Ford Focus Problems - Need to Rant !

gubble

So in the last 12 months my 2007 Focus 1.8TDCI has had the following:

New Clutch and DMF

Replacement Starter Motor

New Bearings front and rear

Replaced split turbo hose

It's also been hit up the rear and had a replacement tailgate, rear bumper, seatbelt and towbar !

So last week I started the car (with the door open) and the LCD part of the dash displayed "drivers door open". Shut the door and that message is now permanently scrolling left to right along with the mileage in the background - meaning I've no idea how many miles I've done on the trip or the odometer - brilliant !

Took my daughter home on Saturday and on the way back on the M3 the car decided to go into limp mode. No warning lights on the dash but wouldn't go above 55mph. Using more than around 40% of the throttle causes it to cut the power/fuel. Seemed ok the next morning until I hit 73mph (ish exactly 120kmph) and this happened again. As long as I keep it under 70mph the car drives fine, turbo is boosting normally etc.

Car is booked into the garage tomorrow but I'm feeling this is going to be something horribly expensive.

A place that you send your dash off for repair have suggested the error with the dashboard may be causing it to enter limp mode but I've not heard of this and neither has google.

Fed up of this car costing so much money. I simply don't have the funds to purchase another vehicle and rely on my car for commuting and also seeing my daughter.

Cirrus

gubble said:

So in the last 12 months my 2007 Focus 1.8TDCI has had the following:

New Clutch and DMF

Replacement Starter Motor

New Bearings front and rear

Replaced split turbo hose

It's also been hit up the rear and had a replacement tailgate, rear bumper, seatbelt and towbar !

...............

Took my daughter home on Saturday and on the way back on the M3 the car decided to go into limp mode. No warning lights on the dash but wouldn't go above 55mph. Using more than around 40% of the throttle causes it to cut the power/fuel. Seemed ok the next morning until I hit 73mph (ish exactly 120kmph) and this happened again. As long as I keep it under 70mph the car drives fine, turbo is boosting normally etc.

.........

A place that you send your dash off for repair have suggested the error with the dashboard may be causing it to enter limp mode but I've not heard of this and neither has google.

We had an '06 TDCI and had an annoying number of problems with ours too, so I commiserate with you! Bought in '09, sold in '14

We had to replace the alternator, a part of the suspension, get new fuel injectors installed at vast expense, the rear wiper motor burned out, and we, too had limp home issues for the final 18 months we had it.

What I found was that it only went into limp home when using lots of throttle in higher gears - so, joining a motorway and accellerating hard in 4th or 5th gear would do it, going up a steep hill likewise. So I learned to avoid that. We had it in to be looked at in ford dealers 3 times, they did stuff to the EGR valve, associated cabling/ pipes, turbo air pipes, replaced sensors, never fixed it. It's a shame because when it worked I liked the car, but I wasn't sorry to see the back of it.

To be fair, the Y-reg 1.8 TDI I had before that also had its share of problems, including but not limited to sticking accelerator pedal (free cruise control!) and the front passenger footwell eventually turning into a swamp thanks to a leak somewhere behind the dashboard that let water in.

Telejester

Making mental note , " don't buy a used car from gubble "

olafgarten

I think there is a design flaw, all of the models from 06-08 are starting to have issues. My Sister has an 08 1.6l and my Uncle has a 08 1.6l, both have had problems with the Gearbox and Starter Motor.

My uncle had problems first where he had to replace the starter motor as it wouldn't produce enough power to start the car. After that the clutch went while on a Motorway, quite dangerous. 

My sister had to replace her clutch as it went while doing 5 miles per hour through a car park. It was a multistorey and she got stuck trying to make it up the ramp.  

Sesh

Fixed On Roadside Daily...(I drive a Ford too.)

gubble

I also forgot to mention the gaitor round the gear stick has come off and it keeps blowing bulbs for some reason.

Clearly I bought a lemon than decided to die 2 weeks after the warranty ran out.......

Panama_Jack666

I have a 55 plate Focus and it's never had any serious issues. 

