Hi everyone,

i am having a great time with my new focus with the powerfull ecoboost engine.

I have a couple of questions that i need answering.

First when the car is at idle either warm engine or cold, it does seem to stumble a little bit, the rev counter doesnt fluctuate but i can feel the car jolt a little bit, is this normal with the newer direct injection engines or should i be looking at something to cure this.

Secondly i'm not sure if this is normal but the clutch bite does seem very high to me, could be normal as ive just come from a honda civic with a mid biting point, but the focus does seen very high to me, is there anywhere i can take this that can do free checks on the clutch, as ive got a warranty with the ford dealer and unless i can prove the clutch is bad they wont wanna know.

My car is a 1.6 petrol ecoboost 180bhp on a 12 plate with 38,000 on the clock.

Thanks

The bite is always high on a focus even new clutches settle to that height and its non adjustable. No point proving a bad clutch anyway ford will state its driver error and you get the bill

The stumble could be down to the emissions when the focus Is ay idle ot idles quite low around 700-800 rpm to keep emissions down since it constantly fluctuates the car is constantly trying to keep it as low as possible and it can hiccup slightly

I had success getting rid of a slightly lumpy idle using Sea Foam. Also improved the MPG slightly and much better throttle response.

Did you add the sea foam to the fuel or elsewhere. Also because it's direct injection I have seen some spray that you can spray into the air intake that cleans behind the valves etc as these newer engines I have heard because it's direct injection the fuel cleaners don't reach all the parts of the engine

sea foam sound like some thing you put into a bath

sea foam sound like some thing you put into a bath

Or something a Masterchef contestant would serve up with an obscure fish dish.

On the clutch front, it took me a while to get used the high bite point on the Focus, coming over from 12 years worth of the low bite point of elderly Astras.

All my cars have quivered a bit at idle. My ST does it noticeably, probably because the stiffer engine mounts mean you feel it more. It is just where the ECU is trying to tick the engine over at the lowest possible RPM without it stalling.

And yeah as everyone else has said, most Fords have high clutches.

Except the Focus ST (and maybe Fiesta ST but haven't tried one), when I test drove it I nearly stalled it as the bite point is much further down.

I'm gonna run some redex through the car in the next fill up, it's not the strongest stuff in the world but I've used the stuff before with good results.

Did you add the sea foam to the fuel or elsewhere. Also because it's direct injection I have seen some spray that you can spray into the air intake that cleans behind the valves etc as these newer engines I have heard because it's direct injection the fuel cleaners don't reach all the parts of the engine

Introduced via the vacuum system.

It can be used in 3 ways, one bottle will do all 3!

1. Dump some in the oil, run around for 20 miles I think it is, then new oil & filter

2. Stick it in the fuel tank

3. As above

It can be had for about a tenner a bottle on ebay.

It's a bit like a DIY Terraclean - although I imagine not quite as effective (but at a tenth of the price, I'm still happy with my results)