Ford Focus Mk1 Common Problems Thread

[Stevesixty7]

2 hours ago, CP_MATT said:

In need of some advice be grateful if anyone can help.

I have a 1999 Focus 1.8 Petrol.

Over the last few weeks I've noticed the speedo drops to zero but picks back up after a minute or so.

But today it never picked back up and when I slowed down and the revs dropped and the engine cut out it started back up fine but continued to do it several times.

I done the key test and found it had 2 dtc codes

dtc123-throttle position sensor/switch A circuit high input

dtc041- cant find the description

Has anyone else had this issue or managed to resolve it 

Also if anyone can fix it or knows of a good garage in the Croydon area it would be helpful

 

As Peter has said regarding the speedo, that will likely be the sensor on the gearbox, needs replacing.

[jonealex]

Hi guys, after read this topic I have a question...

I recentrly replaced the VSS sensor of my Focus Zetec 1.6 and now still bouncing the speed, but the car goes much better now. But the main problem is that when idle, randomly (not always but very often) the revs fluctuates between 500 and 1000-1100 (aprox). It's very annoying... IAC valve replaced, PCV hose replaced (was broken), and ome other hoses of vaccum replaced too... WHAT'S THAT !!??

2 years trying to solve this with no results... 😢

Thanks, Alex.

[Trikeopath]

Hi

I've had a 2000 mk1 1.8 petrol estate for the last 4 years. After 207000 miles the MOT became uneconomical to carry on ,even though it still runs good, the body is shot.

So I went out on Wednesday and bought a similar car with 75000 miles.

It went great for the first 100 miles then on Friday morning it felt like it dropped a cylinder at a red light.

I carried on another mile to work and found the mid section of the exhaust had split. Fitted a new one and started looking for the misfire. By now it was on 2 cylinders.

I still have the old car with the high miles so I started swapping components.

First the plug leads, no change.

Rear PCV hose was split and taped up, fitted a new one, ran better but lost idle.

Then the Airbox, no change.

Coil Pack, no change

Idle control valve, got idle back.

PCV, ran on 4 at higher rpm.

Cleaned Throttle body and swapped Throttle Position sensor, idle went steady but still low at about 800 rpm. Revved out clean but went back into 3 cylinders after 2 miles. still revs out and comes onto 4 at higher rpm when I stomp on it. 

Any one else seen this? Any ideas

All parts fitted today came off a car I did 1000 miles in last week. So they all worked.

[Trikeopath]

Update:- Yesterday I fitted a couple of obvious service parts, Fuel filter and new plugs. It still wasn't right but it was just about driveable. Took it up the motorway and was running slugish. In particular it didn't like hills. I'd had a similar experience with the previous car which was a Catalytic converter falling apart. They are cheap so I fitting a new one. 

The misfire is still there and I've now noticed the Cat Glows red hot after a short drive. I've inspected the old Cat, and other than being a bit blocked, its not burnt up like you'd expect.

Tonight I pulled it all apart and confirmed Cam timing has not slipped or jumped a tooth. I've done belts on these before, so have the tool kit and I know them well enough that its a fast check for me.

While I was doing that I found Plugs 1 & 4 were sooty, cleaned them and it run up on 4. Took it for a quick drive, and it was back to running rough and Cat pipe glowing again. Switched it off and opened a Can of Guinness.

Any input gratefully received and hopefully it may help someone else in the future as these fault are never one-off.

I'll post more as I go. I know this has the potential to be a great car again.

[JohnF]

On 10/9/2013 at 7:37 PM, artscot79 said:

Good point rust missed that one no experience of the diesel so cant comment on them rear arches rust badly as do the bottoms of the doors check electrics and aircon if fitted works listen for engine noises loud tapping etc check when the cambelt was done ignore the 10 year 100k rubbish youll be told many rarely get that far

Our Mk1 auto estate 1.6 Zetec is 18yrs old (134,000m) and  I do not agree with this, apart from rusting at the seams.  The Yamaha designed engine has a very sturdy cambelt design driving only a tensioner pulley and two small camshafts which spread what little load there is.  It was designed to last at least 150,000m and they very rarely fail.  I am certainly not risking a cack-handed apprentice exchanging a belt which still looks like new for possibly an inferior product and putting one or both cam cogs a tooth or two out of synch. The 10yr 100,000m advice is merely precautionary.  If you must change something, change the tension pulley as this is far more likely to fail than the aramid belt which is so strong that only slightly thicker ones are used to drive powerful motor bikes.   

[silvercanary]

On 11/21/2018 at 10:12 PM, Trikeopath said:

Update:- Yesterday I fitted a couple of obvious service parts, Fuel filter and new plugs. It still wasn't right but it was just about driveable. Took it up the motorway and was running slugish. In particular it didn't like hills. I'd had a similar experience with the previous car which was a Catalytic converter falling apart. They are cheap so I fitting a new one. 

