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-   -   Ford 1.5L TDCi: ECU updates available to solve excessive black smoke problem (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/227845-ford-1-5l-tdci-ecu-updates-available-solve-excessive-black-smoke-problem.html)

Bumping this thread to share an important info on the Ford TDCI engine cars.

Cousins 2019 Freestyle had the issue of excessive dense black smoke from the exhaust at >2000 rpm.

Upon reading many posts on the topic we realised it was accepted widely as normal on Ford cars. Even checked it on a relatives Aspire.

However we registered a complaint with ford anyways. The dealership at thrissur, picked up the car and as per them all they did was a ecu remap and the results are truly amazing, there is visibly no smoke at moderate rpms and at high rpms (> 3000 rpm) there is just less dense smoke. There is no trace of soot left on the garage door after acceleration as was the case before the remap.

Thought it would be useful to share this.

Is there any change in power delivery characteristics after the update?

For some reason, I never had this smoking issue on my 2017 Aspire except after every gear shift when I throttled, there was a puff. It was only after the remap, the smoke became quite dense and that was rectified in another remap and now it is almost nil.

The car was taken for a 50km testdrive yesterday. Did not notice any significant change in power delivery.

Hi Suresh,

Thanks for this update!

So, I believe the vehicle was running on stock map and the dealership deleted and flashed the same again. Am I missing something here ?

Would request to PM your contact details to understand this as I am facing the same issue.

Thanks!

I was facing the same *normal* black smoke issue.

My Figo TDCi was in for service earlier today and I had read this post only yesterday. So, I talked to my SA who mentioned that this update is probably available, but only for certain VINs and promised to check on his end if my car is eligible for the update.

Later in the day, he confirmed that there was in fact an update on my 'PCM' (that is the word that he used).

The car was dropped home @ around 8:45PM so I haven't been able to check if this has fixed anything but I will confirm once I have driven it during daytime.

Hello,

Is there a way to check by self whether my vehicle comes under the captioned update?

Also, awaiting your feedback post the update.

Well, it worked! Gave the car the beans yesterday, multiple times in 2nd gear. Smoke in the RVM is much lower and hardly visible now. clap: We now have a new normal.

The car was also sounding smoother during the acceleration runs. But then that could be due to the fact that it just came back from a service. Everything was just as sprightly as before, so no perceptible loss of acceleration.

Excessive black smoke in the exhaust is usually caused by too much fuel being injected leading to unburnt particulate carbon being spewed out. This seems to be the more efficient map with less wastage in high load conditions, but that we will know in due course if it has any affect on the overall fuel economy.

I work with certification and compliances and we usually stop doing any further work as soon as we are able to comply with the required regulations. The *with smoke* maps must have complied with BS4 so they must have left it as-is for years. The good folks at Ford Motors India must have figured out the secret sauce to reduce the smoking when they were working on the BS6 conversion. That's probably the reason why they came up with the remap only now while the independent tuners have had it for a while.

I doubt there is any way to self check if you are eligible for the update. You could work with your usual Ford SVC / SA to verify if your car is eligible. Alternately, just wait it out till your next service and make sure to tell your SA to check for the update.

Hey Antz.bin,

I first noticed the black smoke while getting the PUC done couple of years back but didn't really bother much since the car was almost new ( bought it in 2017 January) and there were no issues while driving.

I noticed the smoke again few days back when my brother took the wheel and I was following him.

The service is still 6 months away and hence planning to get it checked sooner. I will have a word with my SA at the local dealership and update his views.

****Quick Update****

My PUC got expired and I tried getting the same renewed today. The bunk guy floored it multiple times, caught few readings and then came the shocker, " test fail".

I was like :Shockked: His submission was that this happens at times with diesel cars, more so with Ford. Also, asked me to get engine tuning done and come back again. I left without any further conversation.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to try a different PUC center?

Modern vehicles will turn on their engine check light in meter console if there is something wrong with its emissions.

Try to check the PUC in a different PUC checking place before taking up the issue with Ford.

I feel your car may come clean at a different PUC center !!

That's surprising. My Polo TDI with remap and decat downpipe passes PUC tests. Please try a different PUC test centre.

Can you please check if there is any noticeable drop in mileage

I have in fact noticed some change. Immediately after driving away, I could feel that the car became much easier to stall when trying to move ahead from zero speed without throttle. It was one of the very few occasions I have stalled the car and I did it thrice in the span of 1km.

There has not been noticable drop in fuel efficiency as per MID.