Ford Mondeo 2003 130 TDCi - Charging light on - Engine Management Unit?

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Sat 14 May 2011 11:37
Ford Mondeo 2003 130 TDCi - Charging light on - Engine Management Unit? - mikeh2000

I bought a Ford Mondeo about 6 months ago from Ebay, and so far it's cost over £1000 in repairs. After about 4 months both rear bearings went within 2 weeks of each other, and then a month ago both front springs went within 2 days of each other!

I'm tempted to think its a bit of a lemon, but none of the faults above could really be temporarily fixed, especially as it took 4 months for any problems to come up.

The latest thing now is that the charging light comes on; the garage have 'fixed' it 3 times now by putting 3new alternators on (the first 2 were pattern, the 3rd one a genuine new Ford one), but after a couple of days at the most the light comes on again. The last time the garage delivered it back home, and when I started it up this morning it came on!

They've also checked all the wiring, connections, and liased with the local Ford garage who advised them to fit a genuine Ford alternator, and they've basically had the vehicle in and out of their workshop for nearly 2 weeks now with this problem.

Then latest charging problems cost me over £500, and they are now talking about the ECU possibly being at fault, which I'm guessing won't be cheap!

Is this likely to be the fault; we're going on holiday soon and I really want the thing fixed, if I don't trust it then I'll have to hire a car which I don't really want to do.

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Sat 14 May 2011 12:23
Ford Mondeo 2003 130 TDCi - Charging light on - Engine Management Unit? - Collos25

If you do not use a proper Ford alternator these are the problems that can occur in a recent post the car had exactly the same problem only cured by fitting the correct Ford part.

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Sat 14 May 2011 14:06
Ford Mondeo 2003 130 TDCi - Charging light on - Engine Management Unit? - mikeh2000

Thanks for the reply Andy, but the last alternator fitted was a genuine Ford one, as they liased with the local Ford garage who advised them to fit a genuine one.

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Sat 14 May 2011 15:05
Ford Mondeo 2003 130 TDCi - Charging light on - Engine Management Unit? - Collos25

Does the car work ok with the lights on if so I would not worry the car is to old to be throwing large amounts of money at.

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Sat 14 May 2011 22:20
Ford Mondeo 2003 130 TDCi - Charging light on - Engine Management Unit? - ddr

Have you tried changing the battery?

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Sat 21 May 2011 19:50
Ford Mondeo 2003 130 TDCi - Charging light on - Engine Management Unit? - mikeh2000

The garage I took it to could not find any fault with it, so took it to a Bosch specialist, who actually trains Ford technicians, so is pretty much top of the tree. It was returned with a bridging wire fitted as he stated that there was a fault in the bridging loom, but after having it back a day the problem came back! It's charging ok, and from talking to him on the phone it can only be the ECU, as I've looked into the symptoms a bit more. Basically the red light will come on after about 20 seconds, and stay on; after about 10 miles, if you switch the ignition off then back on, the red light will stay off; it also stays off if you drive the car within 24 hours-ish of last driving it. As I work shifts and live in the middle of nowhere, it's got to be fixed, and on that basis is the ECU repairable, or simply a like for like replacement, for big bucks?

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