Ford C-Max breakdown, any advice sorely needed ☹️

Lol Ha ha

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Which is as rare as rocking horse dodo but nice to hear.

I’ll keep feeding in the line, you can add the rest :joy:

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Whilst it could be, its more common for a single injector to fail rather than the lot. Unfortunately these are coded to the ECU and that minimal bit of work with a laptop costs more than the injector.

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We’ve used him for 20 years and have no problem advising other folk to use him. He is a fair man…

Had a fit, when he mentioned retirement. But he sold the business to one who was once his apprentice, went on to bigger things with the Peugeot Big-Boys and has now come back “home” to our local… we are very, very lucky.

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I’ve said for a long time - people buy from people…
Our garagiste is also so helpful. Wouldn’t dream of chopping him in now for a an alternative - even if they were cheaper…

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A gem of a garagiste then - hang on to him :slight_smile:

I think that’s a bit unfair - most of the time the ECU error code probably pinpoints the problem accurately and saves the mechanic, and his or her customer, time and money.

Modern cars are stuffed full of complex electronics working in a hard environment - exposed to extremes of temperature, vibration and humidity, very electrically “noisy” power and the engine has not only to work but do so nearly optimally or it often refuses to work at all. The electronics in a modern car is actually much more important and 100’s of times more complex than the mechanicals.

One hallmark of any complex electronic system is that intermittent faults are a nightmare to fix.

There is a genre of YouTube video which involves getting vehicles to run after they have sat in a field for two or three decades. Usually American “muscle” cars or trucks with 6 or 7 litre engines but it always strikes me how fundamentally simple these vehicles are - they invariable are normally aspirated & with traditional ignition systems, at most a simple capacitive discharge electronic ignition unit. They not infrequently “run” with several cylinders not firing, spark leads swapped or the timing massively out.

I wonder what the chance of getting a modern vehicle running after sitting it in a field for 20-30 years would be - I suspect it would be something of a bigger challenge.

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@Peter, the garage we use (Peugeot) deals with all makes of cars, might be worth looking for a closer one? I hope all goes well :pray:

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If only the technician could actually understand. Let me give you a couple of examples. BIL took Mercedes in to main dealer. Fault code indicates over heating via a sensor. All good so far, technician fits a new sensor £40 without actually checking if the engine was overheating. Sent out as working to BIL. One quick check with thermometer and it went back but they had naturally thrown the old sensor away.

Nissan qashqai, ECU reports fault with anti skid and traction control, possibly a faulty ECU they were told, actually nothing to do with anti skid or traction control its a small blocked pipe from the manifold and a pressure switch.

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Yes, Nissan are notorious for getting it wrong. I once had a Navara, had a 4WD issue. Nissan Limoges technician said computer said…transfer box motor. Parts guy said its only available as part of the transfer box @ €5000 (This was total bullshit, Nissan uk told me they are available separately, but why did I need one as they never fail) . I took it to an old fashioned Landy mechanic in the UK, quick bit of old fashioned diagnostics and it was a broken wire, cost £20.

Yes, it is frustrating, especially when the fault codes are apparently nothing to do with the fault.

However it is worth asking the garage what %age of faults are stubborn and difficult to find and what %age they just do what the diagnostics tells them to and it all works.

You also have to consider the economics of the situation - labour is frequently the largest component of the bill and fault finding takes time; cheaper to fit a new £40 sensor that takes 10 minutes and then, knowing the sensor is good, figure out why the car might be overheating (for all you know the sensor is a common failure item).

Admittedly it was a bit stupid, and made them look unreliable, to not road test the car themselves.

It’s also rarely worth replacing the old part - the cheapest place I take any of my vehicles to is £50 an hour, my regular garage is over £100 and I daren’t even think about what the main dealers charge (probably £160 and up). The labour to put it back is going to be more than the thing is worth a lot of the time (and the garage can’t return a used item to their supplier).

I appreciate this especially, as I have a (layman’s) intuition that the fault may be linked to the reverse-warning sensor which had a solitary fit of flashing and beeping associated with the ‘going limp’ experience and a defaut moteur signal. It stuck in my mind because I had a minor bump with a bollard some time back which cracked the rear bumper, was told it would cost 500 euro to replace which suggests it’s not just a lump of moulded plastic and may incorporate an electronic sensor? The garage told me it was not significant but something tells me they might be wrong.

I know another older and wiser garagiste locally and as has been pointed out the older guys know their onions and can think systemically with our without a laptop.

Thanks all you guys and dolls who responded, you have lifted a weight off my mind. :hugs::heart:. My wife also thinks holistically and has encouraged me to do the same, but I am a pathetic worrier and pessimist where cars are concerned​:red_car::thinking::roll_eyes::cry:

Vive SF !

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There are lots of ways to fix plastic bumpers on Youtube but for a quick fix you could use a few cable ties to hold it together as in the first minutes of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nktjCI0PYk4
Then you can ask the garage to replace just the reversing sensor. They might complain but we are tougher than that. Lol

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Any news @Peter_Goble?

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Still trying to negotiate with my insurers about transporting the car 30+ km to the nearest Ford dealer where the fault can be identified and perhaps rectified. Will post when something tangible happens, but I don’t feel so stressed as I did before I sent out my distress call!

Thanks again to all contributors :hugs:

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I’m so glad, I don’t think I’d ever seen such a despondent post from you!

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Your car insurance will probably tow you to the nearest suitable garage. A 12 year old Ford diagnostics can’t be that difficult for a competent garage with a laptop programme to diagnose. and possibly repair.

Good luck, Peter…

Screenshot_2020-11-29 Facebook

Any news on your car Peter?

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The car is back home and still in a forlorn state but I have the contact details of a mobile motor mechanic who may be able to find out what ails her and fix it.

I’m waiting till I have funds available to pay for the helper’s services, this is a tricky time of the year…:thinking::upside_down_face:

Thanks for your concerned interest @toryroo :pray:

Edited: to say we’ve invested in a chariot courses which holds a lot of shopping and pulls along effortlessly with me at full tilt at the tiller.

Apart from making me more noticeably aware of my age, it gets me moving which all the other oldies I know say is the way to keep the Reaper at bay…qui bouge vive :wink:

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