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2002 Ford Focus TDCi 115 - Lumpy idle after injector recode - Scottishrob79

Last week car was running fine, then glowplug light came on during a journey. Went into limp mode and next day car wouldn't start. Local garage took it to local diesel specialist who diagnosed that the injectors needed recoding. He said he used brand new codes and he also wipe everything clear and tested all four injectors. Even though the car is on 130,000, supposedly all four perform like they're brand new.

Since I've had the car back, when the car is left for a number of hours and then started, the idle is quite lumpy and jumps about between 600-1000 revs, but only for about 30 secs, then levels out normally. I was quite a cold morning this morning and even though I turned the glowplug lights on and off three times it was quite a pain to start.

After the 30 seconds from starting, the car runs and performs perfectly. To note, I cleaned and blanked the egr a few months back, the fuel filter is changed every year (last in december) I use super (non supermarket) diesel, the cam sensor has already been changed and the glow plugs are only about a year old.

Anyone have any ideas????

2002 Ford Focus TDCi 115 - Lumpy idle after injector recode - Collos25

I cleaned and blanked the egr a few months back,

Hmmm

2002 Ford Focus TDCi 115 - Lumpy idle after injector recode - Scottishrob79

Thanks for that, anyone else

2002 Ford Focus TDCi 115 - Lumpy idle after injector recode - elekie&a/c doctor

The injector coding is unique to each injector.If the original injectors were refitted to the engine in the same order that they were removed, then the same codes would be entered into the engine ecu.If different injectors were fitted,then the injector re-programming sequence would need to be carried out.From the description of your running problem,I would replace the fuel filter first ,then if there is no improvement,consider some refurbed or exchange injectors.!00k miles is about the life of tdci injectors on these Focus models.The coding is basically a fine tuning of the injector perfomance.hth

Edited by elekie&a/c doctor on 14/03/2013 at 18:16

2002 Ford Focus TDCi 115 - Lumpy idle after injector recode - Scottishrob79

Would the injectors need changing though if they have been fully tested and passed with flying colours?

2002 Ford Focus TDCi 115 - Lumpy idle after injector recode - Scottishrob79

Also should mention that after initial start, engine is nice and quiet

2002 Ford Focus TDCi 115 - Lumpy idle after injector recode - BenG

Could the replacement glow plugs be dodgy (I hear some aftermarket ones are), or perhaps you have a wiring fault to one or more of them (maybe caused when replacing them) meaning they are not preheating properly?

Did the symptoms start after blanking the EGR or is it more recent? Might help to eliminate that as a potential cause.

Also I understand the ECU can sometimes 'lose' injector codes, so although they were recoded it's possible one or more are not operating correctly.

Also, how were the injectors tested? Was it a proper flowbench test for flow rates and spray patterns? Would not be surprised if there was some wear after 130k miles so the injectors might no longer be performing in accordance with their original codings.

Finally, a naive question: Could a defective coolant temperature sensor be affecting the cold start fuelling?