1999 1.3l ford Ka. Recently it's started to intermittently be a bit sluggish delivering power to the engine. I put my foot down, and you can feel that it's holding back. Then, after a while, it kicks back in with a lurch forward.

When idling, it frequently comes close to stalling, sometimes it does stall. This most often happens when I'm cruising up to junctions with my clutch down. Is it odd that it'll have a tenancy to stall when the clutch is down?

Also it used to do nearly 300 miles on it's 30 litre tank. Now it's more like 250.

I took it to a local garage who, at first, replaced the Idle Control Valve. When it still wasn't working I took it back but they couldn't find anything and even said they couldn't see that there was a problem.

Then I took it for a service, so that rules out plugs & filters.

Any other ideas of what could be wrong, and what I could check?

Any other ideas of what could be wrong, and what I could check?

When was the last time it had all the filters & oil changed? My 2010 KA felt amazingly more torquey after its second oil change (never again an OEM oil filter)

Air filters are easy to change yourself, an oil filter and oil change cost me £20 in labour at the garage next to my house (they mostly really only do tyres & balance, but have some tools and a ramp.

Its simple & fairly cheap to get the parts to DIY from Ford. I just went into the service & parts at my nearest dealer and spent £25 on two filters & a new bulb... Needed to get oil at Halfords though (10W40, Y U NO EASY TO FIND)

Your power problem is probably down to the HT Leads breaking down. As plugs are rarely changed these days, the leads dont like being pulled about when they are. This may sort out the idleing issue as well. If not, and the ICV that was put on it is ok, it could be the idle position sensor on the throttle body.

Try putting som Cataclean in the tank, this sorted out the rough idle and reduced the emmuissions on my wifes SportKA.It runs so much better now. I dont beleive for one minute that this stuff cleans the Cat, but it cleans the sensors which then give the correct readings to the Engine Management System.

Good luck

fuel filter been changed?

fuel filter been changed?

Good point.

Good point.

These very often get overlooked and some may have even been on from new

What u on about they are flying machines.