2012 MC Mondeo 2.0L Ecoboost Titanium – Cylinder Issue, Advice Sought

[c4mn]

Hi all, seeking some advice to try and diagnose my Mondeo.

I purchased a 2012 MC Mondeo 2.0L Ecoboost Titanium in 2013 as a demo from a car yard. Been faultless for 7 years until the weekend. Has only done just on 80,000 km.

Was driving to my outlaws farm and it was really wet with lots of water on the road. Went up a hill and was overtaking someone at the time and noticed power loss. This continued to get worse and found the car was struggling to maintain speed up hills.

Parked the car at the farmhouse and let it sit for a couple of hours. On start it was rough and went into limp mode straight away with the engine light coming on and flashing when over 3,000 rpm until the revs came back to idle and then it would go out.

We thought it might be a coil or plug so we disconnected the leads one by one and found that unplugging cylinder 2 made no difference, whereas the others would start to stall the engine. Swapped the coil from cylinder 2 with one of the other cylinders and issue persisted on cylinder 2, so ruled out the coil. Did the same thing with the spark plug with he same result, problem stayed with cylinder 2. Noticed (to my delight) that the plug from cylinder 2 was damp with what looked like a little oil, but could have been petrol (given I had it unplugged, I don’t have the best mechanical knowledge so am guessing about this).

I managed to get hold of an OBD2 reader and it had ECU P0302 on the display. I am not sure though if this was caused by me unplugging the leads or if it was an actual fault. I cleared the code and tried to get the code to come up again however it didn’t and I was unable to generate any new codes after it was cleared, even though the engine light was coming on and the car was in limp mode.

Listening to the exhaust at idle you could hear a sucking like sound as cylinder 2 took its turn.

Brother-in-law suggested that it may be a cam sensor that got some water in it from the drive down. I was thinking could also be a blocked injector or an issue with the wiring.

There was no sign of black or white smoke from the exhaust when the power loss occurred on the drive to the farm, that I could see out the back anyways. The oil was a bit low, put 2.5L in and it came up to the top of the fill area on the dipstick (serviced 7mths ago), but this is normal for the car and I have changed the oil and filter in-between services for the last few years to avoid a low oil situation.

There were no signs of an oil leak that I could see. One thing I did notice is when I took the plastic engine cover off there was a small amount of oil on the left underside and underneath this which would be left of the coils when looking at the engine there are two circular (sensors?) that screw in and have a wire cable plugged in on top of them (one is above the other). There was oil sitting in the groove around the top of the threads of both of these that didn’t look like it belonged there, but I don’t know what these are and haven’t been able to locate a diagram to find out. There were no signs of oil anywhere else in the engine bay so not sure if this is significant or not.

I had to leave the car at the farm (2 ½ hour drive) and return to the city for work on Monday.

I am seeking advice and suggestions as to what may have occurred, or what to look for to see if I can rule out some possible causes and determine the problem. I will head back this weekend (likely with a hired car trailer to bring it home) and can try a few things to see if I can get the car out of limp mode and the cylinder to start firing again, any guidance on what to try and what to look for would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[aussiblue]

re are two circular (sensors?) that screw in and have a wire cable plugged in on top of them (one is above the other)

The variable camshaft oil control solenoids one for intake and one for exhaust? These:



and

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FVT165-V...-/143011834622

See: https://talkford.com/community/topic...-vct-oil-leak/

[aussiblue]

Went up a hill and was overtaking someone at the time and noticed power loss

If the oil level was low the pump may have suffered momentary oil starvation working hard on a upward slope. I hope not but 2.5 litres is a considerable shortfall and I would be concerned. Oil may have been spraying out of one or both of the variable camshaft oil control solenoids and getting worse for some time.

managed to get hold of an OBD2 reader and it had ECU P0302 on the display.

Code P0302 indicate misfire on cylinder 3 so if there was indeed oil starvation perhaps the major damage was restricted to cylinder 2. I would get a USB (e.g. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/6-LED-US...frcectupt=true) or stand alone borescope (e.g. https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/...=en_AU&start=1 and poke it down a spark plug hole to check for score marks on the wall on number two cylinder and see what the top of the piston looked like. If buying USB borescope look for the one with the smallest head so you know you can fit down the hole and the most lights so you can see as much as possible.

