I have a fiesta zetec 1.2 1997 and i have a problem, I went to clean my engine bay with soapie water and hose down, went to start it and ran really badly and struggling to idle went i use head lights or anything that uses power, does anyone know what is causeing this???

Hi and welcome!

I've done the same many times before (on different cars though) and i think its just moisture has got into the electrics such as the spark leads etc etc. Give it a day or so and the problemwill probably go away once the parts are bone dry again. It did for me anyway.

When i did valeting for VW a few years back, they used jetwash on the engines but they always had the cars engine running while doing the job. i think thats to try and lessen the problem of water ingress in the electrics as a lot of water will burn off from the heat of the engine.

Hope this helps a little?

Mark

Jet wash the engine bay? With the engine running?

well today i may off fix my problem i took all the clips spark plugs out and clean them and air line all the plugs and clips while doing this i disconnected my battery and reconnected back up once done, went to started it and she fire up run perfect with the idle just under 2000rpm as she cold but once hot the car is idle at about 1200rpm is this ok or not?

Jet wash the engine bay? With the engine running?

Yep, thats what VW used to do! Things have probably moved on a bit since then though! It was called 'steam cleaning' but it was simply a very large karcher style jetwash that was used so not really steam at all.

Probably why VW's for a while had lots of electrical problems! LOL!

:)