Apologies in advance for the following “Novel”.
3 years ago I bought my 2008 FG G6E Turbo (stock Std.) with 60k on it and I had no issues with it until 12 months ago when I had the 90K service done at approx. 82K, due to the age of the vehicle (currently at 95K).
The service was done by the selling Ford dealer here in Adelaide and it could be totally coincidental, but just days after the service I noticed an intermittent miss at cold start, that went away after approx. 30 – 45 seconds. At the start, it could be 3 or 4 days before it would do it again and importantly, if let for even 5 or 6 hours it would not do it again. It was only if left overnight, or if it sat at my work for 9 or 10 hours that the fault would return. Even on a 40 degree day, parked in full sun, it would still do it only if left long enough for, what appeared to be a case of the engine returning to normal ambient air temperature. It has never not started, it just idles crap on 1st cold start.
I returned to the dealer to discuss possible causes and was advised straight up it was the Battery, which was duly replaced. Over the following weeks it continued to intermittently do it, so the vehicle was then left with the servicing dealer for days at a time over several weeks so they could hopefully replicate the cold start scenario and I even went there many mornings to show them what it was doing and to try and get it to play up whilst they had it. Eventually it did do it in their workshop and then the fun started.
I appreciate intermittent faults are hard to find and they had apparently never seen a cold start miss before in a G6ET. The list of checks that were carried out over the following days / weeks, include from memory (not in any order):
Battery replaced
Fuel Pump / Pressure Regulator checked at start up and overnight for any pressure drop
Fuel Rail removed and cleaned
Throttle Body cleaned
Head Ports checked for “build up” and cleaned
Fuel sample sent out for analysis
Injectors checked for leakage, cleaned and tested
Spark Plugs checked
Coils checked
Oxygen Sensor checked
Latest software downloaded to ECU, although I was also told at the time of the service that the ECU was updated
ECU swapped out with another vehicle from their yard for testing
Apparently an Engineer from Melbourne also came over and looked at vehicle
Compression checked
Cylinder Leak Down test
CO2 test of cooling sytem
After all this and with nothing obvious being found, I was told it was normal and most Falcon Turbos have poor cold idle. This Dealer then refused to return calls and would not even take bookings from me for other work to be done.
Over several months the miss got more regular and more severe and would ocassionally last several minutes, until eventually I had the “Check Engine” light display on the dash. Over the next week while I waited for the booking to come around, the dash light actually went on and off by itself several times while being driven. I took the car to another Ford Dealer closer to home, who cleared the codes (there were lots) and they wanted me to drive it until the “Check Engine” light returned so they could see the current codes. When taken back in, they were lucky enough to have it consistently play up and the codes indicated a miss on cylinder 1. They swapped components from cylinder to cylinder and the miss stayed with cylinder 1. After again replicating most of the above tests, although they were sure it was electrical, the only issue they could find was a slight dribble at no 1 Injector when left under pressure overnight and thus it was replaced.
The vehicle was flawless for several weeks, although slowly but surely the cold start miss has now returned to being evident 9 out 10 cold starts, although it is nowhere as severe now as it was at its worst point and there have been no further instances of the “Check Engine” light coming on. When starting the car now, I just hold the idle up at 1500 rpm till it clears and then have no further problems while driving. There are no other driveability issues and there is no loss of power or performance in any way even under really hard acceleration from low or high speed.
You can probably guess how much I have already spent on this issue, but I have some more coin saved up, ready to start looking further again. Has anyone ever come across this or a similar issue, or have any ideas on what I need to just start replacing regardless of how good it may test out? Or do I stick with my current philosophy of just drive it until it stops and the problem eventually becomes glaringly obvious?
Any suggestions or feedback will be appreciated.