The misfire is still there and I've now noticed the Cat Glows red hot after a short drive. I've inspected the old Cat, and other than being a bit blocked, its not burnt up like you'd expect.

Tonight I pulled it all apart and confirmed Cam timing has not slipped or jumped a tooth. I've done belts on these before, so have the tool kit and I know them well enough that its a fast check for me.

While I was doing that I found Plugs 1 & 4 were sooty, cleaned them and it run up on 4. Took it for a quick drive, and it was back to running rough and Cat pipe glowing again. Switched it off and opened a Can of Guinness.

Any input gratefully received and hopefully it may help someone else in the future as these fault are never one-off.

I'll post more as I go. I know this has the potential to be a great car again.

how are things going? I have a misfire or two on my car with 160k. so far replaced the plugs, leads, coilpack, ISCV, MAF, fuel pump (a new Bosch one), fuel filter, lambda sensor, compression check (all between 175-190psi). and still I have a misfire under heavy load/mashing my right-foot down. which is usually worse or much worse when my car is below half a tank. I have a bit of vacuum with my hand over the oil cap hole so i think PCV is okay and its so rusty i don't want to touch it for now. I snapped one of the screws holding the throttle body off when i tried to unsrew it lol. its made no difference though o nothing to worry about maybe.

I've a few other electrical age related gremlins but nothing as far as I can tell in the engine management has come up for a long time on my forscan setup. 

I've reset the module since putting the new bits in and after a few days driving its back to what it was before. I trained in a ford garage when the focus was released but we didn't come across stuff like this as all we tended to do to them was 10k services and recalls then I left the garage in 02 and haven't really had anything to do with them until now. 

If it had failed mot this year it'd probably have gone already but it passed even with the misfire. So what's the score with you? 

[ian gannaway]

mk1 51 plate 1.6 petrol estate. any ideas why my car smells of petrol intermittently???

[silvercanary]

On 1/16/2019 at 8:40 AM, ian gannaway said:

mk1 51 plate 1.6 petrol estate. any ideas why my car smells of petrol intermittently???

your filler neck pipe is rotten? it's metal (steel - pretty dumb i know) all the way from behind the nozzle part down to the 2" rubber pipe that joins it to the tank. Mine leaks like a seive if i brim it and the rust accumulates inside the fuel pump and blocks the strainer every 1000 miles or so. 

I forgot about this 

[Stevesixty7]

I have a knocking coming from the left front of my car. It only happens at around 20 to 30 mph. My car passed it's MOT in November, and no mention of worn bushes etc. I only get this around our estate at low speeds, the car is fine on main roads, dual carriage way etc. Anyone know what it could be?

[Daz Barker]

Hi all.

I have a 5dr 1.6 zetec 53 plate, with a couple of issues.....

1) clutch pedal bite is very high & thrust bearing squeaks a bit 

2) while accelerating, in most gears it coughs once or twice but then seems ok 

3) drivers door handle (inside) has recently broken.... the exterior door handle works but only just, as the handle is almost at full extension before it delatches.

 

Any suggestions of help anyone??

Thanks in advance

Daz Barker

[Milkman]

Window regulator motors fail. 

Airbag light flashes 4 times, then twice (code 42) and then stays illuminated if you move the front seats with ignition on without being sat on them.

Rear window washer tube detatches from the jet behind the high braking light.

Heater blower motor seizes and stops working.

Heater blower resistor fails, symptom of this is that the heater blower only works on position 4 on the speed switch dial.

Headlamp levelling motors seize and manual adjustment points fail (MOT fail).

[eoghanmurphy46]

sorry to drag this out - but i had a 2002 reg focus saloon 1.6 petrol, i had no rust issues bar the bottom of the boot startes to go, the car was quite tail happy oddly enough , but was good craic on a backroad , the car had 160k miles on it and believe it had fried piston rings as it used to drink oil and if the revs dipped below 1000 rpm e.g when taking off and you let the clutch out to quickly , it used to literally pop and blow blue smoke out of the exhaust , i couldnt afford to keep it on thr road anymore and sold it with oil blowing out thr exhaust 

my question - i want to buy a 1.4 hatch , whats the life expectancy of those engines as i find it hard to find a low milage one for cheap

[NWDenso]

ive got one if anyone can help: ive got a mk1 focus with a locked steering wheel, the thing is old and hasnt ran in a while, the barrel is toast and i cant get the steering lock to come off, it was parked with the wheel turned almost fully left.  i dont need the barrel there if it needs to go, i just need it to start and turn as it will be going for scrap soon

[mrsedgy]

