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'Limp Mode' and flashing glow plug light

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  elsolo 
#1 ·
Hi,

I had my car (Mk1 1.8 tdci) put through a service lately and during it they found the battery had a dead cell but advised that it didn't need changed, a few days later after driving about 100+ miles over a few different journeys the car just lost all power and would only hold speed with no real acceleration but no lights showed up so I pulled over and tried to restart the engine but wouldn't start. Eventually after a few attempts at starting it stopped turning over so I knew the battery was gone and changed it, the car then worked fine.

A few days after this I was driving along and suddenly lost power again but this time the glow plug indicator light was flashing, I got the car home and tried restarting but it started fine. I had the garage check the alternator and the aux belt they had recently changed and there were no issues and no error codes showed up. Over a week later all seemed well then all of a sudden it happened again, I restarted the car and it was fine. The next time I drove it the same thing happened but it completely lost power and cut out when I came to a stop, then it started fine and drive as normal.

I have no idea why it is doing this as there are no obvious signs of an issue and no error codes so don't even know where to start, I don't want to plow too much money into it as the car isn't worth that much.

It has also had an issue with starting in cold weather, it starts up fine but a second after starting it dies, i'm thinking this could be a glow plug issue so am going to get them changed, could worn glow plugs cause the above issues with it going to limp mode?

Any other suggestions?

Any help would be appreciated.
 
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#2 ·
Uh... there are only 2 ways to stop a diesel: cut the fuel, or cut the air. The glow plugs don't matter once the engine is started, so those are not the problem with your vehicle. I would look for a new mechanic.
 
#3 ·
Since Ford never sold the diesel Focus in North America, and I don't recall ever seeing any posts from members on the UK side of the pond answer tech questions, unlikely that you will get any specific knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of the Focus diesel on this forum. Basic diesel knowledge: yes.
 
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