Been having good weather recently so decided to have air con on today, but it seems to be zapping power from the engine like no tomora when tryin to pull away from stationary. As you start bring the clutch up and it feels fine and then all of a sudden you feel as if your being bogged down and then picks up and is fine till stoping and pulling of again, also when i was slowing down, i started to brake with the clutch up, changed down to third from forth(using clutch),continued to brake to 2000rpm and the engine shuddered and almost cut out as if it was going to stall and the battery light and oil light came on. The car is a 51 plate ford focus 1.6 zetec petrol. This has got me very worried all advice and anyone who has had this too please help. thanks in advance

Hi, how long have you had the car and have you had the A/C switched on before and not noticed this problem, how long ago was the A/C serviced? The 1.6 is hardly renowned for any real grunt, put the A/C on and you will notice the change, I could feel it in our old Mk2 kicking in and out...

Chris

The air con unit pulls a hell alot of power, on small engines you do feel the difference.

The aircon will have a noticable effect as will the high air temperature.

It may not be just the aircon. The hot weather does make the Focus bog down, due to the lack of cool air getting to the intake system. That combined with the power drain from the aircon may well be the cause.

When I had a Mk 1 Focus, I fitted the air intake feed from behind the grill to the air filter box from a 2 Litre Automatic, as well as a K&N Panel Filter, which improved things a bit.

It may not be just the aircon. The hot weather does make the Focus bog down, due to the lack of cool air getting to the intake system. That combined with the power drain from the aircon may well be the cause.

When I had a Mk 1 Focus, I fitted the air intake feed from behind the grill to the air filter box from a 2 Litre Automatic, as well as a K&N Panel Filter, which improved things a bit.

to be honest it sounds like either the battery has a faulty cell or doesnt have enough power the lights flashing are usually a first sign of a battery issue

Jumped on this thread to late, but agree entirely with artscot, look at borrowing a battery from someone else if you cant afford to replace outright. And whatever you do, dont buy the replacement from Ford :)

I have an Focus ST and still notice the drop in power when the aircon is on! So not sure it is necessarily a 'problem' as such.

Air con requires the engine to be running so that it can provide enough power to the condensor / pump. You may see that if you put the car to electrics and run air con, it will either not run, or will run poorly. When you start the engine it comes to life.

Because it requires power from the engine, then you may notice that you will lose some power, it really depends entirely on what quantity of power you are losing, i.e. if the car loses a significant amount of power, then there is concern, but you should aways expect to lose a few horses when you start the aircon...

in this tropical weather, AC really *must* be on... so when I need a bit of a power boost, I'll just switch it off... free NOS! :D

Another thing also. Make sure you use the air con a couple of times in the month, even winter time to keep the rubbers from drying out and cracking and causing leaks.

It's not unusual for a small capacity engine to feel sluggish with the air con on.

If you wanted to know for sure, go test drive an equivalent Focus, turn on teh air con and see how it compares to your car.

It may not be just the aircon. The hot weather does make the Focus bog down, due to the lack of cool air getting to the intake system. That combined with the power drain from the aircon may well be the cause.

When I had a Mk 1 Focus, I fitted the air intake feed from behind the grill to the air filter box from a 2 Litre Automatic, as well as a K&N Panel Filter, which improved things a bit.

I had noticed my 05 focus didn't seem as happy in hot weather but i thought it was just me.

Graham