Apologies as that doesn't help your case! Just surprised to hear you've had lots of issues with yours!

I'll keep my fingers crossed for a cheap fix for you!

olafgarten

I also forgot that switching into Reverse requires an unusually high amount of force in my Sisters car. She bought it when it was only 2 years old and hasn't really abused it, it had a low mileage when it was bought as well.  

Bygone_Tones

Mines a 2001 and I just got the news from the garage today it's time to scrap the poor fella. Has been a good motor until recently. Been all around the UK in it.

fnpt

It's a 10 year old car, it is expected to start developing problems. Other more expensive brands also have them. As for the power cutting, I suspect it may be the diesel particle filter.

nick79

Funnily enough my '06 1.6 tdci has recently bitten the dust. Headgasket has gone, and while i could fix it myself i just can't be arsed. It's done 145k miles, which for that engine is good going (they are terrible, why i ever bought IT i have no idea). 
In all fairness though in the 4 years i've owned it it's gone straight through every mot, and only ever needed a bottom ball joint. 
But lately it has been feeling baggy and old, and i was idly considering moving it on as i fancied something a bit younger.  Then the headgasket went... 

Telejester

Bygone_Tones said:

Mines a 2001 and I just got the news from the garage today it's time to scrap the poor fella. Has been a good motor until recently. Been all around the UK in it.

I sold my 2001 mk1 1.6 zetec to a young guy who thinks he has won the jackpot, the mk1s are great cars and mine gave me zero trouble.

Octafish

gubble said:

So in the last 12 months my 2007 Focus 1.8TDCI has had the following:

New Clutch and DMF

Replacement Starter Motor

New Bearings front and rear

Replaced split turbo hose

It's also been hit up the rear and had a replacement tailgate, rear bumper, seatbelt and towbar !

So last week I started the car (with the door open) and the LCD part of the dash displayed "drivers door open". Shut the door and that message is now permanently scrolling left to right along with the mileage in the background - meaning I've no idea how many miles I've done on the trip or the odometer - brilliant !

Took my daughter home on Saturday and on the way back on the M3 the car decided to go into limp mode. No warning lights on the dash but wouldn't go above 55mph. Using more than around 40% of the throttle causes it to cut the power/fuel. Seemed ok the next morning until I hit 73mph (ish exactly 120kmph) and this happened again. As long as I keep it under 70mph the car drives fine, turbo is boosting normally etc.

Car is booked into the garage tomorrow but I'm feeling this is going to be something horribly expensive.

A place that you send your dash off for repair have suggested the error with the dashboard may be causing it to enter limp mode but I've not heard of this and neither has google.

Fed up of this car costing so much money. I simply don't have the funds to purchase another vehicle and rely on my car for commuting and also seeing my daughter.

Sorry, you might not want to hear it, but as others have said - it's a ten year old car. Not that that should mean it's scrap, but things do eventually wear out/fail. What's the mileage, 100000+ and you're getting into new clutch, starter, alternator, bearings, CVs etc territory. Some of this stuff only needs replacing once in the average lifetime of a car. Is there any record of it ever having had a new clutch, bearings or starter before?

Electrical/computer stuff going wrong is tiresome. Problems can often be caused by a leaks around the windscreen/bulkhead allowing moisture/water into dash/fusebox/electrics.

Stevepage

pretty much everything you listed is why I got rid of my Focus. Ok it was older but didn't have a lot of mileage. Great car to drive but expensive to cheap due to costs of stupid repairs

mudslide73

I had a 06 1.8 tdci from 40k to 180k.It had new water pump, alternator (crazy fast charger apparently), 2x common rail fuel return seals and turbo hose. Great car, cheap bits and not so complicated that I couldn't do some of the fixes myself. I did the cam belt on my dad's drive. You have to expect some bits to fail by the time you're rattling around the 150k mark.

sev112

we had an 02 1.8TDCi that we only got rid of last year. Wonderful wonderful car

only in the last year did it start to get the periodic turbo issues that made it unreliable .  But 13 years of good driving was a good return

exocet

I have an old 2005 model (slightly face lifted Mk1 ). I bought it 2 years old and I've never had an issue with it aside from what you'd classify as consumable items. It's done 110k, 80k of that with me and I do mainly short journeys. Sounds like later versions are not as good.....useful to know  because I've decided to change mine this year.

duotone

gubble said:

I also forgot to mention the gaitor round the gear stick has come off and it keeps blowing bulbs for some reason.

