New Driver

[danyog1]

Hi. I'm a new driver and passed my test about 2 weeks ago.. since driving my car which has been in the family 5 years with no faults (Not even the engine management light has come on once).. it has done 99,000 miles and within 2 weeks I have done about 700-800 miles.. the engine management light has come on, I find it savage on fuel & it has become very sluggish. Last night when the engine management light came on I had done 200 miles that day the car was full 4 passengers and me, the car was very very low and was finding it hard to pull, once I dropped 2 people off the car was juddering until I reached over 30 mph and was running smooth at 60 mph.

Today I started it about 2 times the engine management light went out and the car seemed to run much better,I tested the car out and did about 10 miles. The car also starts very slow now, it use to start first turn of the key.

I did a check on the codes and 6 faults came back (Image attached)

I cleared all codes and 3 are still there ( Image attached)

While the car has been in the family since 2008 from the first day we got the car the petrol cap once released to fill up makes a whooshing noise.

Any help I will grateful.

Thanks, Dan.

[stef123]

Hello Dan and welcome to the forums,

Cylinder 4 misfire is probably the cause of your juddering and poor running. Looking at the rest of the codes, they seem irrelevant. I would be checking out the lead and plug on number 4 and possibly even the coil pack.

[hubby1959]

As stupid as this sounds a new set of spark plugs might be all you need, my daughter had a similar problem with misfiring and it turned out to be a broken plug

[jeebowhite]

+1, with Neil on this one, just do the sparkies, and then reset the error codes. If it persists, then consider further effort, otherwise, dont go buying everything new until the error comes back

[danyog1]

Thanks guys!, I'm going to fix and sell the car now as the insurance is too much for what it is, I'm going to get a 1.6 ford focus tdci 110, That's only £2500 for insurance

[danyog1]

I'll let you know the outcome of what part it needed

[jeebowhite]

ouch, I dont miss the days of insurance premiums that high!

[danyog1]

I cleaned the plug on number 4 yesterday and the car seems to have got worse.. the engine management light is flashing and the car has lost a bit more power.. Is this more reason to think its the plugs?

[jeebowhite]

seems to be! if you removed the plug you could have disturbed it, an dits gap OR the HT leads... I would suggest a replacement of both is your best bet!

[danyog1]

I have renewed all 4 spark plugs and it is still doing it

[stef123]

From what you have said about it getting worse after cleaning the plug, I would change the HT leads and go from there

[danyog1]

I cleaned the face and plug of the coil pack and its now running perfect!

thanks for all your help guys!

[jeebowhite]

glad to see you got it sorted, now to stick it up for sale and get something else then?