Ford Diagnostics St Helens

The 1.0 EcoBoost petrol uses one, which covers most Fiestas, Focuses, B-Max, C-Max, EcoSport and Puma of that era, and so do the 1.5 and 2.0 EcoBlue diesels fitted to the Focus, Kuga, Transit, Connect and Courier. Between them that is a very large share of the Fords on the road today.

A wet belt is a cambelt that runs inside the engine, in the oil, rather than behind a cover on the outside. The design is not a fault in itself, but the belt ages in a way an ordinary one does not, and what it sheds ends up in the sump.

The safest way to know is by engine code rather than by model year, because Ford changed engines mid-life on several cars and two identical-looking Focuses can be different underneath. Send us the registration and we will tell you in a minute. There is a full model-by-model breakdown on which cars have a wet belt, and the job itself on Ford wet belt replacement.

Three things: whether the sump comes off to inspect the oil pickup strainer, whether the oil pump is replaced at the same time, and which engine it is, because access varies enormously between a Fiesta and a Transit.

The strainer is the part that changes the figure and the part that matters. A belt replaced on its own leaves the debris the old one shed sitting in the pickup, which is why some cars come back with low oil pressure a few thousand miles later.

Doing it properly means belt, tensioner, oil pump and a sump-off inspection of the strainer together. It costs more on the day and it is the only version of the job worth paying for. Ring 01744 808586 with the registration and mileage and you will get a real figure for your engine, and it can go on pay monthly car repairs if that helps.

Earlier than the original schedule suggested. Ford themselves shortened the interval after the first cars had been on the road a few years, and most independent workshops, us included, would rather see one done sooner again than push a belt to the published limit.

The reason is that the belt ages on time and heat cycles as much as on mileage. A low-mileage town car that never gets fully warm can have a worse belt than a higher-mileage motorway car, which is the opposite of what people expect.

Oil condition is the other half of it. The belt lives in the oil, so a car serviced to the longest interval the schedule allows is asking more of that belt than one serviced more often. Tell us the engine, the mileage and the service history on 01744 808586 and we will tell you honestly where yours sits, or book a Ford service and we will look at it while it is up.

On the earlier 1.0 EcoBoost the usual answer is the nylon degas hose. It goes brittle over thousands of heat cycles and splits, and because it can weep before it fails properly, the level drops quietly for weeks before anybody notices.

The symptoms are a heater that blows cold at idle, a coolant bottle that keeps needing topping up, and a temperature needle that climbs in traffic and settles again on the move.

What makes it urgent is what happens next. These engines do not tolerate running hot, and an overheat can crack the cylinder head, which turns a hose into a very large bill. So the system gets pressure tested and checked for combustion gases in the coolant before anyone says it is only a hose. If it has already run hot, our engine team will tell you honestly what they find. Ring 01744 808586 sooner rather than later with this one.

Nearly always because the journeys are too short for the filter to clear itself. A particulate filter burns its soot off at a high exhaust temperature, and a few miles of town driving never gets close, so the car starts a regeneration, gets interrupted, and starts again.

The second cause sits upstream. A sooted EGR valve feeding extra exhaust gas back into the engine makes far more soot than the filter was designed to handle, so the filter blocks because something else is wrong.

That is why we read soot loading, differential pressure and the regeneration history before anything comes off the car. Cleaning a filter without finding the cause buys a few months, and we would rather tell you that than sell you the same job twice. See Ford DPF cleaning, and if a Clean Air Zone is part of your thinking there is more on emissions and clean air zones.

Limp mode is the engine management protecting the engine. It has seen a reading it cannot trust or cannot correct, so it caps the revs and the boost and holds the gearbox in a safe gear until somebody looks at it. The car has already found the fault.

On a Ford TDCi or EcoBlue the usual causes are a blocked filter, a turbo actuator that cannot reach the position it is commanded to, a split boost pipe or a fuel pressure reading outside range. On the EcoBoost petrols a misfire or a throttle body fault is more common.

Getting it home gently is usually fine. Driving it for weeks is not, because whatever triggered it is still happening and some of those faults do damage while you wait. Ring 01744 808586 the same day, and if it will not make the journey our mobile mechanics can come to it.

