[panzaman]

Hi guys, I am quite new to this forum.

Excuse my not-so good english, I would like to tell my little tale, and see what u guys think about it..well, 2 weeks ago I bought this car from the CarGiant, a place up in london, is a black Modeo, Ghia, 2003, 2.0 TDCI 130hp, fantastic car.

After few days I have noticed this irregular behaviour of the engine on idle, every 2-3 seconds the engine would shake like it had dirty fuel or something, the effect was much more noticeable when reving up around 2000 revs. Apart from that car performance is great, the car feels very fast and the engine has not problems when on the road.

The car came with this 12 months RAC warranty, so I have contacted them, explaining the problem, they have put me in touch with a local garage, one of the Nationwide Autocentre garages.
After a couple of hours of diagnostics I have been told that the car is "probably" naked and requires replacement of the whole fuel system!!?? Diesel tank, pipes, pump and injectors...

..apparently what happened is that the previous owner has, at one point, filled up the car with petrol instead of diesel and this has created the damage..
I am not an expert, unfortunately the only thing I could request is a second opinion from a Ford garage, which is probably going to be made this coming week...

..has anybody of you had any experience with a similar problem, is it possible that the damage would be of such degree to need the whole fuel system to be replaced??...could it just be a dirty filter or maybe a collapsed diesel pump?

In the meanwhile what I have been advised by the garage is to find the previous owner and find out about the mis-fuelling, apparently would help me to demonstrate to the waranty company that the damage was caused prior to the purchase of the vehicle...

 

[paulyoung666]

hi and welcome to the madhouse that is MEG , before you take it to fords then have a go at an ecu reset , it may not help but it is free and easy to do :L

edit --- thinking on , if the car has been sold with a warranty then it has not been sold as seen , therefore you have the right to reject the car on the grounds of it not being fit for purpose , citizens advice will be able to advise you on this if necessary , i believe but i might be wrong in saying that you may need to give them the opportunity to repair the car first though :L

 

[panzaman]

thanks a lot for your prompt reply, by ECU reset do you mean disconnecting the car battery for few minutes?? because that was made by the mechanics at the Nationwide garage, nope it didn't help ...

 

[stevie boy]

no has to be disconected for about 1 hour to have any afect

 

[DavePage]

You need more than a few seconds for an ECU Reset - most say give it an hour (not sure how long you actually need though).

As Paul said above, If there is a major fault with the fuel system then the car is not fit for purpose developing a fault so quickly so you are well within your rights to reject the car and get your money back on it. Have a word with the place you bought it and say this - and if they dont seem to want to play just tell them you are going to contact Trading Standards regarding it.

 

[rainbowcar]

If you are to exercise your rights as a consumer you need to do the following:

Give the garage/warranty firm 'reasonable opportunity' to rectify the fault.

If they are unable to, you have the right to demand a refund and/or compensation within 6 months of purchasing the vehicle.

you must make sure you make it clear that the car is not satisfactory within 6 months otherwise things get tricky as it is assumed that ANY fault that arises within 6 months should have been preventable or forseeable at the time of purchase.

If there are any problems with the garage etc refusing to do work try www.dti.gov.uk and quote the law, they soon get to work!!!

 

[siacelestar]

I think you better give the dealer a ring and tell them what's going on.

I am going to do that tomorrow myself coz there are a few things which i really would like to get sorted before the warranty expires.... :whistling:

sometimes dealer is annoying... when they are trying to sell you the car everything is done instantly... anything else afterwards just take absolutely forever! :kaffeetrinker_2: I bought my car at the end of september and i still haven't got my V5 yet!

Phil

 

[Guest]

Do you have a written report from the garage who diagnosed the fault at all. If so then take it and th car back the place you brought it from , show them the report and either get them to rectify the fault or reject the car and get your money back.

If the car was run with petrol instead of diesel then it WILL have contaminated and damaged the whole fuel system. The TDCi's run under very close tolerance levels and even the slightest contamination will result in the whole system being replaced.

Jeff

 

[xyster]

Or it could be the same common problems with the injectors that many tdci`s have, especially as it happens around the 2000rpm mark.
Does it feel like a misfire when holding it around 1800-2000rpm especially when cold??

 

[panzaman]

nope, not really it feels like you are running out of diesel, if you know what I mean, feels like the pump fails to inject the diesel on some of the engine cycles.