Hi all, I'm new to this forum and am despairing as I've had a run of bad luck with my focus.

When driving my Focus TDCI 1.6 55 plate, I have a major issue. When driving in any gear I would put my foot down to accelerate and at about the point the turbo would boost I suffer complete power loss and the engine will stop. If I turn off the ignition and turn immediately on it will work fine until under load again. If I accelerate gently it is usually ok. This only started happening recently.

It seems electrical to me but I'm no expert. Can anyone advise please. It seems odd that it will not recover until the ignition is turned off then on. If I turn off while its slowing from the power loss ( I know it's not too clever) and turn on again I can continue.

Not sure if its related but when I turn the engine off and lock up, the odometer light never ever turns off.

Also if I unlock the car and don't open the door it will lock again, which I'm sure is a feature, but the alarm will go off about 5 minutes after it re locks.

Thanks in for any advice.

Do you get a flashing glow plug light when the engine cuts out?? Does it cut out completely or just lose power?

I had this on my old focus, as soon as it hit turbo in any gear when under load the engine would stutter and lose all power, it would then feel like it was misfiring and be very shaky... This turned out to be a very broken high pressure pump... Which in turn cooked the injectors.

Unfortunately due to modern engines if any major fault is detected the engine will go into limp mode, so symptoms may seem the same for very different things...

It would be a good idea to get a diagnostic check done on the car and get the codes read. And post them here also! We may be able to help a little more then.

Hi Dave, thanks for the reply. I get total power loss from the engine and if I accelerate I get nothing. If I turn off the key and immediately on again, it will start straight away. If I turn off and on while still in gear after it cuts out (still moving along), power to the engine returns. when I say lose power, I mean that when it happens, if I put my foot on the clutch it would stall immediately until the key is turned off. When on again it starts perfectly. No warning lights. Hope that has not confused you too much! Lol

No warning lights???

Hmmm interesting... This is gonna need a bit more thought lol

Air leak maybe?

In the fuel system

Agree with Martyn, I had this years ago on my 55 Focus Z TDCI, It was a damaged fuel filter housing, it was sucking air into the fuel line, and injecting it to the engine, Vroom Vroom.... Pffft is about the only way I can describe it lol!

This was for me, around 2000 revs, if I exceeded that anything more than old lady gentle acceleration, the car vroomed then poofed!

Hi, I thought I would post here as I'm having a similar problem - though not quite the same. My Focus diesel [early 2002] runs perfectly from cold but once it gets up to normal operating temperature the engine stalls suddenly. It is sometimes possible to restart whilst the car is still in motion and the clutch depressed but it will quickly stall again. The problem started after a coolant leak [repaired now] caused the engine to overheat and stall. I have taken the car to 3 garages, 1 saying they couldn't diagnose the problem, a second changing a relay switch and then suggesting it was the fuel pump and a third replacing the camshaft timing sensor.. I'm no expert but the suddeness of the stalling suggests an electrical problem to me and the fact that it only occurs when the engine is hot, perhaps points to a sensor.. Any suggestions would be gratefully received!

Thanks people. Is it likely to be a serious problem d'ya think?

if it is the fuel filter housing, then this would be a 35-40 quid fix, diy job...... as electrical goes, then you would have to get it diagnosed to see if it has thrown up any electrical sensor codes in the ecu....

Martyntdci, I don't know whether you were referring to my problem or bprecy's [perhaps I should have opened a new thread!] but if mine, noone can get any kind of reading with a diagnostic tester...

Thank you for your help peeps. Very much appreciated.

Anyone got any ideas re: the Odometer staying lit all the time after locking and the alarm going off if it auto locks?

fuel filter is not expensive really, as has been said a few quid for the housing, and a few quid for the filter (£60 my local dealer charged me for parts, and £60 for labour).

As for the odometer light, this as far as I recall is a software update to the ECU, I get the same thing, and next time my car goes in, I will probably get it reset, otherwise, unless I find some software to do it myself...

Thanks for the info on odometer light. Will look into that. :-)

Just had engine steam cleaned due to an oil leak and the guy that did it thinks the leak may be coming from the turbo. Could this explain the power loss issue?

when u say odometer, you mean the info part in the centre of the console?

^^ as above... if so this is normal.. it turns off after a few mins.

Yes the light in the green display never ever turns off. :-(

could you post a picture so we're all singing from the same hymn sheet as it were!! lol

http://flic.kr/p/dMGAdWThis one is showing the display still lit up some 6 hours after locking the car. I did not do anything to make it light up such as unlocking etc. I took it through the window. http://flic.kr/p/dMB2zV The second pic is just to show you the display in better light. :-) Never uploaded pics before so hope this works.....

hopefully someone with that style dash will be along to help soon... I have the later dash and my red display stays on for a while then fades off...

This shows described display... This is the one showing the display still lit despite being locked for 6 hours+ (car was not unlocked to take photo, taken through window) Hope this one is better than the URL versions above

perfect mate!

perfect mate!

Didn't realise that you could upload directly lol. A lot of forums make you link to photos. Thanks for your help so far....

as i was curious earlier, im not able to help as i have the same as dave, a red/orange light but it does go off after 10 mins or so...... il have a read on the net and see what i can find out for ya....

as i was curious earlier, im not able to help as i have the same as dave, a red/orange light but it does go off after 10 mins or so...... il have a read on the net and see what i can find out for ya....

. Thank you.