Any car mechanics out there that can help a lady….

kippers

I have a 2017 Ford fiesta eco boost with 44,000 on the clock.  I brought the car when it was one year old.  A couple of weeks ago the car started ‘limping’ every so often ie i put my foot on the accelerator and nothing happened and then it was ok for a bit until it happened again.  The garage told me it was the clutch and they changed it and it cost me £550, which obviously wasnt covered by the warranty 😱😱😱

After i drove it away the ‘service light’ came on and then on the little screen it said “hill start assist unavailable”.  I took it back to the garage on two separate occasions and they cant find the fault.  They have turned off the ‘ hill start assist’ and they have said the car will be fine to drive it and it does actually seem to be ok now.  However, i said it must be something to do with the clutch change and they need to fix it.  The manager said he will have a read up and see if he can find the answer and ring me when he has found something, so i can then bring the car back in, but i think im being fobbed off……can anyone give me some advice pls?

angrycrow

It seems to be a common and recurring issue for Ford owners. Some of the possible causes. 

1 tyre pressure too low or too high on one tyre throwing out the ABS readings.
2 faulty ABS sensor Messing up the readings. 
3 faulty brake pedal switch. 
4 blown brake light fuse. 
5 low battery charge, this one causes havock on modern cars including electric power steering issues. 

Sorry but it will need a decent code reader to sort out why it's not working. 

Easy option is simply to turn hill start assist off and use the clutch/handbrake for hill starts assuming this is a manual car. Before any says it Ford automatics like Power Shift use a clutch so OP car could be an auto. 

kippers

angrycrow said:

It seems to be a common and recurring issue for Ford owners. Some of the possible causes. 

1 tyre pressure too low or too high on one tyre throwing out the ABS readings.
2 faulty ABS sensor Messing up the readings. 
3 faulty brake pedal switch. 
4 blown brake light fuse. 
5 low battery charge, this one causes havock on modern cars including electric power steering issues. 

Sorry but it will need a decent code reader to sort out why it's not working. 

Easy option is simply to turn hill start assist off and use the clutch/handbrake for hill starts assuming this is a manual car. Before any says it Ford automatics like Power Shift use a clutch so OP car could be an auto. 

@angrycrow thank you…..They have turned the hill start off and they said to me that the code reader says there is a faulty brake light, but they checked the brake light and there wasnt a fault.  Will the car ok if i leave the hill start off and dont look into the problem?…..if so im happy to do this

angrycrow

Knowing the code narrows it down. It could be a bulb on its way out. The filament sometimes breaks but rests in place causing intermittent bulb failure.

Stick two new bulbs in the brake lights and switch hsa back on in the menu. If it fails again you have ruled out the bulbs so most likely the brake pedal switch. 

The switch should be easy to swap out and takes under 5 minutes. They can be purchased from amazon for under £10 but quality unknown or £17.33 from GSF. 

Goudy

The brake and tail light share a single bulb.
They are what's known as a twin filament bulbs, one filament works in the bulb as a tail light and the other fliament in the same bulb as the brake light.

Sometimes the contact (silver metal blob) on the base of the bulb can burn away or fur up with green gunk and cause the bulb to short across the other filament causing all sorts of problems.

As it's a cheap place to start as Angrycrow suggests, replace the brake/tail bulbs with new and it's worth spraying some contact cleaner in the bulb holders.

Also check the brake fluid level (the clutch hydraulics share the same fluid/reseroir as the brakes).
As the clutch has been changed the fluid level might have dropped or had some removed to allow the clutch slave cylinder to be pushed back and it's now below minimum.
This might account for the hill hold turning off and other warnings as it thinks there is a brake fluid fault.

kippers

Thank you so much for your help @angrycrow and @Goudy i will check the brake fluid level and the bulbs XXX

kippers

We checked the brake fluid and it is fine but i was driving to halfords to change the bulb and the car started to lose power again and the ‘service now’ came on again ( it was serviced last month).  I managed to get home with it ‘limping’ again but i think i will book it in with the ford garage where we brought it from in the hope whatever is wrong with it will be covered under the warranty.  The big question is if the original garage changed the clutch when it wasnt the clutch at fault and charged us £559 for the privilege.  I find it so frustrating that i cant do anything or argue the case  

Grey_Critic

I have been retired for a few years now but I think the same system applies with most makes. When I was with Ford there were regular Technical Service Bulletins - TSBs - that addressed reported problems and provided the fix, in many cases these were carried out under warranty even though the warranty had expired. It may be that your problem is one of those.

kippers

Grey_Critic said:

I have been retired for a few years now but I think the same system applies with most makes. When I was with Ford there were regular Technical Service Bulletins - TSBs - that addressed reported problems and provided the fix, in many cases these were carried out under warranty even though the warranty had expired. It may be that your problem is one of those.

Thank you @Grey_Critic…..so hopefully Ford will be able to fix it properly this time.  Maybe I should have gone to them in the first place rather than the garage i went to

XXX

Username03725

kippers said:

.

Thank you @Grey_Critic…..so hopefully Ford will be able to fix it properly this time.  Maybe I should have gone to them in the first place rather than the garage i went to

XXX

This is one of those reasons where an occasional visit to the main dealer can be useful; it allows you to check that any outstanding work can be done to keep the car up to date. Safety recalls are notified to the registered keeper by letter, non-safety work is done as and when, usually when the car is in for service.

kippers

Username03725 said:

kippers said:

.

Thank you @Grey_Critic…..so hopefully Ford will be able to fix it properly this time.  Maybe I should have gone to them in the first place rather than the garage i went to

XXX

This is one of those reasons where an occasional visit to the main dealer can be useful; it allows you to check that any outstanding work can be done to keep the car up to date. Safety recalls are notified to the registered keeper by letter, non-safety work is done as and when, usually when the car is in for service.

Thank you @Username03725 XXX