Hi All, New to the forum & first ford for about 6 years.

Recently purchased a 2011 Ford Focus Titanium X 1.6 TDCi to be a cheap daily runner.

It has an issue where in 5th & 6th (sometimes 4th on big hills) between 1,500 & 1,800 rpms roughly it judders/vibrates quite badly. Almost like it is misfiring. Once I get past the 1,800-2,000 rpms or keep the speed steady it all but disappears.

So it's something causing the issue when under load I think as it is amplified going up hills & minimised going down.

Looking through the forum & seeing a few topics similar but all seem to be getting differing advice on potential issue so thought I would try & see if we can get one where these can perhaps be categorised from most likely to least likely or by cost inexpensive to expensive.

 

So far the below list appear to be all the listed potential causes.

Fuel Filter (would it be worth running some sort of fuel system cleaner?)

Injectors..... (***** hope not)

Intercooler Pipes causing a boost leak

Engine Mounts

Gearbox Mounts

Gearbox or Clutch.

A lot of these other topics seem to go similar routes of carrying out some of the work but then the issue returning within weeks or people anticipating that what they have done is likely not an actual fix. Is this just a trait of the engine?

 

I don't have Forscan but will be looking to get it. Currently I don't have a windows laptop though so it won't be imminent that I do. Is the Apple App worth having? I know it's only £7 odd but if it's not going to give me much benefits I won't bother. App Store reviews have it pretty low rated.

According to the service history injectors were done about 20k miles ago. Car is currently about the 113k mark.

Totally new to the engine so really have no clue where to start on these but I do plan to give the car a full service of filters & oil just for my own peace of mind.

 

Appreciate the help in advance, cheers.

Jay

45 minutes ago, Jam228 said:

Is the Apple App worth having?

Yes if you want a top class diagnostic tool for Ford cars but I doubt it will tell you anything useful about your problem.

When I had the same car as you I never let the revs drop below 2000 except when cruising.

22 minutes ago, Tizer said:

Yes if you want a top class diagnostic tool for Ford cars but I doubt it will tell you anything useful about your problem.

When I had the same car as you I never let the revs drop below 2000 except when cruising.

Thanks John, will get the app downloaded & then in the future look at finding an old laptop to load the software on.

So you think possibly it is just a character of the engine rather than an issue?

Remember you need a proper Adaptor for FORScan. 

Your car is 13 years old and will never perform like a new one and I think they were never that happy pulling at low revs. 

If it is genuinely a Titanium X then it has to be a Mk3 with the 8v 115ps engine.  There was no Titanium X in Mk2.5 with the 16v engine.  There was just an X pack that could spec'd as an optional extra.

With that in mind, the injectors were always rubbish on the 8v.  If they're original, they'll all be knackered by now.

Fuel filter is cheap & easy on the Mk3 though, so you may as well start with that first if it hasn't been done recently.

18 minutes ago, Tizer said:

Remember you need a proper Adaptor for FORScan. 

Your car is 13 years old and will never perform like a new one and I think they were never that happy pulling at low revs. 

Yeah I have a vgate bluetooth connector that should be good for it. I'll get one of the cables when I get the laptop. I've seen the post & saved it with all the info on Forscan stuff.

Yeah I get it's an older car & I'm coming from a 2.0 litre 120d so do wonder if I need to just get used to the reduced power. Maybe will look at a map in time & see if that helps it.

Thanks for the feeback.

 

 

17 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

If it is genuinely a Titanium X then it has to be a Mk3 with the 8v 115ps engine.  There was no Titanium X in Mk2.5 with the 16v engine.  There was just an X pack that could spec'd as an optional extra.

With that in mind, the injectors were always rubbish on the 8v.  If they're original, they'll all be knackered by now.

Fuel filter is cheap & easy on the Mk3 though, so you may as well start with that first if it hasn't been done recently.

Yeah it's a MK3 & you are right with it being the 115hp engine. 

Would you expect injectors to fail again within 25k miles of being replaced? Think the service history says 2018 or 19 they were fitted.
Hopefully a service improves it at least.

1 minute ago, Jam228 said:

Yeah it's a MK3 & you are right with it being the 115hp engine. 

Would you expect injectors to fail again within 25k miles of being replaced? Think the service history says 2018 or 19 they were fitted.
Hopefully a service improves it at least.

If they were brand new injectors then I wouldn't expect them to fail that quickly.  Though if they were used we don't know how many miles were already on them.  And refurbished injectors seem to vary in quality.

