[iamtrk]

Hello fellow BHPians,

I am posting on behalf of a close relative whose Ecosport(Ecoboost 1.0L petrol) is not cranking up & the folks at Ford ASS are pointing to PCM failure & suggesting a replacement, which is costing ~70K(44K for new PCM & 22K for wiring).

Following are the sequence of events.

1) Engine fails to crank up from parking.
2) Owner diagnosis pointed to dead battery.
2) Tried to push start unsuccessfully.
3) Saw the messages "Immobilizer Malfunction. Service Now" and "Power Steering Malfunction. Service now" on info cluster.
4) Replaced the battery.
5) Still fails to crank up.
6) Towed to a Ford ASS, who came up with PCM failure after a week's diagnosis.

So BHPians, please suggest what would be an appropriate course of action. We are not trusting ASS diagnosis, given how they usually misdiagnose & frequently suggest component replacement.

Should we get a 2nd opinion from a competent service centre before going ahead with ASS solution. The owner is based out of Chennai & recommendations are welcome for good service centres.

[dip27in]

A very close friend of mine, who did kolkata to London with his EcoSport, two years back, suffered exactly the same. His car went to ford workshop couple of days back. I wanted to check the car with my autel scanner to find out the error codes, however workshop is already working on resolving the matter.
There has been a recall on ford EcoSport 2017 onwards model for which they had an update. I am curious about what if the update is applied on EcoSport which were working flawlessly for years. I will surely hook up my scanner once he gets back the car. Even another EcoSport has faced a similar issue last week.
Do keep us posted how they plan to resolve. There is something definitely wrong with software update, especially since all ford EcoSports are reporting pcm failure, out of the blue.

[NaXal]

When it's projected such high cost, it's always a better idea to get a second opinion.

However, don't disclose your intentions for second opinion to the official Ford Channel since it's very much possible that you may need to return to them if it's indeed a PCM issue.

Best is to mention present financial difficulty to get the car out as it is.

Now in case your second opinion is pointing towards the same diagnostic, then try requesting Ford India to step in for some relief. This isn't a mechanical part or anything that can be effected by poor usage or driving style. These parts are meant to last life time & normally users aren't required to touch them.

It would be helpful if you have done all your services on time from them. Point to that also & request for some relief as good will warranty.

Thanks.

[GTO]

In case the diagnosis is correct, here are two chaps who might be able to repair it:

Shafis (Car scanning & ECM Repairs - Shafi's Garage (Trivandrum))

Rajender (The ECM & Electronics Guy - Rajender (Khan Market, New Delhi))

You could also try in the salvage market (I got an ABS module for my Civic @ 25% the cost of new).

[iamtrk]

Thanks all for your useful info, I apologise for late reply, I have been waiting to make sure that the problem has been fixed for good.

As for the update :
We went ahead with Expert Spanners(Chennai) folks as ASS quote was ~20% more than Expert Spanners & even then, ASS was not very sure about how to fix it. They kept on coming with new procedures/diagnosis as we ask more questions !

On the other hand, Expert spanners clearly communicated that they will be changing the PCM/Harness & recode Key fob, central lock etc.

There wasn't any problem with Harness but thy recommended changing it along with PCM as integrating a new PCM with old harness is out of their skill set.

Overall it costed us 57K.