New Ford Owner (Defected From Bmw Camp)

[alvinwd]

I used to be a BMW/Mercedes owner and decided after getting through 7 of them in the last 3 years that I would pop over into the Ford camp and see what the crack is like over here!

The Cougar hits all my requirements for a car, good looking, quick and practical (though no one I know likes getting in the back, and one of my colleagues said she was about to have a claustrophobic panic attack sitting in the back behind me!).

I have got a couple of questions, if anyone could help me out

1) Why does it seem to whistle through fuel, the range seems to drop down and I go through what is a massive amount of fuel, in a very short space of time, I went to Tamworth from Birmingham and the range went from 150 to 30 on a round trip and I don't think I was particularly giving it the beans (even though the engine note is pretty good ) and my previous car was a 535 BMW so I am used to spending time at the pumps, but this is ridiculous!

On the way from Birmingham to Walsall today, it was averaging about 16 on the way, and then on the way back I was stuck in the average speed cameras, and that dragged it down. When I was driving at 50 in 5th, and wanted to accelerate the engine would judder from 2000rpm, and up to 4000 and would really struggle to get there

2) Why does it seem to struggle getting power, if I pull off in 2nd then it will pretty much stall, and when it idles it drops from 1000rpm to say 7-800 and flutters there nervously with the dash and head lights flickering, the lights dont flicker when I am moving (not noticeably) but when I am at the lights it feels like the car is always on the verge of stalling, and I have to rev the nuts off it when pulling off. Again this may be just because the BMW was so powerful that a little tap was enough to get it going, I feel that I am working it quite hard to get it moving.

3) it feels a little like the steering is heavy, sometimes like the power steering is off, mostly when walloping around car parks, I think it may be to do with the power thing but maybe it isn't getting power?

I have found through a little bit of digging on the net, a couple of possible causes for the flickering (high resistance in the battery wiring harness from the central junction box(CJB) in the engine compartment, to the B+ terminal on the generator) and also carbon deposits in the engine could be causing the juddering on the throttle, I have put some Redex cleaner and some high grade fuel, and it was immediately a bit better, So I think that has started to clean it up, I think another couple of tank fulls and that should clear it out a bit.

I will take it to have the IMRC checked as well as that could be one of the issues, does anyone know where I can pick one up? I will be taking it for a service next week, on the weekend, can anyone recommend a good Ford dealer (not a stealer ) in the Birmingham (city center) area, where I could get someone to check it out, my normal chaps are mostly German Cars specialists and I could do with someone who knows what they are doing!

[alvinwd]

Apologies, I will pop this question in the right forum

[dezwez]

Hi welcome :)