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Ongoing Problems....please Help!


Captain Peanut
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Hi all

I'm having lots of ongoing problems with my Focus and am hoping for some advice, its a 2005 mk2 1.6LX (100ps Duratec).

Problems are as follows:

  1. Starting issues. When starting the car it fires fine but then loses all revs, causing it to stall. This happens 9 times out of ten and does it regardless of whether the engine is hot or cold.
  2. Misfiring. Seems to have a misfire when held at contant revs between 2-3k and when holding speed/accelerating on the motorway.

The car did originally have a leaking core plug which caused plugs 3 & 4 to be wet. I have replaced this and fitted new Ignition Coil, HT Leads and Spark Plugs. I have also plugged the car into an OBD reader and there are no error codes reported.

Has anyone come across anything similar before? I'm thinking that it is possibly a faulty sensor somewhere but, being electrical, am reluctant to put it into a garage and spend lots on labour for nothing to be found.

Annoyingly I bought the Focus as a supposedly more reliable replacement for an old MG ZS but it has turned out to have far more problems!

Thanks in advance

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Hi Oliver

i cant help but someone will be along to help out. some of the guys know there stuff on here but arent on here all the time so please be patient, you arent being ignored!

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Hi Oliver,

OK, so the car starts 1 in 10 times, and then dies straight away? if thats the case, your missing one of the big three - Spark, Juice or Air, by the sounds of it your getting them all forced on the same path at one point but they lose sync and thats what causes it to blow off.

I would suggest the first thing to do is get a leak off test done, check what levels of fuel you are getting out of the injectors, this will tell you if any are running rich or lean. You might find that you have a fuel delivery issue, either a bad filter, or perhaps even a bad pump, so check these two for leaks/

Secondly I would suggest you check the air filter, make sure its not turned to stone with all the crud its collected as this would stop the car breathing, removing the air.

Sounds like you have resolved the spark anyway, leads coils and plugs is definately the right way to go, but I would suggest you check that they are gapped correctly (I believe the book says 1.3 but they should be 1.0mm) if they are gapped differently try one of those two values until you find it improves.

You might have a sensor fault, it could be the crankshaft sensor throwing it to pot. If you have just a bluetooth OBD, its not guaranteed to pull the results as it doesnt pool codes from all modules. If you have the trip computer, you can check for error codes on the instrument cluster. If you need further code reading, you would need to get a different bit of kit, I suggest a modified ELM cable and FORSCAN software. This will query all modules and will allow you to get a better picture of what is happening on your car.

Hope this helps!

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Do you have access to a compression tester?

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Thanks for the replies.

Hi Oliver,

OK, so the car starts 1 in 10 times, and then dies straight away? if thats the case, your missing one of the big three - Spark, Juice or Air, by the sounds of it your getting them all forced on the same path at one point but they lose sync and thats what causes it to blow off.

I would suggest the first thing to do is get a leak off test done, check what levels of fuel you are getting out of the injectors, this will tell you if any are running rich or lean. You might find that you have a fuel delivery issue, either a bad filter, or perhaps even a bad pump, so check these two for leaks/

Secondly I would suggest you check the air filter, make sure its not turned to stone with all the crud its collected as this would stop the car breathing, removing the air.

Sounds like you have resolved the spark anyway, leads coils and plugs is definately the right way to go, but I would suggest you check that they are gapped correctly (I believe the book says 1.3 but they should be 1.0mm) if they are gapped differently try one of those two values until you find it improves.

You might have a sensor fault, it could be the crankshaft sensor throwing it to pot. If you have just a bluetooth OBD, its not guaranteed to pull the results as it doesnt pool codes from all modules. If you have the trip computer, you can check for error codes on the instrument cluster. If you need further code reading, you would need to get a different bit of kit, I suggest a modified ELM cable and FORSCAN software. This will query all modules and will allow you to get a better picture of what is happening on your car.

Hope this helps!

It actually dies 9 out of 10 times. The revs go up just over the 1k mark and then drop, my crude solution at the moment is a boot full of throttle when starting the car. I have, however, noticed a bit of a gasping air noise when blipping the throttle so will make sure there are no leaks between air box and throttle body (the filter has already been replaced). The fuel filter hasn't been replaced, are these still under the car near the tank (replaced one before on a friends mk1 focus, was a PITA).

I'm using an ELM cable and PCM Scan software to look at engine codes. It does give live reading of quite a few parameters, would a screen grab help?

Do you have access to a compression tester?

I don't, no. Have looked at getting one before but were told the cheapo ones are next to no use. Would it be worth getting this done at a local garage?

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Definatey worth checking the air lines, I think its a petrol so you have got the right points to look at, but if it is diesel, then its best to check the intercooler pipes and hoses also.

With regards the fuel filter, for the MK2 I believe the filter is a seperate unit in the engine bay, the MK2.5 I belive put a lifetime "filter" in the fuel tank assembly, so that shouldnt be so much of an issue.

It does sound like a breathing issue, so hopefully you will get somewhere checking for a leak. If you do find one, you might be able to patch it with emalgamating tape, not pretty but effective none the less.

Screen grab might help, but if it cannot communicate on High speed, and then Medium Speed, you will only get a limited range of places where you can see error codes from, such as instrument cluster, and the general fault repository, whereas a modified cable allows access to all of these functions.

Any screengrabs or reports you can share will help in the diagnosis, as one member might see that the air intake is too low or high, and the voltage differs etc. Any small detail such as this could help to fix it!

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I would check all the obvious things first, check the condition of the plugs, are they all a nice light grey or brown colour? Are any of them covered in suit or wet?

Are the injectors all working? You can listen to then with a long screwdriver a bit like a stethoscope. You will hear then clicking. But please be careful around the ht leads as a belt off them is sore lol.

After checking all of that I would do a compression test. I have comprehensive compression tester set that I would love to let you use but unfortunately your a bit far away lol. I'm not sure about the cheapy ones but a long tube with the correct threads is very handy for the ford petrol engines.

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And yes, as James has said a screen grab would help or a video would be even better!

It could be as simple as a MAF sensor that will show up on live data

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I've managed to get a couple of screenshots from the scan software with the engine idling, still trying to work out how to record the data so I can go out for drive with it running.

Annoyingly I couldn't get it to play up when starting, must have known it was being filmed! Did get a recording of the engine at idle and when blipping the throttle, please note this is a petrol (although it sounds like a tractor!):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sdtq7uefsf2nkx7/Engine1.m4a

post-52521-140623472216_thumb.jpgpost-52521-140623473177_thumb.jpg

Sent from my iPad using Ford OC

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