Clearly I bought a lemon than decided to die 2 weeks after the warranty ran out.......

Where did you buy it from?

Nunogilberto

Cirrus said:

gubble said:

So in the last 12 months my 2007 Focus 1.8TDCI has had the following:

New Clutch and DMF

Replacement Starter Motor

New Bearings front and rear

Replaced split turbo hose

It's also been hit up the rear and had a replacement tailgate, rear bumper, seatbelt and towbar !

...............

Took my daughter home on Saturday and on the way back on the M3 the car decided to go into limp mode. No warning lights on the dash but wouldn't go above 55mph. Using more than around 40% of the throttle causes it to cut the power/fuel. Seemed ok the next morning until I hit 73mph (ish exactly 120kmph) and this happened again. As long as I keep it under 70mph the car drives fine, turbo is boosting normally etc.

.........

A place that you send your dash off for repair have suggested the error with the dashboard may be causing it to enter limp mode but I've not heard of this and neither has google.

We had an '06 TDCI and had an annoying number of problems with ours too, so I commiserate with you! Bought in '09, sold in '14

We had to replace the alternator, a part of the suspension, get new fuel injectors installed at vast expense, the rear wiper motor burned out, and we, too had limp home issues for the final 18 months we had it.

What I found was that it only went into limp home when using lots of throttle in higher gears - so, joining a motorway and accellerating hard in 4th or 5th gear would do it, going up a steep hill likewise. So I learned to avoid that. We had it in to be looked at in ford dealers 3 times, they did stuff to the EGR valve, associated cabling/ pipes, turbo air pipes, replaced sensors, never fixed it. It's a shame because when it worked I liked the car, but I wasn't sorry to see the back of it.

To be fair, the Y-reg 1.8 TDI I had before that also had its share of problems, including but not limited to sticking accelerator pedal (free cruise control!) and the front passenger footwell eventually turning into a swamp thanks to a leak somewhere behind the dashboard that let water in.

Gents, I have a 14 plate Mondeo 1.6 TDCi which does the same thing on occasion - accelerate too hard and the service indicator flashes up, kills the power and sends you into limp home mode. They don't like being thrashed apparently.

nick79

exocet said:

Sounds like later versions are not as good.....useful to know  because I've decided to change mine this year.

Stay away from the 1.6 tdci, in the trade it's widely known as a dog. Plagued with turbo failures, and injector seals that fail. Problem is if the turbo isn't replaced properly it will go again, and most garages don't do it properly. 
It's a very efficient engine ( i was getting 55+ mpg round town, lots more on a good run) but it's very fragile. 

Probably no coincidence that it was developed with 'help' from Peugeot/Citroen...... 

A few years back i had a MK1 Focus 1.8 tdci, and that was great. Had it 4 years, loads of miles, never went wrong and was better to drive than any diesel family car has the right to be. In fact i'm thinking of going for one again.

ICBM

Hmmm… that makes the thousand pounds I've had to spend on my old 05 Renault Scenic in about the last three months - by far the worst year it's ever had in the eight years I've owned it, and it's only March! - seem like I've got off lightly.

Battery - only the second replacement it's ever had, so can't complain too much at nearly twelve years old.
Radiator - original, rusted through - of course a major job involving taking the whole front end off.
Exhaust tube containing catalytic convertor - at the manifold joint… at least it wasn't the manifold.
Driveshaft boot, broken suspension spring and corroded brake pipe, for MOT.

Not giving up on it yet though. It seems pretty solid otherwise and runs very well… although as the mechanic says, at this age the other front spring could break tomorrow, or something else. But it's only cost about two and a half grand in repairs in eight years, so it has some way to go before I'd consider it unreliable.