Hello,

I've just returned home after a nice walk from the Co-Op as my Focus started, I stopped it and it refused to start. This tends to happen only in the summer, and normally when the external temperature is above 15 degrees.

She will start first time any weather, but if you turn her off during the summer she will turn over, crank but not fire. Fuel pump is fine, fuses are fine. She sounds fuel starved, but if you pull the fuel line just before the engine petrol comes out. Crank and cam sensors replaced last May.

Give her two hours and she will start, no problem at all. But you have to leave her those two hours.

Another interesting glitch is when she does this if you have the clutch up, brakes off, accelerator off and turn the key all the way to on and leave it pressed hard there, she will cough. The cough causes momentum and moves the car forward. If you leave the key hard pressed she will continue to cough every second or so and will effectively kangaroo drive. You have no power steering and bad brakes, but as I've found it's enough to drive her 20 foot around another car into a safe parking position.

This fault is driving me mad, there is no real consistency to it. All I know is when it's hot, you turn her off, you have to wait two hours before she'll start again. But occasionally like in underground car parks about an hour is fine.

Battery was replaced very recently, and I've had the alternator checked and it's fine. I have noticed the wires from the fuel pump under the back seats are frayed and the copper can be seen, I've also noticed some copper has been revealed on the battery wires.

I am loath to take her to a garage just yet, as the fault is so weird they will probably charge me a fortune by checking everything and getting no where. When I Google this, lots of people come up with the fault, but very little in the way of answers.

 

GARGH!

ordinarily, hot start failures are due to the crankshaft sensor failing. This could be a bad wire, or a failed sensor.