Hi folks,

I just bought my brothers W reg 1.6 escort off him for £400, and a couple of things i would like to ask about it.

1 - the temp gauge doesnt work/move much it starts off at the bottom of the first white block and then eventually rise to the top of the white block never higher, the heaters get warm but certainly not what I would call hot. If I put my hand right in front of the heaters it feels fairly warm but if i leave it blowing on my face it doesnt feel as hot as I think it should.

2 - this hasnt happened to me yet but my bro says sometimes it wont start unless you press the accelerator. what has happened quite a few times however is that it seems to be struggling to idle properly, a quick blip of the accelerator pedal and it seems fairly happy again.

It does smell likes its running a bit rich as well but that may just be because it is cold and still running on choke so I will keep my eye on it.

Thanks for any help you may be able to offer.

James

Sounds like the thermostat is stuck open. That would explain the car running cold and may explain why it is running rich. Cheap and easy fix. Its worth doing on a 10 year old car anyway.

Good luck

Could be the thermostat, and the idle problem may be the throttle body needs cleaning or early signs of the idle control valve playing up

Thanks for the help guys, I have ordered a new thermostat hopefully that will fix the problem (I think it is just sticking a bit as this morning after about 15 minutes I got slightl;y warmer air and the needle went up about a nother mm on the dial).

As for cleaning the throttle body, does it need resetting via the ecu afterwards (not sure familar with the car yet as only just bought it) and if it is idle control valve is there a way to test it ?

Is the idle control valve or dirty throttle body likely to ever stop the engine from starting at all without accelerator input ?

It can do.

After cleaning anything or changing it, disconnect the battery for 30mins or so to reset ECU.

Try testing the MAF, have the car running and then unplug it, if the car stalls or runs badly, MAF is fine, if there is no change, MAF has had it.