Hi, Just joined the owners club as i am looking for advise on a problem my ford focus 1.8ltr has after being left for three months without being used.

The battery was flat and i brought new, got her started and she started running very rough. Miss firing, not sure what cylinder as i know nothing about cars.

I live in Norway and the car is British which i brought with me 6 yrs ago.

Questions are after reading a lot on web is the problem electrical or an air leak?

I hope there is someone here within the owners club that can give me some advise on where to start looking for a cure. I don't want to put her into a ford garage as here fees are £135 per hour just for them to diagnose the problem.

Thank you for any information given.

Kindest regards

John

Hi, Couple of points for you to consider.

Firstly if battery has been flat for more than a few hours then the ecu will have reset and will need to learn from all the sensors etc, this takes a few miles of varied driving to do, the owners handbook tells you to expect odd running behaviour during this period, the cure is free, just drive it.

The other ting I would suggest is cleaning the sensor on the mass air flow meter, located near the air filter, the tiny wire can get deposits on when sat for a while which give false readings, check you tube for instructions, it's easy and the cleaner is cheap but make sure you get the proper cleaner as WD40 will leave a residue, also unplug and spray with WD40 every electrical plug you can see. Good luck

Hi David,

Thank you so much for the advise, sorry for late reply as ive been really busy with work. I brought a scanner and codes returned p0113 and p0102 were for the mass air flow meter. So im now seeing if i can get it changed or replace myself before the weekend. The filter is dirty so that's going to be changed as well. I also found a small sponge filter in corner of filter box soaked in Oil, well it was black and very dirty.

I need to fit new discs on front this weekend but after i will be taking her out for a good run up the highway. Back ill give her a good run through the country lanes up and down the box give her a varied run and hope everything will return to normal.

Sounds like a plan, try cleaning the mass air flow meter before changing, it is fairly easy to do and could save you some money to put towards other things, I have a 1.8 and when it runs well its superb but never yet managed to get a consistently good idle, it can be fine for a while then the ecu thinks it could get away with less fuel and it all goes to pot and seems to take a bit to recover, I am sure I read that this is a quirk of this engine so I don't worry as it never stalls, good luck with your car.

Its frustrating when you get a problem. im not complaining as mine has only let me down once in the 8 yrs ive owned her. A valve or something went wrong on powered steering when i was in Norway costing me £125 to fix and three days without as waiting for part from UK.

Thanks foe the advice David. good luck to you and hope you eventually find out your problem.

After good Advice from David i now have my ford focus running great. What i thought was a missfire turned out to be just running rough.

Still i do not profess to be a mechanic or someone who knows anything about cars. If i had her serviced and look after her better i really believe i would not have had this problem.

However the cause was a alternator not turning that caused the non crank no start. That cured it started but run rough. Cause Mass air flow sensor dirty so cleaning and replacing filters then removing codes p0102 and p0113 from ECU has the car running nicely and back on road.

Do forums work YES they do there are so many knowledgeable people on the internet willing to help with good advise.

This is certainly one forum where i will visit on occasions if i get problems or even give advice on what i now know.

I would recommend anyone to buy a AUTEL A519 as this piece of tech found my problems and gave me the answers for a cure.

Well done you