Couple of weeks ago I was driving out of Geelong and the engine went dead. Right outside the Ford factory strangely enough!
Turning the key activated the stereo, but the starter motor wouldn't even crank.
Anyways RACV guy came and had a fiddle with the battery, fuses etc. At first the radio in the car still worked when the key was in the acc position. Something happened when he fiddled with the fuses under the dash, and the "System Code Error" message appeared on the ICC screen. RACV man popped out the Starter solonoid from under the bonnet and ran a wire across the circuit and the engine cranked over, just wouldn't start. Said there was nothing else he could do so the car was towed.
Spent the next week at the mechanics. Auto electrician came in and looked at it, final diagnosis was that the ECU had a warped circuit board in it. Said it would have to be replaced. Ford quoted me 3400 for the job.
Couple of days later the mechanic rang me and said that my car had suddenly started turning over. He charged the battery overnight and I drove the car home about 30km on the freeway the next day without issue.
Didn't drive it for a few days, trying to take it out of the garage as little as possible as the problem hadn't really been fixed. Only short trips.
Happened again today, the engine suddenly cut when I was doing about 65. Once again, turning the key didn't make the engine crank.
In my garage now and I have disconnected the battery to try to reset the ECU, no luck.
Don't really know where to go now, I could start taking the ICC out to look at the BEM, but would rather not if I didn't have to. Seems like an intermittent problem.
Most people seem to think it's a problem with the immobiliser, but I don't understand why it would suddenly start to work again.
By the way, replaced the battery about a month and a half ago. Problems only started after that.
Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.
Cheers
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Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 AT 7:24 PM
