Government changes fuel, we foot the bill for this car problem

Savedotmoney

Hi all, I'm not sure if anyone has had a similar issue to this. Apparently Ford have had quite a few of their cars do it.

I have a 68 plate Ford Focus that had an engine service light come on and it kept going into limp mode.

Turns out that the car thinks that too much fuel is combusting in the engine because the sensor in the vehicle was designed for E5 fuel and not E10.

So the government changing the fuel required a software update on the vehicle and of course you can only do this at Ford.

There's nothing wrong with the car, it was the consequence of the vehicle sensor not recognising E10 fuel anymore.

The engine knock code was P130D and software update SSM 49436 fixes the issue.

A nice hefty bill later, I've fixed a car that wasn't broken. 

I feel like writing this up somewhere to make other drivers aware because they are being financially penalised for something that wasn't any fault of their own.

Has anyone got any knowledge of something similar like this or has it been contested before? Thanks.

Ayr_Rage

Suggest you complain to FORD as it is their sensor that is playing up!

E10 is cleared for use in all petrol driven Ford models sold in Europe since 1992 excluding: Ford Mondeo 1.8 SCI from 2003 to 2007. This model and Ford models sold before 1992 should continue to use E5.

Savedotmoney

Ayr_Rage said:

Suggest you complain to FORD as it is their sensor that is playing up!

E10 is cleared for use in all petrol driven Ford models sold in Europe since 1992 excluding: Ford Mondeo 1.8 SCI from 2003 to 2007. This model and Ford models sold before 1992 should continue to use E5.

I thought standard petrol changed from E5 to E10 in September 2021 in the UK?

WellKnownSid

E10 was introduced 4 years ago.  Presumably if it was an issue it would have shown up a while ago.

Ayr_Rage

E10 has been available in Europe (eg Germany 2011, France 2009) and elsewhere (eg Thailand 2007) for donkeys years.

I cannot see anyone to blame except Fix Or Repair Daily.

user1977

Why can't you just fill up with E5 instead? I thought that was still widely available.

born_again

Savedotmoney said:

Ayr_Rage said:

Suggest you complain to FORD as it is their sensor that is playing up!

E10 is cleared for use in all petrol driven Ford models sold in Europe since 1992 excluding: Ford Mondeo 1.8 SCI from 2003 to 2007. This model and Ford models sold before 1992 should continue to use E5.

I thought standard petrol changed from E5 to E10 in September 2021 in the UK?

In UK, yes. Worldwide many countries have been running it for many years. US since 2012. Hence why manufactures made sure cars were compatible.

https://www.e10info.eu/e10-in-europe/

Savedotmoney

WellKnownSid said:

E10 was introduced 4 years ago.  Presumably if it was an issue it would have shown up a while ago.

But Ford have acknowledged that it is a software update, which has fixed it.

That isn't a fault with the vehicle as such, that's because the sensor in the vehicle isn't reading the fuel right.

born_again said:

Savedotmoney said:

Ayr_Rage said:

Suggest you complain to FORD as it is their sensor that is playing up!

E10 is cleared for use in all petrol driven Ford models sold in Europe since 1992 excluding: Ford Mondeo 1.8 SCI from 2003 to 2007. This model and Ford models sold before 1992 should continue to use E5.

I thought standard petrol changed from E5 to E10 in September 2021 in the UK?

In UK, yes. Worldwide many countries have been running it for many years. US since 2012. Hence why manufactures made sure cars were compatible.

https://www.e10info.eu/e10-in-europe/

So my car should have been upgraded to make it compatible as it doesn't appear to have been updated to prevent the issue I described?

Car_54

Savedotmoney said:

WellKnownSid said:

E10 was introduced 4 years ago.  Presumably if it was an issue it would have shown up a while ago.

But Ford have acknowledged that it is a software update, which has fixed it.

That isn't a fault with the vehicle as such, that's because the sensor in the vehicle isn't reading the fuel right.

born_again said:

Savedotmoney said:

Ayr_Rage said:

Suggest you complain to FORD as it is their sensor that is playing up!

E10 is cleared for use in all petrol driven Ford models sold in Europe since 1992 excluding: Ford Mondeo 1.8 SCI from 2003 to 2007. This model and Ford models sold before 1992 should continue to use E5.

I thought standard petrol changed from E5 to E10 in September 2021 in the UK?

In UK, yes. Worldwide many countries have been running it for many years. US since 2012. Hence why manufactures made sure cars were compatible.

https://www.e10info.eu/e10-in-europe/

So my car should have been upgraded to make it compatible as it doesn't appear to have been updated to prevent the issue I described?

According to the link Ayr_Rage provided above, your car didn't need "upgraded". 

It sounds simply like a faulty sensor and/or software glitch. Either way, well out of warranty.

Ayr_Rage

Your 68 plate car should've been happy with E10 from the day it was born.

Whichever sensor is misbehaving has either degraded over time and needed recalibrating or came from a bad batch.

Ford obviously have a fix for those vehicles affected but as there hasn't been a mass recall and update for all of their vehicles with that engine, which would've made headlines, so please don't blame the government.

Savedotmoney

Ayr_Rage said:

Your 68 plate car should've been happy with E10 from the day it was born.

Whichever sensor is misbehaving has either degraded over time and needed recalibrating or came from a bad batch.

Ford obviously have a fix for those vehicles affected but as there hasn't been a mass recall and update for all of their vehicles with that engine, which would've made headlines, so please don't blame the government.

The sensor wasn't faulty nor did it need calibrating, it was a software update.

Why would it have made the headlines?

Car_54 said:

Savedotmoney said:

WellKnownSid said:

E10 was introduced 4 years ago.  Presumably if it was an issue it would have shown up a while ago.

But Ford have acknowledged that it is a software update, which has fixed it.

That isn't a fault with the vehicle as such, that's because the sensor in the vehicle isn't reading the fuel right.

born_again said:

Savedotmoney said:

Ayr_Rage said:

Suggest you complain to FORD as it is their sensor that is playing up!

E10 is cleared for use in all petrol driven Ford models sold in Europe since 1992 excluding: Ford Mondeo 1.8 SCI from 2003 to 2007. This model and Ford models sold before 1992 should continue to use E5.

I thought standard petrol changed from E5 to E10 in September 2021 in the UK?

In UK, yes. Worldwide many countries have been running it for many years. US since 2012. Hence why manufactures made sure cars were compatible.

https://www.e10info.eu/e10-in-europe/

So my car should have been upgraded to make it compatible as it doesn't appear to have been updated to prevent the issue I described?

According to the link Ayr_Rage provided above, your car didn't need "upgraded". 

It sounds simply like a faulty sensor and/or software glitch. Either way, well out of warranty.

Software just glitches?

Ford has acknowledged the issue related to the P130D fault code and the need for a software update through an internal communication SSM 49436. This SSM addresses the problem where certain Ford models, particularly those equipped with EcoBoost engines, may experience false knock sensor readings due to the use of E10 fuel.

I'm still not entirely convinced this isn't a fault that Ford were aware of and haven't circulated an update for it.