I had one of these as an 'upgrade' to the earlier 16v model and didn't find the power lacking at all.  I had remapped the older one to 140bhp but just left the Mk3 as the original 115ps.  The turbo tech had moved on by the time the 8v was released and I think being 8v gave it a bit more torque as well.

I'm not sure which 120D you had, but if it was the 180ps model then I would expect the Focus to feel a fair bit slower than that.

13 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

If they were brand new injectors then I wouldn't expect them to fail that quickly.  Though if they were used we don't know how many miles were already on them.  And refurbished injectors seem to vary in quality.

I had one of these as an 'upgrade' to the earlier 16v model and didn't find the power lacking at all.  I had remapped the older one to 140bhp but just left the Mk3 as the original 115ps.  The turbo tech had moved on by the time the 8v was released and I think being 8v gave it a bit more torque as well.

I'm not sure which 120D you had, but if it was the 180ps model then I would expect the Focus to feel a fair bit slower than that.

Yeah I assume it would be new injectors but then you never can make those assumptions.

Yeah the 120d was the 180bhp one so I expected it to feel less powered which was fine. It's a daily runner so I don't need it to be a world beater. I'm just unsure if this juddering is 'normal' or not.

Will see how she goes after a service & hopefully it's resolves it.

45 minutes ago, Jam228 said:

Yeah I have a vgate bluetooth connector that should be good for it. I'll get one of the cables when I get the laptop. I've seen the post & saved it with all the info on Forscan stuff.

Yeah I get it's an older car & I'm coming from a 2.0 litre 120d so do wonder if I need to just get used to the reduced power. Maybe will look at a map in time & see if that helps it.

Thanks for the feeback.

 

 

It's difficult for anyone to say for sure how bad it is remotely. 

Your vLinker Bluetooth Adapter will work perfectly well with a Laptop, probably a lot faster than a cheap Wired one and you should be able to use it for basic programming, not the serious programming. 

4 minutes ago, Tizer said:

It's difficult for anyone to say for sure how bad it is remotely. 

Your vLinker Bluetooth Adapter will work perfectly well with a Laptop, probably a lot faster than a cheap Wired one and you should be able to use it for basic programming, not the serious programming. 

Good to know. Very unlikely I'll get into serious programming. I don't mind dabbling with a bit of error reading & diagnosis but actually making changes I generally stay well clear of unless it is idiot proof haha.

Just as a general observation, I've had several diesels and none were very happy pulling that sort of rpm in high gear unless just pottering along on the flat. Some would even stall/almost stall quite violently if asked to accelerate below 2000rpm in a high gear (4th and above).

I recall contemporary road tests stating the Mk 3 1.6TDCI was pretty sluggish and I vaguely remember test driving one -  you needed to keep it "on boost" and spinning over 2,000 to make any progress, though, to be fair, I was more accustomed to 2 litre diesels. (I've driven a 120D which, as already said, was a different thing altogether). 

48 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Just as a general observation, I've had several diesels and none were very happy pulling that sort of rpm in high gear unless just pottering along on the flat. Some would even stall/almost stall quite violently if asked to accelerate below 2000rpm in a high gear (4th and above).

I recall contemporary road tests stating the Mk 3 1.6TDCI was pretty sluggish and I vaguely remember test driving one -  you needed to keep it "on boost" and spinning over 2,000 to make any progress, though, to be fair, I was more accustomed to 2 litre diesels. (I've driven a 120D which, as already said, was a different thing altogether). 

Yeah I won't be surprised if it is just a case of getting used to a different driving style.
The only other reason it has flagged to me is the car is recommending for me to shift up into the higher gears which is putting it within this rev range.
I guess if I'm looking to accelerate I need to pre-empt & drop a gear to get it back in the power band.

I mean this is good news in some ways though as it means car is likely fine I'm just not used to it.. (he says with his fingers crossed haha)

4 hours ago, Jam228 said:

Hi All, New to the forum & first ford for about 6 years.

Recently purchased a 2011 Ford Focus Titanium X 1.6 TDCi to be a cheap daily runner.

It has an issue where in 5th & 6th (sometimes 4th on big hills) between 1,500 & 1,800 rpms roughly it judders/vibrates quite badly. Almost like it is misfiring. Once I get past the 1,800-2,000 rpms or keep the speed steady it all but disappears.

So it's something causing the issue when under load I think as it is amplified going up hills & minimised going down.

Looking through the forum & seeing a few topics similar but all seem to be getting differing advice on potential issue so thought I would try & see if we can get one where these can perhaps be categorised from most likely to least likely or by cost inexpensive to expensive.

