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Air Intake Pipe Advice!!!


ZetecShearer1987
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Hi All

i have just stumbled across something wierd with my focus over the last couple of days, its been running well for a while now, but started having problems with hesitation and rough idleing and rough acceleration again...

I now know its nothing to do with the coil pack, leads or plugs... not after ive changed them all (genuine parts from ford), it had to be something else. I have also changed the coolant temp sensor myself, this improved starting alot... never failed to turn over since changing that.

My final area i have looked at is the air intake... i know paper filters can be restrictive so i fitted a k&n 57's-4000 filter and new air box lid that came with product. It made the engine pull better and stuff with better air flow.

But the next day the hesitation returned, so i cleaned the throttle body with some carb cleaner, it was dirty but made no difference if not worse.

So today i was thinking hard to what it could be, i was staring at my engine with it running to see if i could find anything new, i was looking at the air intake pipe from the air box to the engine, and it was vibrating quite a bit, i looked at all the connectors linking it together and it looked a bit loose. It was tight on but looked like it wasnt fitted correctly. I took it apart and re-assembled it so it was all snug and the car seems alot better since, no more rough engine since earlier.

My question is that the rubber fitting to the plastic tube, is it worth putting some grease or lube on the rubber to get a tighter seal.

if so which kind of grease do i need, or is there anything else i could do to keep a tight seal across the air pipe.

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You shouldnt need any grease om that mate its the intake so you wouldnt want grease in there anyway to be honest a good tightening of the clamp should be enough not convinced that would be the issue though time will tell.it could be injectors or the pump or the pump filter may need a pcm update could be the pcv valve or a hose with a split

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Where can I find the pcv valve

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Hi All

i have just stumbled across something wierd with my focus over the last couple of days, its been running well for a while now, but started having problems with hesitation and rough idleing and rough acceleration again...

I now know its nothing to do with the coil pack, leads or plugs... not after ive changed them all (genuine parts from ford), it had to be something else. I have also changed the coolant temp sensor myself, this improved starting alot... never failed to turn over since changing that.

My final area i have looked at is the air intake... i know paper filters can be restrictive so i fitted a k&n 57's-4000 filter and new air box lid that came with product. It made the engine pull better and stuff with better air flow.

But the next day the hesitation returned, so i cleaned the throttle body with some carb cleaner, it was dirty but made no difference if not worse.

So today i was thinking hard to what it could be, i was staring at my engine with it running to see if i could find anything new, i was looking at the air intake pipe from the air box to the engine, and it was vibrating quite a bit, i looked at all the connectors linking it together and it looked a bit loose. It was tight on but looked like it wasnt fitted correctly. I took it apart and re-assembled it so it was all snug and the car seems alot better since, no more rough engine since earlier.

My question is that the rubber fitting to the plastic tube, is it worth putting some grease or lube on the rubber to get a tighter seal.

if so which kind of grease do i need, or is there anything else i could do to keep a tight seal across the air pipe.

Old school mechanics call this "missing"

When you have an intermittent fault, it is often a mistake to change components (unless they are "service" items or inexpensive items) before you know what is wrong - you could end up replacing perfectly good components at some expense

With an intermittent fault, the fault could uccur randomly and may coincide with events that have no connection to the fault for example, you change the coil packs and the car seems to run better, but that was juse a coincedence, and in reality the old coil packs are identical to the new ones and the fault lies elswhere

You could end up replacing every component

Silicone sealant is sometimes used for inlet sealing - i often just wrap insulating tape round the plastic pipe so it is fatter inside the rubber tube that fits over it

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Problem with the focus is its designed to idle low and adjust that idle depending on outside temp engine temp coolant temp fuel mixture a hiccup anywhere along the line effects the outcome and thats a lot of expensive parts my first port of call would be to fill up with non supermarket fuel put in 20 quid of optimax etc see if that helps and give it a drive

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Yeah have ran some decent cleaner through before. Wynns among other stuff. I never use supermarket fuel only Shell and bp.

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Do you know anyone with a code reader? Might be worth getting fault codes...

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With the symptoms it would need the live data read these issues rarely throw a fault code

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A failing sensor might throw a code though? Could be wrong but just a thought

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As said it could be so many things without test driving it and checking the live data you could replace most of the car failing sensors usually only throw the code when they fail its a possibility

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I've tried the torque pro app on my phone, but I didn't find it very good. Can anyone recommend a cheapish live data scanner that is decent and will help solve this issue

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I've tried the torque pro app on my phone, but I didn't find it very good. Can anyone recommend a cheapish live data scanner that is decent and will help solve this issue

I wouldn't mind finding on of these myself fro viewing live data. If a scanner is out of the question hopefully some one can recommend a set up with a laptop or something. I personally think the live data stream would be the best way to diagnose any issue like this or be a first method of choice before replacing parts because as stated above a failed sensor will throw a code but on that is faulty or failing may show up better in the live stream or at least point you in the right direction.

