Abs, esp and check engine light just turned on.

Nicko21 · 01-01-2014, 05:36 PM

Hi all, i cant seem to find info anywhere on whats goin on. I bought a ma xr5t couple months back and it is a great car and we love it. There are a few issues i have found but generally cosmetic so it didnt really bother me. We Thought we would really put it through its paces by doing a great ocean road trip from adelaide. All running smoothly till we were returning home and adelaide side of tailem bend the abs and esp light turn on. I looked through the manual and said abs had stopped working and same the esp. Which is strange as the both went at same time? Im pretty handy and would like to repair it myself. This morning we went to go for a drive and the check engine light is now on? Which is strange as its full of oil its not knocking and there are no strange noises. So im starting to think its a sensor or elec glitch in the matrix. If any one has any idea could they please let me know

Cherio Nick

AlanD · 02-01-2014, 08:49 AM

Hi Nick,

What is the current Odometer reading? If it is close to a multiple of 20,000Km then it may be that it's simply a warning about a service requirement based on the European intervals of 20,000 Km. In Oz Ford decided to lower this interval to 15,000 km and so you get these annoying "advisors" at the programmed intervals of 20,000km.

On MA series vehicles the reset is to press both brake and accelerator to the limit, then turn the ignition to on, but don't start the engine. After 25 - 30 secs you should get a warning reset indication.

Now what I have said is for a TDCi engined car with auto transmission. It may not work for a manual transmission.

Also on our car, the warning is a "check oil" type warning rather than a "check engine" warning and the abs esp warning occurring concurrently has not occurred on our car when the "oil" warning occurs.

Be careful about using the battery disconnect/reconnect procedure to reset the various computer modules, which seems to work on the Territory, for example. On MA series cars this can activate the engine immobiliser and that evidently leads to a service centre visit. But given your symptoms, that might be in your future anyway.

XRT5 owners may care to chime in with their experiences in due course.

Cheers

Nicko21 · 02-01-2014, 10:55 AM

Thanks Alan, to me it seemed very strange. Me and my brother spent a few hours strolling the net to find something similar. And he came up with most likely being a front wheel hub bearing as that displays identical error codes. So no places are open i will ring around see how much vs ford slugging me the price of the car to fix it.. Cheers for your help Alan much appreciated..

DRU842 · 02-01-2014, 10:04 PM

Nicko,
This may not be as strange a dual warning as it first appears. Most ABS / ESP systems in modern cars run off the same brake sensors. A failed or misreading sensor would report an error on both systems.
The error may be a compete failure or a 'dirty' sensor.

mighty-mon · 02-01-2014, 10:20 PM

Could also be a failing battery. Sounds far fetched i know, however these cars are renowned to produce random faults as the battery life is drained. It happened to mine as we hit the 3 year mark. She now has a new uprated Bosch S5 battery and no further faults appearing.

Nicko21 · 03-01-2014, 03:04 AM

Battery was changed 3 months ago so hopefully that lasts a bit longer. I ran a mates diagnostic tool on it. Turns out it was a check speed sensor error. He said more than likely cause we have driven for four days straight prob dirty sensor. He removed the error code. So far so good but if it comes on again i will definately change the sensor.