Usually, yes. The PowerShift fitted to Fiestas and Focuses of roughly 2011 to 2016 is a dry twin-clutch box rather than a conventional torque converter automatic, and as the clutches wear the shudder from rest is the first thing owners notice.

What is worth knowing is that the box tells you how much life is left. Clutch wear counters, adaptation values and oil temperature all come off the transmission module, so instead of an opinion you get a number, and that number decides whether it is worth spending on.

Sometimes the answer is better than feared, because a clutch seal leak or adaptations that have drifted can produce the same symptom. Sometimes it is not, and we would rather tell you before you commit than after the box is out. Either way the reading takes minutes and it is the only honest basis for the decision. Have it read first — see automatic gearbox repair and Ford clutch replacement.

On a 1.6 TDCi the answer is almost always the oil supply rather than the turbo. The oil feed pipe blocks with carbon over time, the bearing runs short of oil, and a brand new turbo fitted onto a blocked feed fails exactly the same way as the last one.

It is a well-known fault on that engine and it is the reason a turbo job on a 1.6 TDCi should never be just a turbo. The feed and return pipes, the sump strainer and the oil condition all need checking, because whatever starved the first one is still there.

We check the supply before anything is ordered, and if the strainer is contaminated we deal with that at the same time. It is a bigger job on the day and it is the reason ours do not come back. See Ford turbo replacement and 1.6 TDCi engine work, or ring 01744 808586.

Yes. Every diesel injector carries a correction code that describes how that individual injector flows, and it has to be written into the engine management when the injector goes on. Skip it and the engine fuels to the wrong figures from the moment it starts.

The symptoms of a missed code look like a faulty injector: knocking at idle, smoke, uneven running when warm and poor economy. So people replace a perfectly good part twice, chasing a problem that was created at fitting.

Before any injector is condemned we run a back-leakage test to find which one is actually weak, rather than replacing a set on a guess. Then the new ones go on with the codes written and the fuelling checked on a road test afterwards, so you leave knowing the engine is running to the right figures rather than hoping. See Ford injector replacement and diesel injector work.

We run Ford diagnostics from our own workshop at 232-254 Boundary Road, St Helens, WA10 2PZ, a couple of minutes from the A58 and the Linkway. Fords come in from across the borough and from Prescot, Widnes, Warrington and Wigan.

Two things are worth checking wherever you take it. The first is whether they read live data rather than only codes, because a code on its own is a starting point. The second is whether the diagnosis time folds into the repair if you go ahead.

The third, on a Ford specifically, is whether they see enough of them to know the pattern. The EcoBoost belt, the degas hose, the 1.6 TDCi oil feed and the PowerShift clutch are faults you either recognise straight away or spend hours arriving at. See our Ford specialist page, or ring 01744 808586.

A car in its manufacturer warranty can be serviced by any suitably equipped independent garage, provided the work follows the manufacturer schedule and the correct specification parts and fluids are used. You do not have to return to a franchised dealer to keep the cover.

What matters is the evidence. The schedule has to be the one for your engine, the oil has to meet Ford's specification, and it has to be recorded properly, digitally where the car uses a digital record.

We service Fords to the manufacturer schedule with the correct oil and parts, and it is stamped and recorded so it stands up later. If the car is still under a Ford warranty and the fault we find is a warranty item, we will tell you that plainly rather than charging you for something you can have done for nothing. See Ford servicing or ring 01744 808586.

Because both systems read the same four wheel speed sensors, so one failed sensor lights both lamps. On a Focus or Fiesta that is far and away the most common cause, and it is usually the sensor itself or the wiring where it flexes at the hub.

Those sensors sit in the worst place on the car for salt, grit and water, and the traffic calming around town flexes the loom thousands of times a year. A single one dropping out is enough to shut the whole anti-lock system down.

Your normal brakes still work, but the car can lock a wheel under hard braking in the wet, and an illuminated ABS lamp is a major MOT failure. We read all four wheel speeds live on a road test to find the one that drops out rather than replacing the obvious one. See ABS repair in St Helens.

Take it seriously, because that countdown ends in your van refusing to start. The emissions system is telling you it cannot dose correctly, and once the counter reaches zero the engine management will not allow a restart until the fault is put right.

Topping the tank up sometimes clears it and often does not, because the fault is usually dosing rather than level. Crystallised injectors, a failed dosing pump or a NOx sensor that has drifted out of range all produce the same warning.

