Hello my Friends

I have a little problem with my polish services

I have a issue with my Ford Mondeo 2.0 Tdci

I need to diagnose it by my self becouse mechanics from my area are so wrong and they want to suck money out of me

Do You know how to buy cheap version of VCM (it can be from second hand ) becouse in my country prices are near 700 USD.....
I do not know why please dont ask....

thank You and greetings from Poland
Tom

 

Welcome to the forum, Tom!

I would take a look on eBay. You can buy an OBD scanner for about $150:

ScanGauge II - Advanced, Ultra-compact Vehicle Monitor | eBay

or a more sophisticated VCM for about $370:

New XVCI IDS for Ford/Mazda/Landrover/Jaguar Support Ford VCM IDS Auto Scan Tool | eBay

If you need basic diagnostics, the OBDII scanner would do just fine. The prices are where they are because these tools are supposed to be money makers for their owners (here in Canada, for instance, an OBD diagnosis costs $50 and it takes 2 minutes) Personally, I have a ScanGaugeII mounted on the dash and connected to the PCM at all times so I can keep an eye on the engine, and it helped me a lot getting to the bottom of some nasty issues earlier this year.

One more thing: can you describe what issues do you have with your car? Maybe someone can point you in the right direction without even seeing any error codes, there are a few senior people on this forum worth their car's weight in gold ... literally.

Hope this helps ... let us know how it goes!

Cheers,
cougar_fan

 

Hello

Thank You for You reply

My issue is when I am driving 120 km/h and i accelerating on the dash board i have a control light flashing (glow plugs??) (my english is not so good - sorry)
I think it is on pressure regulator on the fuel pump becouse everything else i have checked and it is good
but i do not have diagnostic of everything from the engine so i need a more profesional tool to diagnose my car
Now I have ScanMaster ELM on OBDII elm 327

it is possible to do it in home ( the vcm interface)??

Best wishes

 

I think the car is trying to tell you something here :-) In Europe you should not accelerate when you're already doing 120 km/h unless you're in Germany. I lived in Europe about 30 years and drove some 10 so I know, but please take this simply as a joke.

I don't have enough experience with turbo diesels, but from what you're saying, I too think that the engine is starving when revved up too far. An easy way to figure this out is to redline the engine in the second highest gear (4th if you have a 5 speed gearbox, for instance - I assume you have a stick shift tranny): try to get the rpms where they should be when you do 120+ km/h.

It is also important what you do to accelerate when you're doing 120 - do you downshift to kick the car (and redline the engine in the process), or just floor the acceleration pedal? The two cases are different because the load (torque) on the engine is different depending on the gear while aerodynamic and rolling resistance are the same at the given speed. If you floor the acceleration, you're telling the injection pump to do its best regardless of the engine being able to burn all that fuel, so you may indeed cause a starvation condition if the fuel pump can't handle the higher flow or you have a plugged fuel filter ... heck, that could be it, did you check your inline fuel filter(s)?

A mouthful of ideas here, I know, but it's worth trying. From what you're saying, this is a transient condition (comes and goes) so unless you have some solid experience with onboard diagnostics. a high end tester alone may not do the work for you.

Let us know how it goes. Good luck!

PS: I did a quick Google search on "glow plug flashing" and it returned some interesting results (from Down Under, true, but referring to the same car and engine) - the one below explains it well. The flashing light signals that the injection pump refuses (or is unable) to deliver as much fuel as the driver asks for. The post below refers to a modified ("chipped") car; since yours is stock (or is it?), it makes me think more serious about a clogged fuel filter (or filters, if you have more than one). Give this idea a try first, filters are a lot cheaper than engine testers.

fitted performance mod, now glow plugs flashing - 1.8TD Diesel Engine (Mk1/Mk2 Mondeo) - TalkFord.com

 

Thank You verry much for Your help but my filter is new and the old was clean becouse i have looked inside.

i think with my friend it is the fuel pump - specifically pressure regulator but I must have or the interface or the part to check it

I will look and think about the interface

P.S. my car is stock not chipped amazing 115 HP Diesel Power
0 - 100 km/h - 1 year

But i think it looks good when i will clean it i will send You photo if You want