Ford Fiesta Zetec S Engine warning light

[JakeW]

Hi all, I own a Ford Fiesta Zetec S 56 plate, recently I have been getting an engine warning light showing, its happened twice now, when its on it flashes and the screen displays " Please check owners guide" "Engine system fault", the light is amber/orange and the symbol is an exclamation mark (ill try and attach a picture), while the fault is showing I am losing acceleration and power to my car, I pulled over, turned my engine off, waited a couple of minutes then restarted the car, the fault had gone and full power was restored, this happened again the next day as well and went away after turning the car on and off. The car had been started after being left over night in the cold, not appearing after driving for a long distance.

I took it to a garage but their diagnostic machine was not showing any stored faults which was odd.

 

Any advice would be great, my current plan is to take it to an actual ford dealer and get them to check it over and see if their diagnostic machine has better luck.

 

Cheers

Jake

[pragmatix]

Some fault codes clear with the ignition, you need to ge the code read without switching off, then you stand a chane of seeing why your car has gone into limp mode, your options are to limp to a garage that can read the codes there and then, unlikely, call out road side assistance if you have it or get Forscan a free download and a modifed ELM adapter, and do it yourself youll need a laptop. Dont bother with the cheap elm's of eBay most are rubbish.

https://forscan.org/download.html

https://tunnelrat-electronics.fwscart.com/USB_Modified_ELM327/p4541936_17045457.aspx

 

[robbyvrs]

I used the AA who came to my home and diagnosed a fault using their system, took 5 mins (was O2 sensor)

[JakeW]

Cheers guys for you're replies, I'll try and get the AA on it once the fault light shows again and I'll make sure to keep the engine running, I'll mention the possibility of the o2 sensor but I'm guessing he'll work that out if it shows on a diagnostic machine.

Really appreciate the responses!

[Luke4efc]

Save yourself the money and hassle of calling the AA out by using Forscan at home.

If you do call them out, dont bother mentioning possible faults you read about online. Nobody likes to be told how to do their job, you know. I mean if you really knew that it could be an o2 sensor, youd be doing the job yourself...

[JakeW]

Thanks for the reply mate, I'm not exactly clued up on cars unfortunately, how easy is Forscan to use?, where would I be connecting the device to my car?, also I've just checked online and it seems an 02 sensor would not apply to diesel cars?

[Tdci-Peter]

1 hour ago, JakeW said:

how easy is Forscan to use?, where would I be connecting the device to my car?

Forscan is very easy to use, once you have used it the first time! The car user manual will tell you where the diagnostic socket is. Usually under the dash between steering wheel & door. It must be within a short distance of the driving position.

You may or may not need a driver software to use a USB ELM327, depends on your OS. BT & WiFi ELMs are a bit less reliable than USB, but should appear on your computer's BT / WiFi tool. Downloading & installing Forscan is really simple (at least on a windows laptop, I have not tried the Apps). You have to click a connect button to make it connect & analyse the car. A forum member did a little guide:

https://www.fordownersclub.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=58645

People here may be able to help if you get problems. Being able to read the codes as they appear, then record and clear them to see if they return, is a huge benefit.

Re O2 sensor, some diesels do have O2 sensors, On the Focus, one version of the 1.6TDCI (EURO 5 I think) does have one. Quite possibly same for the Fiesta. If you have the 1.6TDCI (I can see from your rpm gauge it is not likely to be petrol!), then getting the actual code to verify this verbal report becomes even more crucial.

DTCs are a vital clue in locating a problem, but only a clue. They should never be 100% trusted, old fashioned diagnosis by symptoms and testing is still required. What the software thinks is wrong may not be the actual fault.

I first encountered this on my previous car, a Vectra. Code said MAF problem, but the symptoms stacked up with the idle control valve (it was a petrol engine). Full cleaning of the ICV cured it. The reason was that the ICV was not monitored, so when stuck closed, the ECU just saw a low airflow from the MAF, making the engine stall, but had no way to determine the real cause. So the software had to guess, and got it wrong, though in the right area. This general problem happens very often.

 

[billyboy]

That used to happen to my car and the garage couldn't find the fault, after about 2 yrs I found out that it was the heater plug relay. It was the brown one under the bonnet on my car.

[JakeW]

Ok thankyou I'll give Forscan a go then!, appreciate the help guys.

[bhevo21]

@JakeW did you manage to find out what the problem was with this? Did you sort out using forscan OK? It sounds like I've got the same problem on my 2012 Fiesta Titanium Tdci 1398cc.

It's normally if I drive on a motorway for 45 minutes + I get an amber engine fault light that comes on that triggers the car going into limp mode (reduced power). When I stop the car and turn the ignition off, leave it for 5 mins then turn it back on again the engine light will still be on, but as soon as I drive off it's clear the car is no longer in limp mode and the light then turns off and it's back to normal. However it can then come back on again. Only seems to happen on long journeys above ~ 45 minutes though.

I took it to a ford dealer for diagnostics (when the warning light wasn't on) and they couldn't find anything wrong and had no record of a fault. 

So the advice is to have my laptop with me in the car at all times and if the warning light comes on, stop and run my own diagnostics on it to see what the fault is?

Any help would be massively appreciated - been going round the bend with this one for a while!

Ben

[casuk]

I have that light too and now my car is underpowered, garage cant find a problem even tho it happened after a starter replacement from that garage 

[Tdci-Peter]

On 8/10/2020 at 4:41 PM, bhevo21 said:

I took it to a ford dealer for diagnostics (when the warning light wasn't on) and they couldn't find anything wrong and had no record of a fault. 

So the advice is to have my laptop with me in the car at all times and if the warning light comes on, stop and run my own diagnostics on it to see what the fault is?

 

On 8/11/2020 at 7:11 AM, casuk said:

garage cant find a problem

The fault mode software on many cars is very poorly tested, and hence full of bugs. In theory a DTC will always be raised and stored when any fault indication appears, it is all handled in the ECU software. The DTC should remain for several ignition cycles at least. But there a quite a lot of reports about DTCs that vanish as soon as the light goes out, or soon after. It looks like that is the case here.

So catching the fault red-handed, so to speak, would be the way, which does mean having a powerful diagnostic system like Forscan to hand at all times. Not very convenient, but better than nothing. There are very few faults that Forscan will miss. For most practical purposes when reading codes, it is as good as the Ford IDS system.

Most generic OBD scanners are useless at dealing with odd faults like this.

[casuk]

Mine was infact a mechanical fault,, happened while starter was replaced all fixed now 

[Katie20]

Hiya same this happen to my car today powertrain light came on and lose of power and car was shaking any body have any ideas what this could be ?