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ESP light after alternator failure

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ESP light after alternator failure

Postby MDSE » Sun Sep 01, 2024 11:20 am

Hello!

My mother had a 2010 Transit Connect LWB that had been having issues since this spring.

The alternator failed on her causing the battery voltage to drop to zero and the car died. After having a shop replace the alternator, charge the battery and clear codes the ESP light was on intermittently.

She kept driving it and now the ESP light is on at all times. Removing the battery terminal over night does not work and I can’t find any faults on the OBD scanner.

Any pointers before leaving it at the dealer and spending a bunch of money?

My theory is that the ESP module didn’t like the low voltage and needs some kind of recalibration or adaptation. Could it be something with the SAS?

Thank you in advance!
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Re: ESP light after alternator failure

Postby metalworker0 » Sun Sep 01, 2024 1:31 pm

ESP - electronic stability program

relies on the ABS to function correctly

ABS relies on:
1. All 4 sensors at the wheels working.
2. All tyres inflated to the correct pressure.
3. No mixed tyres of different dimensions.
4. Correct battery voltage - so may be worth investigating earths and positives -- to engine , to body, battery terminals .. alternator connections

any other cause will require a scanner to be plugged in, and you need a scanner to find which wheel has has faulty sensor.

and to read the fault codes correctly you need forscan
They recommend "Forscan" which is FREE software that you download to a laptop..you buy the interface cable
You must join the forscan forum ..again free, to get the software and more answers.

https://forscan.org/forum/


all the best.mark
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Re: ESP light after alternator failure

Postby MDSE » Sun Sep 01, 2024 3:11 pm

Thanks. I know what ESP is. :)

I don’t think there is anything wrong with the wheel speed sensors since the ABS and speedo are working. Also the tyres are the same ones as before the alternator failed.

Good tip about Forscan!
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Re: ESP light after alternator failure

Postby metalworker0 » Sun Sep 01, 2024 3:28 pm

MDSE wrote:Thanks. I know what ESP is. :)


Many here do not , im replying to everyone who finds this thread in the future.

Think forscan may reveal the hidden things your scanner does not read .
The abs sensor may only be faulty under certain conditions and speeds and may log a fault then ..you have "live data" and graphs in forscan, were you can see faults occurring on the move in real time .

OFTEN - abs fault not shown and esp fault shown instead

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Re: ESP light after alternator failure

Postby 08SWB-connectOwner » Sun Sep 15, 2024 8:38 pm

Point for the ABS sensors.

Typically the ABS system is fine with some drops of pulses, but an ESP system might not be.
A scenario may happen, where the ESP system is getting input from the ABS sensors, that doesn't correlate with other sensor data.
Thus the ESP throws a warning light, but leaves no fault codes, because the problem is not permanent. It may well not even be logged as 'intermittent'.

And as always, you should start with the most likely and cheapest failure point. In this case, the ABS sensors, because they are most often at fault and they're cheap.
You can monitor live data from the sensors with ForScan. If you see any drops in graph data, or one sensor is giving data that doesn't match the other wheels, you've got a bad sensor. Replace it and see if that fixes the issue.
Testing this is a very simple procedure. Simply select live data feed from all the ABS sensors and drive off. Look at the data (ForScan lays it out as a graph). They should all match each other and there should be no drops or spikes.

:)
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Re: ESP light after alternator failure

Postby metalworker0 » Mon Sep 16, 2024 1:44 pm

could have sworn i seen links in this post yesterday --- possible connect manuals?..don't know didn't have a chance to press on them.

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Re: ESP light after alternator failure

Postby 08SWB-connectOwner » Mon Sep 16, 2024 9:42 pm

metalworker0 wrote:could have sworn i seen links in this post yesterday --- possible connect manuals?..don't know didn't have a chance to press on them.

all the best.mark


I have the full workshop manual. All 2800-ish pages of it.
I might take a look at it tomorrow to see if there's a specific diagnostics workflow, or anything relevant for this case.

(sadly, I don't recall where I got the manual, and I don't want to take the risk in sharing it, please don't ask)
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Re: ESP light after alternator failure

Postby MDSE » Tue Oct 08, 2024 8:19 pm

She took it to a Ford dealer and they fixed it for £200 or so. From what I understood it was some sensor related to the clutch pedal that caused the issue.
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