 

So far the below list appear to be all the listed potential causes.

Fuel Filter (would it be worth running some sort of fuel system cleaner?)

Injectors..... (***** hope not)

Intercooler Pipes causing a boost leak

Engine Mounts

Gearbox Mounts

Gearbox or Clutch.

A lot of these other topics seem to go similar routes of carrying out some of the work but then the issue returning within weeks or people anticipating that what they have done is likely not an actual fix. Is this just a trait of the engine?

 

I don't have Forscan but will be looking to get it. Currently I don't have a windows laptop though so it won't be imminent that I do. Is the Apple App worth having? I know it's only £7 odd but if it's not going to give me much benefits I won't bother. App Store reviews have it pretty low rated.

According to the service history injectors were done about 20k miles ago. Car is currently about the 113k mark.

Totally new to the engine so really have no clue where to start on these but I do plan to give the car a full service of filters & oil just for my own peace of mind.

 

Appreciate the help in advance, cheers.

Jay

I had the same issue. After a month two pistons broke.

The remap (tune) caused it.

 

Although my car is a lot different because it is a focus 1.0 petrol 2017.

 

Are you sure it is wasn't remapped by the previous owner?

6 minutes ago, Jam228 said:

the car is recommending for me to shift up into the higher gears which is putting it within this rev range.

Ignore that, If I did what it said in my fairly powerful 1.5 Turbo Charged Petrol car my car would judder too.

10 minutes ago, Jam228 said:

The only other reason it has flagged to me is the car is recommending for me to shift up into the higher gears which is putting it within this rev range.

Lol, those shift indicators are responsible for a lot of unnecessary concerns! Best ignored as already said, use your rev counter and experience. 

3 minutes ago, Bol said:

I had the same issue. After a month two pistons broke.

The remap (tune) caused it.

 

Although my car is a lot different because it is a focus 1.0 petrol 2017.

 

Are you sure it is wasn't remapped by the previous owner?

90% sure there is no map present. It's not overly responsive & doesn't feel particularly torqy when accelerating. Without sounding like I have all the knowledge on what power feels like. My butt dyno tells me it is probably right around the 115bhp area.

5 minutes ago, Tizer said:

Ignore that, If I did what it said in my fairly powerful 1.5 Turbo Charged Petrol car my car would judder too.

 

2 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Lol, those shift indicators are responsible for a lot of unnecessary concerns! Best ignored as already said, use your rev counter and experience. 

Thanks both, I'm used to those being pretty intuative so was following them. Will see how I get on next drive ignoring them 👍

So little update to this. What a difference ignoring the gear shifts does. Definitely finding you have to "drive" the car more compared to the 120d but juddering is massively reduced & does only come if you're caught on a hill or trying to accelerate particularly hard.

It still doesn't feel totally right but the fact change of driving style has made it feel so much better at least gives me confidence if there is something to fix it will be on the cheaper end of the spectrum.

 

Thanks all for your input & assistance 👍

3 hours ago, Jam228 said:

Definitely finding you have to "drive" the car more compared to the 120d but juddering is massively reduced

Good to see that seems to have helped. You can't really expect the car to drive like the Bimmer which has (iirc) something of the order of 50% more power and 40% more torque.

Let's hope it does turn out to be just a matter of acclimatisation (or something cheap!😀). Let us know how it goes.

 

Just now, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Good to see that seems to have helped. You can't really expect the car to drive like the Bimmer which has (iirc) something of the order of 50% more power and 40% more torque.

Let's hope it does turn out to be just a matter of acclimatisation (or something cheap!😀). Let us know how it goes.

 

Yeah I knew it would be a change, I'm just uneasy about the car feeling like it's going to cut out almost when you put the accelerator down heavy at low revs but it is manageable for now until I get a good service done as I could easily see it being the car just being restricted to a degree on air or fuel. Will see how filters look when I get round to doing the change.

But as you say it could well be a case of just getting used to a smaller engine with far less power & torque as you say. I can't remember off the top of my head what the BMW torque was but the BHP was 181 so you are correct it's more than 50% up so I guess that would bring an element of smoother driving.
 

Will give an update in a month or so & see how I've got on.

Feels like I've got a few things to do as I had no clue about the boot leak malarky but after reading about it will definitely be taking some preventative action on that & I need to do some research on the headlights as they are the worst Xenons I've ever experienced.

 

Fun times ahead for the "cheap" runner haha