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Back in November we bought a 2005 Focus C max 2.0 tdci. Wow I hear you say.
Before I bought it I did my usual research and found lots of cases of this engine losing all power but not logging any fault codes. Ford dont consider it to be a problem even though there are lots of similar cases on the ford forums. Most of the vehicles have still been under warranty and have resulted in new turbos, ecu's, vacuum pumps, throttle bodies and EGR valves. £££ if you are paying for it yourself.
Anyway, today it happened to me in a busy Tesco carpark. The car refused to run above 800 rpm and touching the throttle caused it to stall. Called recovery and got back home, I didnt want it going to Ford...
So by now when it would eventually start there were clouds of grey smoke billowing out of the exhaust. A couple of hours later I started it again, it ran for 10 seconds and died. The pipe from the EGR to the inlet manifold had got hot it that short time, confirming to me that the valve was at fault.
These are an electronically controlled valve not vacuum so I removed the pipe, made a blanking plate out of an exhaust gasket, put it back together so the pipe was now blocked off, started it up and it now runs smoother and more powerful than it ever has.
All the diesel cars I have run had had EGR problems, 306 DT, 106, Surf, Focus 1.8 tddi and now Focus 2.0 tdci. All of them have resulted in me blocking them off.
Moral of the story - EGR is evil, if you own a diesel then block it off.
Before I bought it I did my usual research and found lots of cases of this engine losing all power but not logging any fault codes. Ford dont consider it to be a problem even though there are lots of similar cases on the ford forums. Most of the vehicles have still been under warranty and have resulted in new turbos, ecu's, vacuum pumps, throttle bodies and EGR valves. £££ if you are paying for it yourself.
Anyway, today it happened to me in a busy Tesco carpark. The car refused to run above 800 rpm and touching the throttle caused it to stall. Called recovery and got back home, I didnt want it going to Ford...
So by now when it would eventually start there were clouds of grey smoke billowing out of the exhaust. A couple of hours later I started it again, it ran for 10 seconds and died. The pipe from the EGR to the inlet manifold had got hot it that short time, confirming to me that the valve was at fault.
These are an electronically controlled valve not vacuum so I removed the pipe, made a blanking plate out of an exhaust gasket, put it back together so the pipe was now blocked off, started it up and it now runs smoother and more powerful than it ever has.
All the diesel cars I have run had had EGR problems, 306 DT, 106, Surf, Focus 1.8 tddi and now Focus 2.0 tdci. All of them have resulted in me blocking them off.
Moral of the story - EGR is evil, if you own a diesel then block it off.
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