Own a Diesel 1.8 tddi and a Petrol 2.0 , both 3 doors hatchback

the diesel i have bought new in 2000, loving it much, a bit noisy , but cheap with great fuel economy, pretty fast to ! with leather interior , rs bodykit ...

problems over the years with the diesel: 2 new rear bearings, under warranty

water under passenger floor, known problem, revised panel from Ford.

new diesel pump, together with new waterpump en auxbelt and distribution belt at 185.000 km after 17 year. some minor bits to,  the only time it couldn't drive it anymore : 1600€

intercooler hose rubber, revised since 2005, changed two times since 2000. 50€ each

front silent blocks worn, changed after 14 years  and 150.000 km. replace both arms 180€ 

airbag light come on, changed housing in drivers area, 50€ 

heater resistor, changed in 2012, 15€

changed 4 headlight h4 bulbs and 2 breaklight bulbs.

eliminated egr by disconnecting it

changed oil and oilfilter every 10.000 km i.s.o. every 15.000

pushing it's tail when it's warm only, does not use oil, no leaks.

using k&n inlay air filter, cleaning it each year.

heater matrix clogged up, changed after 17 years, 45€ done by myself 

problems now are all electric , unlocking the boot , dash light failling after a while.

no rust so far, living in Belgium and has been standing since 2000 outside; car been cleaned every month. 

car has been used and abused, rebuilding homes and using it for dumping debris and picking up new stuff, this car is handy too. it's amazing what you can fit in it.

using 5.4 liter on 100km. great car, my kids love it too. hope my future car is half this good but very doughtfull.

 

have fun with your's , regards and have a safe trip

 

 

[Stone7812]

Hi Everybody

*FIRST POST WARNING* I have read through the whole thread (very informative I must say) I own a mk1 2001 and I love it to bits!!! Also had the VSS sensor issue and replaced it, not a light job to say the least. Gone through the central locking issues, repaired and cleaned the physical lock assy. (As I am in South Africa and parts arent as cheap as by you guys/gals. Motor has done in excess of 320K kilometers (Yes we use metric 🤣) and never opened the motor. Various wheel bearing replacements as we rarely get more than 15K kilometers to a bearing set. Rough roads? (Not really!!)

[doggsbody]

Wow has it really been since February last yr since l posted here 😵 hi all yet again, well since then my 1.8 estate has had a few more repairs n let's sayl had fun learning on how to fit n still got it through an mot LOL, so I've replaced the steering rack, steering pump now x3 the steering pump pipes ( which l learned can be from any other model petrol/diesel ) I've replaced 1 front wheel bearing using a bench vise and a large socket piece, all the rear Bush's with ( hammer / chisel / socket bits and a Monkey wrench for the trailing arms due to the size of the Bush's, it failed the mot at first because l rushed to get it back on the road ( l didn't tighten the steering column / rack bolt tight enough so allowed a movement of 2-3 mins position either way before the wheels would turn with the steering wheel, just to point out too l burnt the old Bush's out n proved a lot of people wrong that they would be weakened as it's been nearly a yr now since l did them n there still good 👍 also I've changed my clutch and plate not the clutch slave cylinder as that is still ok n works fine, so yeah even after 5-6 yrs of owning n self repairing I still wouldn't give up on my focus, my escort well that's totally different story 😂 as to the various other repairs as mentioned by Stone7812 I've had those plus many others 🙈 I'll upload photos of what l took of mine. Before and now

[V6 Lover]

The alloys in the bottom pic look better than the standard 15 in zetec, although themselves not a bad looking alloy..ive noticed since getting my focus at the begining of the year that the alloys fitted to the old mk1 and mk1.5 seem to wear really,really well..
Are them alloys of a fast escort??

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

[kevwraps]

Hey guys! I'm new here, and I expect to own a Focus MK1 1.8TDDI. 

Before buying it I would like to hear some tips to check if everything is okay. 

I did not drive the car, yet, but I checked it. 

- Body and paint are in awesome shape

- Interior is awesome

- 245k KM with timing belt changed with approx. 210k KM.

The engine seems to be running fine. Idle is fine. However, the owner said it didn't started the car for some time, so when I did start it it took something like 3 seconds to start. Would it be normal or something to be worried about? 

When it started some white smoke came out from the exhaust, and then everything fine. 

Also, when revving there is a little black smoke, but since it seems to not have the exhaust fully stock (because of the noise)... Also, I can hear a light whistle coming from the exhaust when revving. 

What are your opinions and what to check? Thanks a lot!

