Author: tjsgifanSubject: Cutting out fault, ongoing saga..
Posted: 22 Jun 2018 at 5:42pm
Hi All,
My wife's Nov 65 plate (still under warranty) 150bhp 2.0 tdci cut out momentarily 2 weeks ago - dashboard went black as if total power disconnect, power steering was lost momentarily and then it came back to life with the only warning message being the Satnav SD card was missing, which cleared itself after about 10 seconds.
Unfortunately it was not a one off incident doing it again 2x in the following 48 hours. Took it to local main dealer who diagnosed a Ford recall was outstanding for the card and performed a software update and what sounded like a firmware update on a power board which "should have fixed the problem" according to the garage.
Had the car back 24 hours and the same fault occurred 3 times - (fortunately it was only me driving, my wife and kids were at home using my car as my wife refused to drive it at this point). But at 45 mph down a country lane the dash went black and the power steering stopped, so it's still quite scary. Shortly after that one, I was about 1 mile from home continuing the journey the fault occurred again, but this time the steering wheel turned approx 150 degrees as if the "auto park" feature was rebooting and the car changed direction - fortunately I was being very cautious driving slowly at this point and I avoided an accident, pulling to the side of the road and waiting to clear it.
Got the final mile home and parked the car up, called the RAC and they have recovered it to the Ford garage. After 5 days they have this afternoon taken a look at it and have advised the battery is not holding a charge so they need to keep it over the weekend to trickle charge the battery and that should fix the problem.
So, questions - a) anyone had a similar problem where the car electronics completely reset? b) do Ford's not come with any battery low fault light? the garage says alternator is absolutely fine, charging the battery, c) what's my insurance liability if I know there is an intermittent fault that could cause an accident (if the steering takes over) - would I still be covered? and finally d) what is a reasonable time for the dealer to have the car to investigate the fault and attempt repair and should I have any right to a loan car (which I'm guessing not!).
Toby.
