For a few weeks I've had power issues with my focus.

It's struggled to maintain speed on the motorway, not that it can't stay at say 70 or 75, but it just doesn't seem to like it, especially if you go beyond it for more than a few minutes.

55 on the motorway and it seems quite happy.

At one point there seemed to be a lot of engine vibration, I thought all of this was down to the fact that I'd maybe over dosed it on REDEX but it still seems to remain.

I get a noticeable amount of black smoke especially accellarating from second to third gear and also have a lot of sludge in the intercooler.

I cleaned out as much as I could and also took out the MAF and gave it a bit of a wipe.

This did make a difference in terms of response but still got black smoke, at some point I expect the issue to manifest again.

Is it something as simply as a good clean out of the intercooler, including an oil change or should I be looking to see if some other part might be about to fail?

Sounds like a possible E.G.R.V. / fuel filter issue - black smoke indicates a fuel / air imbalance

Sludge in the I/C is probably because the E.G.R.V. is blocked - clean it & blank it

MAF shouldn't be wiped. See what it's like with the MAF electrically disconnected.

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Clean MAF with electrical contact cleaner & a cottonwool bud - CAREFULLY ! :)

Just gave it a gentle stroke with an ear bud.

But think the EGR cleaner might be a good idea but there's plenty of sludge so will probably get a piece of rope and an cut up an old tea towl and pull it through some of the pipe work too, to get everything out of there as well.

HOLY F&£k

£3.25 can of carb cleaner from Roche's spares and not the £10 can from Halfrauds, 60 minutes under the bonnet cleaning all the pipes and intercooler as best I can.

Then spraying it directly into the intake first on idle then with it rev'd a bit a few long 5 second bursts of the carb cleaner and the thing drives like a different car.

What can I say, as a bloke I love it when I put my foot down and things start to happen.

Well gave it a clean and did see a massive difference in power.

But, I come out of a junction put it in second and think I'll try booting it a couple of times but still get smoke and it still seems to choke with my foot right down like it can't give it anymore power. Although I do see some black smoke, I am seeing more white now, I cleaned it again and this time did blank it.

This improved it a bit but I rev'd it with the intercooler disconnected from the intake and I see white smoke coming out of the intercooler and from the exhaust.

Starting to think it's the turbo that's at fault.