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i can recomend the obd car doctor app for android, theres a free version which gave me alsorts of live data easily, i have put up another post asking for advice with my findings on my car

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I filled up with some Shell v power unleaded last night as I had a money off voucher. Had just under a quarter tank left... Brimmed her and went for a 10 mile spin. Which included a-roads and country lanes. The car felt slightly better straight away a little rough still but a bit better. After about 6 miles the car felt a lot better not perfect but better than it was... But I got a really bad rotten egg smell coming from the engine. (I double checked to make sure it wasn't me) glad to say it wasn't. But a real strong smell of rotten eggs. Is that a bad sign? Cabin filter was changed recently aswell.

After the smell had gone all the power seemed to return and the engine noise went a lot quieter and acceleration was smooth again.

Today I drove again. The car does feel good a lot smoother but after the engine heated up around 15 miles of driving . It started to intermittently run rough again. Not as bad as before but noticeable when driving. Doesn't feel like a misfire. Just at one moment you can accelerate and it's as smooth as butter and the next moment you can accelerate, the engine sounds rough again with no power. You also notice a drop in instant mpg when the engine sounds rough, with very light acceleration the car pulls ok... Just when you wanna pick up some speed time to time it's rough and smooth.

Could it be a intermittent tps sensor. As it sounds from reading on the Internet very closely linked to this issue I think.

Drives me mad

Anyone got further ideas to this.

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Reading up on throttle position sensor issues it will cause an incorrect fuel air mix if faulty. Which could be a real problem for me

Only other thing is a pcm update from ford but I'm reluctant as ford charge over 100 quid for this at my local dealer.

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The rotten egg smell is the cat (catalytic converter)

Dont assume its not the coil packs/plugs/ leads even if they were changed, if the coil packs were changed and then the engine run with old plugs or leads, or if the plug(s) gap was too wide, that could "take out" (damage) the coil packs

We have yet to confirm the nature of the fault, if the engine is missing badly (like it was running on 3 cylinders) or it is just a mid-range flat spot

Take the (spark) plugs out and examine the tips, do they all look the same? post a picture of them (the tips, looking into the "guts" of them)

when the engine is running rough, disconnect the leads in turn when the engine is ticking over, the engine note should change or the engine shouls stall, if nothing happens when you disconnect a lead, that may be the one that is not getting a spark

Fit new plugs (again) this time "gap" tnen down to 0.8mm, this way, the spark will occur where it should, at the gap, not elsewhere like the leads or even inside the coil packs

Some posters may be very knowlegable, with a great deal of experience in engines/ cars, others may be regurgitating stuff they read on google/ other forums, it can be hard for the layman to tell the difference, but it pays to pay attention to the advice that you get on the forum, even if its from a regular owner (not a mecacanic/ non technical) especially if they have owned the same car, as they may have invaluable advice

Its esay to get "carried away" looking for the fault - it may be something simple/ basic that you have overlooked

Hopefully you get it sorted out before replacing every component

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Hi All

i have just stumbled across something wierd with my focus over the last couple of days, its been running well for a while now, but started having problems with hesitation and rough idleing and rough acceleration again...

I now know its nothing to do with the coil pack, leads or plugs... not after ive changed them all (genuine parts from ford), it had to be something else. I have also changed the coolant temp sensor myself, this improved starting alot... never failed to turn over since changing that.

My final area i have looked at is the air intake... i know paper filters can be restrictive so i fitted a k&n 57's-4000 filter and new air box lid that came with product. It made the engine pull better and stuff with better air flow.

But the next day the hesitation returned, so i cleaned the throttle body with some carb cleaner, it was dirty but made no difference if not worse.

So today i was thinking hard to what it could be, i was staring at my engine with it running to see if i could find anything new, i was looking at the air intake pipe from the air box to the engine, and it was vibrating quite a bit, i looked at all the connectors linking it together and it looked a bit loose. It was tight on but looked like it wasnt fitted correctly. I took it apart and re-assembled it so it was all snug and the car seems alot better since, no more rough engine since earlier.

My question is that the rubber fitting to the plastic tube, is it worth putting some grease or lube on the rubber to get a tighter seal.

if so which kind of grease do i need, or is there anything else i could do to keep a tight seal across the air pipe.

I had this issue recently, when I put my foot to the floor there was no bite, and a large fizzing sound. (i now know that this is air)

The air was escaping from the two rubber air intakes at the front of the engine which were split at the back.

Ford wanted £50 EACH! and they were Ford only parts. I got some radiator hose the same diameter (59mm?) which was about £9 from a local Hydraulics place, cut to size with a stanley, clamped on with jubilees and bobs your uncle.

