Help! Engine fault.

tres

tres

tres

Soldato
Joined
16 Oct 2007
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7,482
Location
UK
Hi all,
My 08 Ford Focus 1.6 has been working perfectly - I had a full service done a few months ago. It worked fine going to work, but got in the car and it came up on the screen

"REDUCED ACCELERATION"
then
"ENGINE SYSTEMS FAULT"

I plugged in an OBDII reader which I happened to randomly have in the car, and it came up with this:

ZImcOY0.png


What does this mean? I just drove it home, which was fine, just a delay before slow accelerating.
Help! I rang a local Arnold Clark garage and they wanted £75 to plug it in themselves for their diagnostics! Am I screwed and have to go down this route? I'm only a student and can't afford much!

PS. I tried to 'clear' the fault using the OBDII but it just reoccurs every time I start the car
 
Last edited:
From looking up those codes - this may seem the possible cause;

Hello, I hope the following is of assistance.

Unfortunately this fault isn't usually down to the throttle pedal but is usually due to a faulty signal from the throttle position sensor on the side of the electronic throttle body (ETB), or a software failure in the engine management (PCM).

The throttle position sensor is available as a separate part but if the screws that secure it to the side of the ETB snap then unfortunately the ETB will need replacing.

Also depending on the build date of the car (not registration date) a revised engine loom needs fitting as the material in the terminal pins for the throttle position sensor changed and the old loom isn't compatible with the new sensor. The build date cut of is 01/02/07 for the wiring loom, the existing loom should be labeled which has a build date of the loom on it.

Once the sensor is replaced then the PCM calibration needs checking to make sure it's the latest calibration available, this needs to be done using a suitable diagnostic tool. After this the ETB then needs initializing to reset the idle values of the engine.

One final point is to make sure the battery is OK and charging OK as a low battery voltage can cause ETB concerns.

I hope this helps but if I can assist further or if you have more questions regarding this let me know and I'll reply as soon as I'm able to.

Best wishes,

Sean.

Read more: http://www.justanswer.com/uk-ford/7...ord-focus-style-1-6-petrol.html#ixzz3eZ3a5PRX
Click to expand...

Source: http://www.justanswer.com/uk-ford/7...1-6-5d-hatch-ford-focus-style-1-6-petrol.html
 
Many thanks. I'll try the independent garage tomorrow.
My abilities are non-existent unfortunately!
 
First thing I would do is charge the battery and reset the code and see if it comes back, I have seen things like this on different cars when the battery voltage gets low, recharging or replacing the battery fixed it.

Test alternator output too.
 
tres said:
Thanks Rick. I will jump lead up to the missus's car tomorrow and see if it helps
Click to expand...

Jump starting the car won't help to charge the battery. It will only be low if you are doing a lot of short trips, or there is an underlying fault in the charging system. A simple voltage check with a multimeter would confirm or rule out this relatively unlikely possibility.
 
does you car have cruise control?
if so it might be the pedal switch not the TPS, and the tps might have moved position not actually faulty.
 
Dogbreath said:
Jump starting the car won't help to charge the battery. It will only be low if you are doing a lot of short trips, or there is an underlying fault in the charging system. A simple voltage check with a multimeter would confirm or rule out this relatively unlikely possibility.
Click to expand...

I thought about connected the other battery to help to see if a low voltage in my own was causing it? Unfortunately no multimeter here. Maybe I'll go and find one

leigh_boy said:
does you car have cruise control?
if so it might be the pedal switch not the TPS, and the tps might have moved position not actually faulty.
Click to expand...

It doesn't have cruise control. I wish it did, as I looked to retrofit it but is missing the switch from the brake.


Update - I went to start it this morning and nothing! it started fine, without any accelerator reduction or error messages. This is possibly more frustrating if it's a random error!
 
If the error was gone today I will stick to what I said about the battery voltage. If you did a short journey with AC on or something and the voltage dips a little too low it could flag up the error and then as you continued driving possibly the alternator charged the battery enough that when started this morning the error did not occur.

It could still be the beginnings of a sensor failure and I could be completely wrong about it being voltage related but that is what I would look into first before buying new parts or paying for diagnostics. :)
 
I think Rick is right.

Those codes are mega common on the ST model like mine when the battery has had it or it has an alternator fault.

I'd invest in a new battery as well.

My car hadn't been used in a few weeks and I had those kind of messages popping up on the dash when I finally got it started.
 
Thanks Rick and Stormster

Had a new battery put in, no sign of the error, flawless running again. Much appreciated
 
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