Mondeo diesel glow plug light flashing... oh dear oh dear.

[PitmanJack]

So today i drove from Barnsley to Basingstoke and then back again - almost 400 miles. Now, 300 of those miles were driven below 2000rpm and with super gentle acceleration - top speed is now 60mph max. Why? Because on the way down just as i was coming off the M1 the car decided to drop all boost when i accelerated and died on me.

So i pulled into the hard shoulder, turned off the engine, waited, turned it back on and then went to re-join traffic... and it happened again. Basically its fked and the next 300 miles were tedious and frustrating - try driving a turbo diesel without revving it enough to get the turbo spooling up and you'll see what i mean.

A Reliant Robbin overtook me for christ sake.

Any ideas what's wrong? Injectors? Broken turbo? EGR valve?

At this rate a new car might be on the cards this weekend. Bangernomics style.

[SMcP114]

I had one done this. The glow plug light flashed, car went into limp mode before eventually cutting out. The steering lock on at 70 is an interesting experience.

It was injectors the first time, then the pump went with the same symtoms. Disaster.

[Bohally]

I had similar symptoms when I had my mondeo. Flashing glow plug light, 30 seconds later, cut out completely. Turned out to be injectors. Happened twice within 10 weeks. Punted it to Arnold Clark.

Mate had identical symptons to yours, he ended up replacing injectors, turbo, egr from memory.

[Jezzerh]

Happened to me on a 52 plate Mondy. Twice in two months. £400 a go for new injectors as Ford was the only place that had the software to calibrate them at the time. Good luck!

[Bohally]

What sort of mileage has your Mondeo done? Mine went about the 120k mark initially then 10 weeks later about 125k.

[PitmanJack]

Its got 145k on it but I've only had the car just over 3 month. Its had 4 new tires, a new exhaust, tracking done and new front disks and pads fitted, plus a service. And now it behaves like this.

It might be time to cut my losses and get out while i can before it becomes a complete money pit.

[anonymous-user]

Don't panic!

Glowplug light / reduced power can be caused by a failing or sticking EGR valve. Get someone to plug in a dongle to the ecu to check the error code (engine has to be running with the glowplug light lit). A new EGR was about £100 to fix mine when I eventually got around to replacing it. Before this I just stuck a blanking plate in and it ran fine, although the management light was on all the time.

Don't have the injectors changed unless as a last resort! A fuel filter blocking up on these cars can cause the same sort of symptoms - which can be wrongly diagnosed as injector problems by ford dealers believe it or not. Had this problem on mine too, a new filter fixed it immediately.

Had my 56 plate TDCI since it was a year old. 120k miles on it now, and aside from these two problems along the way, it still runs lovely.

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 10th July 22:48

[Bohally]

I wouldn't write the car off yet. A colleague has a 55 plate Mondeo Estate TDCI on 175k on original clutch, injectors etc. Get the issues sorted and it should last a while. Reckon the Mondeo is the only car I've had that I regret getting rid off. When it worked, it did everything pretty well.

[vanordinaire]

Any black smoke? Common problem is a split in the rubber hose going from the intercooler to the turbo. You loose all turbo boost and lots of black smoke out of the exhaust. New hose and it's fine.

[37Flipper]

This happened to my old car a few months ago. The first thing I did was remove the egr and give it a thorough clean. It'll only cost you a can of can cleaner and a bit of how grease.

Unfortunately this didn't fix it so I took it to an Indy and it was the injectors. It cost me about £200 including the diagnosing the problem and it was running perfectly. Apparently you can remove the injectors and get them refurbed, but that means going without the car for a few days.

So, clean the egr and then take it from there.

Cheers

Flipper

[Scat]

Removed all 4 injectors from my 52 plate Mondeo TDCI and they were caked with black junk. Cleaned them and let the end nozzles soak in carb cleaner over night then brushed again. Put back in car and after bleeding lines again and new battery the car started after being sat for almost 2 years. It had a fair amount of blue smoke for awhile which isn't surprising but after about 30 mins that has now gone. Initially the car wouldn't rev up without hesitation, that too has now gone and it rev's easily and normally. I took the car out for a run but it seems void of absolutely any power. It does not hesitate and the car accelerates smoothly, almost oblivious to how much I'm pressing the accelerator. No sputtering or knocking sounds from engine, just no rapid increase. The car will get up to 60 - 70mph, again as if it's supposed to do it like that, but a moped probably has as much acceleration. The glow plug light is on a constant slow flash. 2 years ago the garage doing the MOT said injectors 1 & 3 needed replacing. Something tells me replacing those injectors isn't going to fix problem. Would the car run this smoothly - almost normally if the turbo wasn't spooling or providing boost? There is no engine management light on, so wouldn't the EGR valve throw off a sensor to turn on the engine management light? A buddy is coming round with his code reader tomorrow, just wanted to get some advice here first.

[bearman68]

In my experience it's hugely likely to be injectors. Yes it's possible that it's a split hose, or a blocked EGR, but brace yourself for a new set of injectors.
If it does turn out to be that, drop a magnet into the tank - covered in metal fileings,and the pump will need changing to (and the fuel lines cleaned out,and new filters etc etc.

Sorry.

[cptsideways]

If these run the Delphi system, when the injectors hit 8 million cycles they need "re-calibrating" which entails deleting a line of code in the ecu & re-entering it.

[DickP]

Out of interest what is the sort of mileage that has 8 mil cycles on them?

[cptsideways]

It might have some extra 0's but the Delphi system requires a recal after X cycles, or you get these faults.

[MandyRaff]

Hi guys (and girls),

I have the same problem with my 55 plate Mondeo - I actually just joined your lovely forum so I could post to see if I could find out what was wrong with my car!! She was fine (sort of) until last week when she wouldn't start and a local garage thought the starter motor was stuck.

Anyway, since then the glow plug light flashes every time I start the car until I have driven about a mile and then I can turn it off and on again and it's fine for the rest of the journey.

I was more worried that I am doing more damage driving with it in this condition - any thoughts on that?

I will get my other half to try some of the remedies posted on here before I have to take it to a garage.

I have a diagnostics tool for the car - any idea what error codes I am looking for?

Many thanks in advance,
Mandy.

[myvision]

What codes is it telling you?

[MandyRaff]

myvision said:

What codes is it telling you?

I haven't actually plugged it in yet!! Lol. I will try and do it tonight and let you know.

[Scat]

Update: obtained another injector from a running (no code) mondeo and due to the P2336 code I replaced #1 injector. Car still smokes under load, has a distinct knock until engine was warm. Tried clearly code and would not go away. Driving car still has no pick up (no turbo - assume safe mode still engaged) and now there is an occasional nasty rattle. At my wits end with the car. That is the only code that comes up too. Any thoughts? Friends have considered breaking the car for parts and getting something else. Problem is what can I buy for £500 that isn't likely to have the same problems?

[2chins]

Hi everybody I was driving my 2004 TDCI mondeo with 119,000 miles when it lost all power and the yellow coil light started flashing so I took it straight to the garage and the plugged it in and told me the turbo had gone I wasn't very happy so I took it home and parked it up. The next day I got in it to move it and it was driving fine again all day till latter that night when it done it again lost all power the next day I took it to a different garage and the same thing the turbo has gone . I've not used it for two days got in it today driving fine all day I'm no mechanic but if the turbo had gone it would not just start working again would it ?? And ideas thanks