done next THURSDAY
I didn't need to be cross, the chap at the garage said it all!
However, he has phoned around a few of his contacts and it is now booked in on Tuesday, at a dealer in Farnborough, and he is calling a couple of favours for the job!
So, as you can guess,my cheap runabout is now being pressed into service even more than I thought while she is a angel, I do miss the heated seats
See less See more
At least even if they haven't fixed it they should have identified it which is "less bad" that some of the problems that have been happening
4
Let this be the final update.......................

IT'S BACK


Ok, so what the final outcome
Well after a long chat and reading the service sheet, it goes like this:
They removed the fuel tank to get the fuel pump. Not there.
What Ford did say was that during the middle run of this car and after faults with this part, they stopped fitting the car with this pump.
They then tested and found that the Diesel lift pump was weak.This was replacedand the car sent to Ford for the ECU to be reset and have the injector seal done.
On arrival, Ford had found Injector number 3 had decided to die as well
.
A new <Kerching> Injector added andECU reset.
Test drive done and they seem happy.
They did find some residue on Injector 1, but they have tested it and no leaks present so they think that was from when the seal on the injector gave way. To be checked next week FOC of course.

Needless to say that I am happy to have the car back now and will be giving the car a personal test run Sunday with a trip to London and back.

I won't tell you the full cost but needless to say that the cost was ALOT!
All work done and parts covered for 12 months.

The garage are superb but owning this Ford has left a sour taste with us.
Basic servicing is ok but any major work that needs to be done should go to a Ford dealer or someone that has access to the Ford computer which of course limits the places that you can goto to and of course the price goes up


So what next?
Well this car will not become a money pit, no matter how nice a ride she is.
Some serious thinking and no heart ruling to be done.

In the mean time, I shall enjoy what I have now.
See less See more
I understand the sentiments but just consider that probably all cars are nowadays going to be much the same with complex computer systems required in order to solve these sorts of problems and thus work required by a manufacturer trained mechanic which along with having the computer access will put the prices up.

Just one of the perils of motoring that there are fewer alternatives to when you need to get to non standard places at non standard times
Hi mate bearing the mileage i bet this is the first real problem and its an unusual one as well stick with it as Richard says most modern cars are the same. Good luck with it.
1 - 19 of 19 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top