NB shortly after the 90 degree bend further on in the line also split, so replaced that with a 90 degree silicone bend on eBay, which was about £12.

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I had this issue recently, when I put my foot to the floor there was no bite, and a large fizzing sound. (i now know that this is air)

The air was escaping from the two rubber air intakes at the front of the engine which were split at the back.

Ford wanted £50 EACH! and they were Ford only parts. I got some radiator hose the same diameter (59mm?) which was about £9 from a local Hydraulics place, cut to size with a stanley, clamped on with jubilees and bobs your uncle.

NB shortly after the 90 degree bend further on in the line also split, so replaced that with a 90 degree silicone bend on ebay, which was about £12.

Unfortunately this has absolutely nothing to do with the OPs problem, you did not have the same issue as the OP (original poster)

You have a turbo car, the OPs is NA (naturally asperated/ non-turbo)

An NA engine will draw air into leaks, not blow it out like a turbo engine would

Apart from the fact that yours is a completely different engine, and is a diesel, not a petrol like the OPs

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Ok, i filled up the other night with Shell v power, the car has run alot better and smoother until last night.

This has always happened on my car, i was going round a large roundabout near where i live... i was going round in second gear around 20mph, then the car stated to buck and kangaroo, hold back and jolt again... i am only on about 10/15% throttle but i get these surges only when i go round roundabout in a high gear 2nd/3rd revs probably just under 3k and when i go up a still hill at low speed in 2nd gear the car bucks and holds back 3/4 times.

Then since that the car started to run a little bit rough again.

Up to that point its been lovely and smooth driving it on motorways and round town but again after last night started to run rough only after the roundabout issue, up to that point it was smooth. wierd.

I then plugged in my obd2 scanner for live data off my app and replicated this, and when it does this kangarooing around long tight cornering, the tps sensor readings keep jittering on my app. when i drive normal the scale doesnt fluctuate but i noticed that when the car surges and holds back, the tps readings go up and down and jittery. Even though my foot is held still on the throttle. Is there a sensor on the throttle pedal or the tps thingy again. Though im starting to think it could be fuel pump related even though the car has only done 50k

Any fresh ideas on this

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Ok, i filled up the other night with shell v power, the car has run alot better and smoother until last night.

This has always happened on my car, i was going round a large roundabout near where i live... i was going round in second gear around 20mph, then the car stated to buck and kangaroo, hold back and jolt again... i am only on about 10/15% throttle but i get these surges only when i go round roundabout in a high gear 2nd/3rd revs probably just under 3k and when i go up a still hill at low speed in 2nd gear the car bucks and holds back 3/4 times.

Then since that the car started to run a little bit rough again.

Up to that point its been lovely and smooth driving it on motorways and round town but again after last night started to run rough only after the roundabout issue, up to that point it was smooth. wierd.

I then plugged in my obd2 scanner for live data off my app and replicated this, and when it does this kangarooing around long tight cornering, the tps sensor readings keep jittering on my app. when i drive normal the scale doesnt fluctuate but i noticed that when the car surges and holds back, the tps readings go up and down and jittery. Even though my foot is held still on the throttle. Is there a sensor on the throttle pedal or the tps thingy again. Though im starting to think it could be fuel pump related even though the car has only done 50k

Any fresh ideas on this

Have you checked the plugs? - i cant see any pictures of them on this thread, did you put it on another thread?, have you done what was suggested in post #18?

Of couse, the throttle pedal is not like a traditional throttle, but a potentiometer (like a variabale resistor, like the volume control in a stereo or the mouse on a computer) this gives signals to the ECU

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Have you checked the plugs? - i cant see any pictures of them on this thread, did you put it on another thread?, have you done what was suggested in post #18?

Of couse, the throttle pedal is not like a traditional throttle, but a potentiometer (like a variabale resistor, like the volume control in a stereo or the mouse on a computer) this gives signals to the ECU

is there any way we could test the throttle pedal to eliminate it as a suspect?

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I would say the erratic reading was indicative of a TPS fault or the power to the TPS, Dont know about the focus but when the TPS went on my landy it was only £12 for a new throttle pedal (TPS built in)

So unless Ford charge the earth (Likely) its probably worth swapping out

Could also be a loose connection or chaffed wire to the peddle as it seems to happen when your car is at an angle or undergoing G

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Hi, swapped out the tps sensor yesterday, took the garage ages to do it... The acceleration is smoother but the hesitation is still there. My local garage say it could be the fuel pump if its intermittant, but couldnt be sure unless further testing was done.

My thoughts now are to chop the car in and just start again, i love my focus but cant keep this up.

My only other option is the map sensor, anyone know anything about these, reading up on these sounds like my symptoms, but my symptoms are related to everything else ive changed with no real luck.

i know i keep throwing money at the car... but i love driving as it gives me a thrill and having the ford focus running at its best gives me a buzz.

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