We read the system live, including dosing quantity and the NOx values, so you know which of those it is before parts are ordered. Vans get looked at first thing wherever we can, because a van off the road costs money by the hour. Ring 01744 808586, and there is more on AdBlue faults and on Transit repair.

Yes, and on a Ford it often makes sense to. Oil condition is central to how a wet belt ages and to how a TDCi copes with soot, so a diagnostic and a service done in the same visit deal with the fault and one of its causes together.

It also saves a second trip. The car is already up, the covers are already off, and anything the diagnostic turned up can be looked at properly rather than booked in again for a fortnight's time. On a diesel we will also check the regeneration history while it is with us, because that tells you whether the filter is coping with the driving you actually do.

Pair it with a Ford MOT and the car only comes in once for the whole lot. Ring 01744 808586 and tell us the model and mileage and we will tell you which service it is due, or see Ford servicing and the model pages for the Fiesta, Focus and Kuga.

It means a fault is stored somewhere in the engine, fuelling or emissions system. Steady amber and the car driving normally means book it in. Flashing amber means a live misfire is putting unburnt fuel through the catalytic converter, and that one wants dealing with the same day.

The flashing version matters because a converter fed raw fuel can be ruined in a single journey, which turns a coil pack or an injector into an exhaust bill. On an EcoBoost a misfire is most often coils, plugs or an injector rather than anything deep.

A steady light covers an enormous range, from a sensor drifting slowly out of range to a genuine mechanical fault, which is exactly why the code alone is not an answer. An illuminated engine lamp is also a major MOT failure on any petrol from July 2003 and any diesel from July 2008. Read more on our engine warning light page or ring 01744 808586.

Yes, and vans are a large part of the Ford work here. Transit, Custom, Connect and Courier all come in with the same emissions and fuelling faults their car equivalents have, plus the AdBlue systems on the newer EcoBlue engines.

Working vans get the short-journey problem worse than anything else on the road. Stop-start delivery driving never lets the exhaust get hot enough for a filter to regenerate, so the DPF and the EGR valve soot up far faster than the mileage suggests they should.

The Connect and Courier also share the belt-in-oil design, and a lot of owners have never been told their van has one at all. We diagnose vans first thing wherever the diary allows so they are back out the same day. Ring 01744 808586 with the model and plate, or see Ford Transit repair.

Yes. Engine, transmission, ABS, restraints and body modules are all scanned as standard rather than just the engine, along with the freeze-frame data behind each stored code, so we know the road speed, engine load and temperature at the exact moment the fault appeared.

That breadth matters more on a Ford than people expect, because the powertrain lamp and a transmission code very often arrive together and only one of them is the cause. Reading the engine alone gives you half a picture and usually the wrong half.

Where a repair needs coding or programming afterwards, that is done here too — injector correction codes, module configuration, battery registration on the cars that need it. Fitting a part without coding it produces a car that behaves as though the new part is faulty. See how our diagnostics work, or ring 01744 808586.

Often not. The coil symbol lighting for a few seconds on a cold start is normal and simply means the plugs are warming the cylinders. A coil symbol that flashes while you drive is the engine management using that lamp to tell you a fault has been stored.

On most Ford diesels the flashing version can be sitting on top of a fuelling fault, a sensor out of range or a particulate filter problem rather than the plugs themselves, so replacing a set on the strength of the lamp is a common and expensive mistake.

Genuinely failed plugs show up as slow, smoky cold starts and a rough first minute, worst on a frosty morning, and they are tested individually rather than replaced as a set on a guess. Tell us how it starts from cold on 01744 808586, or see Ford glow plug replacement.

On the engines covered here it is one of the most useful hours you can spend. A scan tells you what faults are stored and what has recently been cleared, and on an EcoBoost or EcoBlue the belt history is worth more than the service book cover suggests.

What we look for is specific rather than general: stored and pending codes across every module, regeneration history and soot loading on a diesel, clutch wear counters on a PowerShift, coolant condition and any sign the car has run hot, and oil condition and level on a wet belt engine.

It is far cheaper than discovering any of it a month after you have bought the car, and if it is clean you get to buy with confidence instead of hope. Ring 01744 808586 with the registration before you commit, and see what drives repair costs if you are weighing up a car that needs work.