Engine Malfunction light

laurieleigh

The 'Engine Malfunction' light keeps flashing up on our 2006 Ford S Max 1.8 tdci.


We had the rear box exhaust section fall of a couple of weeks ago. It was replaced within a couple of weeks and during that time it started blowing out a lot of black smoke and making a whooshing noise on acceleration. The mpg also dropped and the turbo was taking a while to kick in when accelerating. The garage replaced a pipe to the turbo and all was well but since we've had the car back the Engine Malfunction light will flash up momentarily when accelerating (between about 1500 and 2000rpm in 2nd and 3rd gears). It never stays on, just flashes quick and goes off once the revs are past about 2000.


Any ideas? TIA

tripled

Stick some tape over it?

laurieleigh

I'm very tempted!!

bartelbe

laurieleigh wrote: »

The 'Engine Malfunction' light keeps flashing up on our 2006 Ford S Max 1.8 tdci.


We had the rear box exhaust section fall of a couple of weeks ago. It was replaced within a couple of weeks and during that time it started blowing out a lot of black smoke and making a whooshing noise on acceleration. The mpg also dropped and the turbo was taking a while to kick in when accelerating. The garage replaced a pipe to the turbo and all was well but since we've had the car back the Engine Malfunction light will flash up momentarily when accelerating (between about 1500 and 2000rpm in 2nd and 3rd gears). It never stays on, just flashes quick and goes off once the revs are past about 2000.


Any ideas? TIA

Stab in the dark, but a manifold leak? Garage didn't do the pipe up tight enough, reving it sucks in more air via the leak. Probably wrong, but only thing I can think of.

Zeitgeist

Ask around your friends and work colleagues, some people have a OBD2 reader which may be able to tell you what the fault code is.

Cheaper than going to a garage.

m0bov

Sounds like a leak where they fitted the pipe work, as above. Was it a fast fit place? You need to get the code read.

arcon5

Sounds like you have other issues. Replacing, removing, putting holes in or whatever else you can do to a back box barring block it will not cause the EML to come on.

You say yourself the turbo lag is greater than usual, I suspect this is the issue, possibly sticking and the cars flagging up a problem when MAP data isn't matching what it is expecting/trying to acheive!

laurieleigh

Thanks for all suggestion...


the turbo (and everything else) is now fine and the car is running smoothly since the pipe was replaced. It's just this damn light that keeps popping up!


Whilst the exhaust was off I had to drive the car a couple of times and no warning lights at all appeared, it was only after the exhaust was replaced and we realized the black smoke (and apparently telltale whooshing noise) was still there that the turbo pipe problem was then sorted.


Will we be able to pull up a code if the apparent malfunction isn't always occurring?

Johnmcl7

laurieleigh wrote: »

Will we be able to pull up a code if the apparent malfunction isn't always occurring?

Yes, the system should log the error code and store it until it's manually cleared.

John

arcon5

Get the codes read, they should be stored
But don't get your hopes up thinking it's the New silencer, it's not.
What pipe was it replaced? And what reason was given?

=rizla=

The Mondeos of the same era had a turbo pipe that was prone to splitting, possibly the same one?


As has been said get the codes read, you are probably better off paying a specialist auto electrician with a ford specific reader/software rather than paying for a garage to do it with a generic OBD2 reader, and then possibly have to go to the specialist anyway. Unless of course you know somebody with one who will check for you.