[ConfusedMan]

I have a 2002 MK1 Focus which has just developed an odd sound after I accidentally burned out the clutch on a really steep hill after someone braked in front of me pretty sharpish. I had stopped and applied the handbrake but it couldn't hold the weight of the car on the incline I was on and began to roll back down the hill very slowly. A car was very close behind me and I had to jump on the accelerator quickly in a panic to stop myself from rolling back into them. Which in turn resulted in me over revving quite hard to about 4000rpm burning my clutch a gooden, smell was pretty awful I must say. The transmission was replaced completely about 4 months ago and this is the first time I've ever burned a clutch in any car I've owned. I can't imagine that it has done much damage to the clutch but it has lead to me noticing a new sound coming from what sounds like under the bonnet, around the glove box area (it's quite a bassy sound so it's hard to pinpoint exactly where it's coming from).

It sounds like a low pitch kind of drone sound but it's not very loud at all, about the same volume of the engine as it increases in rpm. I've tried to narrow things down even more and I've been able to determine that it happens only at around 1800rpm and 2800rpm respectively. This is only when it is in gear and driving not when in neutral and parked. I haven't checked whether it happens in neutral when moving though. It doesn't get louder at any time if I'm moving faster or slower. This is also present in every gear when driving regardless of speed.

I've only checked the engine oil level and looked for leaks under the bottom and found nothing out of the ordinary. There is no loss of power from the engine nor is there anything different with my clutch since it happened. It has me completely puzzled.

 

Does anyone know what this could be?

Thank you in advance, Jamie.

 

Edit: it has done 89000 miles, only 3000 on the new transmission.

[Tdci-Peter]

17 hours ago, ConfusedMan said:

I've been able to determine that it happens only at around 1800rpm and 2800rpm respectively. This is only when it is in gear and driving not when in neutral and parked. I haven't checked whether it happens in neutral when moving though. It doesn't get louder at any time if I'm moving faster or slower. This is also present in every gear when driving regardless of speed.

It does not really match anything I know, nor it seems, anyone else reading this! A bit more information might help, in particular if it continues while coasting, engine dropping to idle while moving, maybe with clutch in and out. Also does the pitch change with engine speed or with vehicle speed.

With the engine idling, have a listen at both front wheel arches. Rattles from the clutch or DMF are more apparent at the passenger side, aux belt & pulley noises more so at the driver's side.

If it happens at specific rpm, regardless of vehicle speed or gear, I would suspect engine mounts, including the torque mount under the gearbox, first. Then sub-frame assembly vibration, then maybe DMF or clutch actuating mechanism, or even gear shift linkage. Though it could just be something minor like a connector, hose, wiring or something has got loose and is rattling against the engine. I found the wires from a big connector on the engine were able to vibrate against a pipe or something on my car once, fixed with a tyrap!

If the pitch changes with vehicle speed, and not with engine rpm, then I would suspect wheel bearings or driveshafts.

[kevwraps]

Hey guys, I have a 1.8TDDI from 2001. I entered test mode to check dTC codes. I've got the 9318 error code, which converts to low voltage. 

What can the problem be? May this affect idle?

[Dwang]

I’ve had the leaking clutch master cylinder leaking for about 4 years now on a 1.6 petrol mk1.5 I tied an old sock around the clutch pedal stalk , stops the hydraulic oil wetting the mat

apparently a pain in the ***** to replace 
Yesterday the power steering leaked from somewhere, needs investigation .. steering stiff as anything 

[kesher]

Re a 1.8 year 2000 saloon

The alternator pulley is seized.  Is it possible to just change the pulley or must I change the alternator as well?

 

THANKS

[Dale R Evans]

Hi did the clutch pedal sensor/switch cause running problems ie over revving between changing gears and coming to a stop because I've replaced everything with new parts from spark plugs to the crank case pipe. I've noticed a couple of times when the car has been stood for a couple of days when I started the car it's like the car jolts on turning over and revs high for a second and settles down to normal tick over but as soon as you drive it the revs climb doing as I mentioned above 

[Steve M, 2003 Focus]

On 10/9/2013 at 6:57 PM, artscot79 said:

Do we have enough room lol

1.4 is under-powered and best avoided they all suffer from leaking rear lights so check the boot for damp the pollen filter is another common problem so check the passenger front footwell for damp

 

I have a Mk1 2003 model 1.4 CL, had the car for about 6 years now and it's just up to a genuine 64k miles.

As people say the 1.4 is under-powered, but as most of the time it's just doing a 10 mile daily commute, it's OK and apart from the usual consumables on a car, the only big thing that has gone wrong was the Instrument Cluster, but that was fixed last year.

Main problem I've got with it now is  "they all suffer from leaking rear lights"  from the pic below the small compartment at the rear of the inner 3/4 panel fills up with about 1/2" of water and then overflows across the lip into the spare wheel well.

How/what is the best way to fix this? Is it the seals at the base of the light just don't seal onto the body, so you just use a sealant or is it where the lens fix to the back of the light so that the water goes into the light itself that's the problem?

Hope somebody can advise, then I can put the trim and carpet back into the boot.

 

Steve