Occasional Amber Spanner!!

[Lewi5]

Hi Guys,

first post here, just looking for some advice, 2019 MK4 1.0 Focus Ecoboost. A few weeks back was pulling onto a motorway in 5th doing about 55mph when a spanner warning appeared and went into limp. turned car off and the warning was gone got a drive train message on my phone. Got home scanned it into a OBD reader got a “low boost” message, anyway. Didn’t see it again until yesterday, dropped from 5th to 3rd and give it a small bit of push nothing major, it come back on limp mode and warning. Turned on and off and it disappeared. 

Car is on 46K, pretty much all motorway mileage as well! Serviced every 8K mile

 

any suggestions would be appreciated, saw a few people have had this problem before but never saw a solution. 

[Botus]

the  amber spanner has been on cars since 1999 and it is an Engine Management Light (EML) - its purpose is to inform the driver the engine management can't maintain safe, legal emission standards due to some engine running related control issue...

it is never a CEL - as some fools over the pond insisting in incorrectly calling it - we check there is an engine when we start the car, or look under the bonnet.

the limp - is where the car decided the fault is big enough that engine damage may occur if you carry on at normal speeds - so it makes you go gently

the fact it is coming on and off intermittently is because the fault is not active at every start - these kind of faults will stay active only when it remains after three consecutive on off key cycles

when illuminated use high end diagnostics to see what the fault is - do not just keep driving it - you may breakdown and get stuck somewhere dangerous or inconvenient

it might be a minor sensor doing exactly what Bosch and Ford wanted - to rip you off £400 for a £20, 10 min fix - or if it has one, a blocking exhaust filter (much like tractor DPFs) they are becoming normal on later emission std petrol vehicles - they can block due to cheap fuel, short runs and bad driving

be well aware these engine's like to self destruct - as a min, check engine and coolant levels (and for oil contamination) before you next drive the car... and keep an eye on engine temperatures

[Botus]

as an aside as we head into winter - another hard to spot amber light with a confusing symbol that is often intermittent and causes a sudden dip in power - it the traction control / ESP light

wet leaves all over the place, light cars, on narrow economy tyres and turbo engine's like to light up the tyres - and modern nannies interfere and cut power, or stab individual corner brakes to try and (mostly successfully manages to) maintain vehicle trajectory where the steering wheel is pointed. 

Usually this cuts in when you want to get on with things, and so your focus is looking where you are going, and the tiny dim light flickering isn't noticed much.

as the symbol is flickering and on many cars a really stupid design, it can be frustrating to know which one it is...   a good idea is to check the owners manual and work out the location of where silly lights sit on the dash display

 

[unofix]

3 hours ago, Lewi5 said:

first post here, just looking for some advice, 2019 MK4 1.0 Focus Ecoboost.

You really need the Ford specific Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC's) for anyone to be able to help. Low boost could be caused by a number of things. If you are using a generic code reader it can only give limited information about the problem. Use FORScan and a vLinker FS cable, or one of the FORScan mobile phone versions.

Post the DTC's and I'm sure someone will be able to offer you some advice.