W Reg Focus Starting & Running Problems

[JayJay86]

Hi. I have a 2000(W) ford focus 1.8 Zetec petrol.. Some times it will start and other times it will just keep turning over, not even trying to actually fire.. when this happens all the dash dials go mental.. And when it does actually fire up, the revs "hunt" and sounds like !Removed! ticking over and when driving it loses power especially on hills an when pulling out of a juction quickly.. iv been told it could be battery giving up or immobiliser packing up.. any1 got any ideas, if cant repair it cheaply then dont know what il do, prob have to scrap it.. it doesnt actually get used that much lately but now its unreliable, im not risking using it at all..

[MONDEO TXS 2.2]

Firstly take the spark plugs out & inspect them for colour on the electrodes & also get the battery load tested to see if it's holding voltage & amperage

[artscot79]

Do the dash test and see if there's fault codes if not you've got a choice of

The dials is a battery issue thats a dash test which only happens if the battery is goosed and has a faulty cell so you need a free test ata garage on that first it also needs a silver calcium battery not a lead battery as this will also cause issues do this first before proceeding with anything else

[JayJay86]

Thankyou.. Its having a new battery tomorrow afternoon so hopefully that will sort it.. i only want it til new year then i wanna try and get a slightly newer focus.. do you think its most likely due to lack of use.. iv dont less than 2000 miles in 6 months and 1800miles of that was long runs.. do you think the coil from a 1998 ford escort 1.6 zetec will work on the 1.8 focus zetec engine just to see if thats why she ticks over !Removed! and hunts.. iv got my old escort sat in garage doing nothing til i can get round to selling it.. (taken me a year so far lol)

[JayJay86]

I plugged it into diagnostic thing an it says NO fault codes stored..

[JayJay86]

The diagnostic reader ya plug in said no codes but iv just looked up how to do dash test and that brings up the low voltage code.. so defo the battery.. thankyou for ya help guys.. :-)