What's wrong with my car?

gazfocus

I've got a 53 reg Ford Fiesta 1.4 Automatic. I was driving to work this morning and a couple of times when I went to move off, the car seemed to judder/struggle, jumped from 1st gear to 3rd, then went to 4th then 5th (at 40mph) and then engine warning light flashed a few times then went off. The car was then ok for a few mins then it happened again.

I know I need to get the error code to get a proper diagnosis but just wondering if anyone has any ideas as to what it could be. I've got a 33 mile drive to get home so just worried about the car making it home and trying to decide whether to go the motorway way (with few stopping points (traffic lights, etc), or the non-motorway way).

bigjl.

The motorway isn't really the place you want to be breaking down.

vax2002

A poor battery can cause control faults in automatics, check battery leads are clean keep everything off that does not need to be on and get the battery checked.
then worry about what else it could be.

gazfocus

bigjl. wrote: »

The motorway isn't really the place you want to be breaking down.

That's what I was thinking. Broke down on a motorway before and it was horrible. Would much rather break down on a less busy road.

vax2002 wrote: »

A poor battery can cause control faults in automatics, check battery leads are clean keep everything off that does not need to be on and get the battery checked.
then worry about what else it could be.

Thanks, will have a look.

Any other suggestions would be most welcome.

fivetide

Can you check the fluid on these?

Bar the battery that's the only thing I can think of. sometimes and extra dipstick at the back of the engine.

I'm just hoping the box isn't cream crackered!

5t.

gazfocus

fivetide wrote: »

Can you check the fluid on these?

Bar the battery that's the only thing I can think of. sometimes and extra dipstick at the back of the engine.

I'm just hoping the box isn't cream crackered!

5t.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not 100% sure without looking. My old car (an Astra Automatic) had a 2nd dipstick next to the oil one. However, I had the car serviced about 1000-2000 miles ago so would hope it'd be ok in that respect. I must admit, my first thought was the gearbox.

Well I've got my sat nav on charge so I can go home avoiding the motorway and have got the car booked into a garage for Tuesday but need it to get me to work on Monday

fivetide

Our old auto Mondeo had a dipstick hidden at the back of the engine behind the manifold.

What happened with that is one of the bands in the 'box went so it would only get to third geear. It would hit 4th then pop out again and refuse to go back.

We had an o/d (overdrive) light on the dash that flashed to warn of a gearbox fault. This was a 2000 car though so fiesta might be different.

5t.

vax2002

Check the battery before the garage get hold of it trust me !
many places will do free checks and soak test the battery.
Once a two bob mechanic gets his hands on a code reader and starts chasing pigeons swapping sensors the bill can escalate ten fold and the problem still exists.
sensors on cars work by detecting voltage changes and a low voltage battery or poor earth to engine can cause no end of sensor codes and false readings.
No code reading should ever be taken without a voltage test on the battery first and then an earth impedance reading to the engine, any mechanic who does not start with these two basic checks should not be anywhere near a car.
The misuse of code readers has caused no end of huge bills and no fix for motorists when a few simple basic checks could have just sorted them out.
I remember one car (vauxhall astra auto) ) that had had a new cam sensor, a new crank sensor, a new speed sensor for the Auto box , then a new ecu ! bill at £1850+ vat and it still had the fault, they told the poor lady it needed a new wiring loom, my mate got the multimeter out, hmm 11 volts and only charging on 5 cells, new battery at £44.50 + 1 hour labour and away she drove never to have another problem.
All for putting a meter on the battery.
for the more technically minded
the ABCD of engine management light diagnostics.
A = Alternator Check voltage is not too low/ too high when running
B = Battery check voltage running and non running, check battery is accepting charge
C = Current check the impedance on wiring feeds to engine and bypass earth from battery to engine and check again
D= Diagnostics, only connect Diagnostics machine when A+B+C are all check and confirmed in order.

They are far too many plug in merchants with code readers these days that miss simple basic bread and butter faults that are causing sensors to trigger in the first place.

Strider590

Bad idea to mention batteries.......

The "My battery is like new after 8 years" brigade will be along shortly

gazfocus

vax2002 wrote: »

I remember one car (vauxhall astra auto) ) that had had a new cam sensor, a new crank sensor, a new speed sensor for the Auto box , then a new ecu ! bill at £1850+ vat and it still had the fault, they told the poor lady it needed a new wiring loom, my mate got the multimeter out, hmm 11 volts and only charging on 5 cells, new battery at £44.50 + 1 hour labour and away she drove never to have another problem.
All for putting a meter on the battery.
for the more technically minded
the ABCD of engine management light diagnostics.
A = Alternator Check voltage is not too low/ too high when running
B = Battery check voltage running and non running, check battery is accepting charge
C = Current check the impedance on wiring feeds to engine and bypass earth from battery to engine and check again
D= Diagnostics, only connect Diagnostics machine when A+B+C are all check and confirmed in order.

They are far too many plug in merchants with code readers these days that miss simple basic bread and butter faults that are causing sensors to trigger in the first place.

Thanks, I'll go out and get a voltage meter. I would've thought 11 volts would be ok though so how do I test if it's working properly?

vax2002

to be honest, I would get a good garage to test it using a soak/ dump tester.
Do you know how old the battery is ?
On auto s jumping gear it is the number 1 thing to eliminate.
Then if it persists you start on the expensive stuff.