The psychic car

I have a 2015 Ford Focus 1.5 turbodiesel estate with 63,800 miles on it. The car has always been to Ford for its 12,500-mile services and is driven daily, on average around 800 miles a week.

A few weeks back, I was travelling from Nottingham to Liverpool and as I pulled off a roundabout the engine completely cut out and the dash displayed ‘Engine Service Now’. I lost all drive, so I coasted as far as I could to get off the dual carriageway. I tried to turn over the engine, but it just wouldn’t fire, each time showing the same message.

Up to this point I had never had a problem with the vehicle and there was no warning, just an instant cut of power. I had been travelling this route for two weeks without a hitch. The AA ran a diagnostic that indicated: Air intake fault Turbo compression low DPF pressure low

I can’t remember the exact codes, but these were the descriptions.

I had the car towed to Ford the next day and a week later they told me: “Our mechanics think the engine or crankshaft is seized, with the best case scenario being just a seized pulley. They will need to have a free day to strip the engine down to find the fault as it will be at least 13 hours of work, so I wouldn’t bank on having it back before the end of this week.”

I told them that I always work on my other cars (which are not so modern), so I know the timescales for stripping parts. To me, if a crankshaft had seized then the car would have ground to a halt and not coasted, and surely I would have heard some knocking or had some sort of warning beforehand?

Ford insisted: “If the car is about to have a failure like this, it will cut itself out before it happens and not start again until it is fixed.”

What I really don’t understand is why I had a completely different fault reading to the cause claimed by Ford. Oddly, their response was: “The car has just come out of warranty, so this will probably be pretty expensive.” The car has now been with them for a month and they are saying I need a new engine!

Am I being taken for a ride here?

Phil

I don’t understand it either. As you say, a seized engine won’t allow coasting to a halt without declutching. And the comment that “If the car is about to have a failure like this, it will cut itself out before it happens and not start again until it is fixed” is a load of rubbish. Is the car psychic?

The codes really don’t reveal much either and they could have been there before the fault occurred. For the inlet code, it’s possible the swirl flaps packed up and got munched by the pistons. For the turbo code, it’s possible the turbo blew and dumped oil into the inlet, causing the engine to lock up hydraulically – but if that had happened, surely you would have noticed the resulting smokescreen behind you?

It’s beginning to sound awfully expensive, so I advise taking the car to another garage for a second opinion.