I was driving to work this morning in my 2003 Focus TDCI with the engine at normal temperature. The temperature gauge quickly flicked into the red and back again a number of times and each time it did so the engine temporarily cut out. The turbo doesn't always cut it like it should.
Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?
Thanks in advance.
Most likely the engine temp sender going faulty (can't remember if it's a cylinder head, or coolant sensor on the 1.8s), but check to make sure the wirings not chaffed on anything first.
The EEC IV ECU that ford were fitting at that time, should go into a reduced power (limp home) mode if it thinks the engine is overheating. But if the sensor circuit went short circuit to ground (either chaffed wiring of faulty sensor), it would stop the engine. The get you home solution was to unplug the sensor, which may invoke limp home mode, but at least the vehicle would drive. We had quite a lot of problems with transits when they first came out, due to faulty sensors.
Were Ford really using EEC IV ECUs in 2003 Focuses?
My 1998 Fiesta has an EEC V ECU.
Tony
Version 5 at this time- on most Fords 98 ish onwards!
Tim..
Good point. And now that I think about it,it was the EEC IV was fitted to the original EPIC system (the move the accelerator and wait half a second while the ecu thinks about changing the fuelling)
Ford have stopped fitting their own ECUs now anyway. They're just buying in whatever ecu happens to suit the fuel system they're using (the good old buy a bosch injection system, and fit a delphi ecu to it, or vice versa!)
We had a mk4 XR3i EFI with the epic system- and yes you could blip the pedal returning it to the previous point and about 1/2 second later the engine would respond!
Idle control/stabilization was not a strong point of this system either.
Tim..
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