I hope someone can suggest a less expensive cause and it turns out to be something simpler and easier and cheaper to fix.

[aussiblue]

plug from cylinder 2 was damp with what looked like a little oil, but could have been petrol

Almost certainly fuel if there was a misfire per the fault code. Let's hope it was just a water on the ignition coil on plug 1 causing it to fail.

[aussiblue]

Given a service oil fill excluding the filter is 3.9 litres (4.3 with filter), it sound like there might have only been around a litre left in the sump so a real reason to be concerned about the risk of at least momentary oil starvation when the remaining oil perhaps flowed to the non pump pic up side of the sump while on a hill.

[c4mn]

Thank you aussiblue. I confirm the variable camshaft oil control solenoids were the ones that had oil in the groove at the top of their threads and appeared to have sprayed some oil on the underneath of the removable engine cover.

The DTC code was P0302 and the cylinder that had stopped working was the second one from the left when looking at the engine from the front of the car (I assumed cylinder 2, but thought I would clarify in case I was incorrect). I am unsure if the DTC was because I had unplugged the coils when testing or if from the actual issue and was unable to generate it again after clearing.

I will see if I can find a borescope and have a look when I head back on the weekend.

Looking at the post from the link, the oil that was present in my engine was only a small amount and had not sprayed anywhere else in the engine bay, but what was there definitely appeared to be from the solenoids. It is possible that there is oil in the connectors on top of the solenoids so will check this as well.

I will bring the car back to the city on a trailer and get a compression test done.

This is a very rookie question, is the cylinder not firing because the ECU has turned it off, given that the coil and spark plug appeared to work ok in a different cylinder? I figured that even with a compression issue that it would still generate some force when the fuel ignited, but in this case it appears that there is no activity in the cylinder at all which I find confusing.

[aussiblue]

This is a very rookie question, is the cylinder not firing because the ECU has turned it off, given that the coil and spark plug appeared to work ok in a different cylinder? I figured that even with a compression issue that it would still generate some force when the fuel ignited, but in this case it appears that there is no activity in the cylinder at all which I find confusing.

If there has been oil starvation a valve (or valves) on cylinder two may have been damaged or even dropped and the ECU may be able to detect that directly or indirectly (i.e cylinder 2's Knock Sensor) and cut off the fuel and or ignition to that cylinder. Ditto with seized ring(s) on cylinder 2; the knock sensor would detect it.

You might this recent Allan Howatt video interesting. While it's a diesel engine (albeit incidently also a Mondeo) it shows how oil starvation can impact one cylinder more than others. This ones is also relevant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCotRrU475M

[aussiblue]

Also stick the borescope in the oil filler cap and have a look at the camshaft and valve gear for cylinder 2.

[aussiblue]

I will see if I can find a borescope and have a look when I head back on the weekend.

Supercheap also have a much cheaper Toolpro one on clearance in some stores and Jaycar have a range of them them (see https://www.jaycar.com.au/usb-inspec...2-25m/p/QC3373 and https://www.jaycar.com.au/inspection...h-lcd/p/QC8710 and https://www.jaycar.com.au/inspection...ation/p/QC8716 and https://www.jaycar.com.au/inspection...creen/p/QC8712) as do Altronics (https://www.altronics.com.au/p/s8747...3.6-metre-9mm/ and https://www.altronics.com.au/p/s8747...i-app-control/ ). Autobarn also have this: https://www.autobarn.com.au/to27998

As Scotty Kilmer says, they have endless uses in the car and elsewhere (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh9v9qSn87U and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgqY0sRnXbo and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtFCiIUQX0I).

[aussiblue]

BTW you can download the whole Ford Factory Workshop Manual for your Mondeo from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtFCiIUQX0I for about US$2.95 for a 72 hours subscription.

[aussiblue]

BTW you can download the whole Ford Factory Workshop Manual for your Mondeo from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtFCiIUQX0I for about US$2.95 for a 72 hours subscription.

Oops something went wrong with my copy and paste there; wrong link that should be: https://www.motorcraftservice.com

[c4mn]

thank you aussiblue, greatly appreciated