Fixed a car with a software update!

[Stalker 180]

Well I had a right old head scratcher in our workshop between Christmas and new year. 

I had given our main mechanic the week off and I only had my 23 year old fitter/ question asker / torch holder in to assist me. 

We had a customer bring a Ford Kuga back in for a re occurring DPF fault that we had in with us in September and had fitted a new glow plug to the vaporiser and given a regen, I thought we had seen the back of it. 

It came back in with a blocked DPF (300% full) and a faulty temperature sensor this time. It was on the bones of its arse in regards to diesel too (I had educated the customer in September... but chose not to listen to me). Anyway we couldn’t get the car to do a forced regen as ther was a code that wouldn’t clear in the ECU. 

Translated it said that the vehicle conditions were incorrect for a DPF regen. 

It didn’t matter what we did to clear the adaptions we couldn’t get the car to read less than 237% dpf saturation. 

Anyhow, we ended up using our Bosch KTS to to a pass thru software update from ford over the internet. £21 for the software from Ford and it reset all of the learned values, new temp sensor and a regen... now reading 15%! 

 

The he good news is we sorted it without a visit to ford where no doubts they would have wanted to fit a whole new car before doing a software update 

 

I have never really bought into the software update theories, anyway... our younger tech wants to do software updates on everything now, even for unevenly worm tyres! 

[Tom 164]

Really common on the Kugas good seller but the DPF are hassle. I've got one in stock now that has already had a new DPF filter fitted which is a bonus. I know the DPF pressure sensor next to the battery area are usually a common fix. 

[lastyboy 23]

2 hours ago, Tom said:

Really common on the Kugas good seller but the DPF are hassle. I've got one in stock now that has already had a new DPF filter fitted which is a bonus. I know the DPF pressure sensor next to the battery area are usually a common fix. 

Done many pressure sensors on these.

[Stalker 180]

11 hours ago, Tom said:

Really common on the Kugas good seller but the DPF are hassle. I've got one in stock now that has already had a new DPF filter fitted which is a bonus. I know the DPF pressure sensor next to the battery area are usually a common fix. 

 

 

9 hours ago, lastyboy said:

Done many pressure sensors on these.

Yes we have done quite a few of those strange looking type sensor ones too.

This one is a MK2 Kuga - the sensor us underneath next to the DPF on this model.

[DigitalAutos 3]

21 hours ago, Stalker said:

Well I had a right old head scratcher in our workshop between Christmas and new year. 

I had given our main mechanic the week off and I only had my 23 year old fitter/ question asker / torch holder in to assist me. 

We had a customer bring a Ford Kuga back in for a re occurring DPF fault that we had in with us in September and had fitted a new glow plug to the vaporiser and given a regen, I thought we had seen the back of it. 

It came back in with a blocked DPF (300% full) and a faulty temperature sensor this time. It was on the bones of its arse in regards to diesel too (I had educated the customer in September... but chose not to listen to me). Anyway we couldn’t get the car to do a forced regen as ther was a code that wouldn’t clear in the ECU. 

Translated it said that the vehicle conditions were incorrect for a DPF regen. 

It didn’t matter what we did to clear the adaptions we couldn’t get the car to read less than 237% dpf saturation. 

Anyhow, we ended up using our Bosch KTS to to a pass thru software update from ford over the internet. £21 for the software from Ford and it reset all of the learned values, new temp sensor and a regen... now reading 15%! 

 

The he good news is we sorted it without a visit to ford where no doubts they would have wanted to fit a whole new car before doing a software update 

 

I have never really bought into the software update theories, anyway... our younger tech wants to do software updates on everything now, even for unevenly worm tyres! 

There should have been another code logged flagging the incorrect conditions ie. coolant fan not controlled etc. have seen a growing number of these where ongoing fault codes are getting mapped out by tweekers. The DPF system always seems to be the target. Possibly when you reinstalled the ecu software it returned to a fully working map..

[Dave2302 387]

/\ /\ /\ Agreed see it a lot

BTW, you probably know this, but some vehicles will refuse to re gen, (either by themselves or forced), if there is less than 1/4 tank of Fuel in them, as well as if there are problems with EGR, Air Flow etc etc.

[Stalker 180]

17 hours ago, DigitalAutos said:

There should have been another code logged flagging the incorrect conditions ie. coolant fan not controlled etc. have seen a growing number of these where ongoing fault codes are getting mapped out by tweekers. The DPF system always seems to be the target. Possibly when you reinstalled the ecu software it returned to a fully working map..

Yes there was two codes for Soot accumulation - im guessign this was the 237% saturation that i couldnt clear without doing the software update - the question is... WHY? Why didnt it zero when i told the car it had had a new DPF?

[Dave2302 387]

The ECU's are no longer that stupid, the ECU knows fine well if it hasn't actually had a new DPF, because it is monitoring Differentials of Exhaust Pressures and EGT's

It may be that the update has negated the need to have a lower figure in order to do a Forced Regen

[Stalker 180]

1 hour ago, Dave2302 said:

The ECU's are no longer that stupid, the ECU knows fine well if it hasn't actually had a new DPF, because it is monitoring Differentials of Exhaust Pressures and EGT's

It may be that the update has negated the need to have a lower figure in order to do a Forced Regen

To be honest the codes wouldn't clear even without the engine running. It had two readings for soot saturation and one of them wouldn't zero.

I presumed it was maybe a safety feature to stop somebody trying to regen a completely blocked DPF.

[Dave2302 387]

I've had that on a Skoda, Snap On wouldn't allow Forced ReGen said it was too full, but VAG Com did it 

My old Mechanic in England had a Renault the same, he took DPF off, blocked one end, filled it with Traffic Film Remover, left it over night then steamed it out with steam cleaner jet next day, refitted it, now showing low reading, allowed him to force a Re Gen .................... Go Figure ...................

Like you, neither me nor he had the Enine Running when it was saying it was too full