MC Mondeo TDCi Engine Malfuntion warning

[Cooper69S]

Hi all
my wife's MC Zetec diesel (Dec2010, 115k kms) has had an engine malfunction message come up on the dash display a few times, and the orange/yellow engine warning light come on as well. The car seems to run fine and the warning goes away after a while. Anyone know what can cause it? I saw another thread that said it could be related to a fuel vapouriser or DPF issue, but wondered if it might be a generic error message that applies to other problems as well...??
I read that any OBDII scanner can work with the Mondeo, so I bought one off ebay but not sure if that will help in diagnosing the issue. I won't receive it for a few days anyway.
any tips?
thanks
Geoff