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Hesitation/stuttering Diesel Focus 1.6 tdci


Pete Dyble
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Thought some of you members may benefit from my experience with 2008 Focus 1.6 tdci.

It started a stuttering/hesitation which came and went - no fault codes for warning lights. Some times it would stall the car, sometimes it would be brief and car ran on with no problems. No  driving reason for the problem, fast or slow, uphill or downhill, cold or hot, it would happen for no apparent reason. Checked into local garage who thought it was DPF so had it changed at £500 with no change so had they said it was the injectors so paid out over £1k to have new ones and still the same. Mechanic said to get rid of car as it could cost thousands to trace the problem and also the turbo was whistling so that needed changing. I am not the type of person to offload a problem to some unsuspecting buyer so decided to tackle it myself. Bought a new Turbo inner part (£80) and used the same casting, cleaned out all pipe-work of all the oil crud. Removed the oil-feed pipe from engine to turbo and thoroughly cleaned with petrol and compressed air, also blasted air into engine oil gallery. So good oil flow to turbo so that should last the life of the car, incidentely the car had done 91k miles.

Still no difference so bought second-hand fuel pump (£60) of a car which had done 42k miles. While engine in bits, changed timing belt, water pump, idler and tensioner pulleys (£77) and ancillary belt (£13). Also stripped EGR system out, which was in a awful state. The end coming from top of engine was at least 50% blocked with crud! The cooling jacket part was full of soot so probably not reducing gas temperature effectively. likewise ERG valve. Cleaned everything manually and with carburettor cleaner. Made sure EGR valve was operating smoothly and rebuilt everything. Took off every sensor I could find and cleaned with carb cleaner. Put back together and it ran perfectly on motorway and other roads for an hour or so and then hesitation and then stop! Called RAC and when they came an hour later, the car started as though nothing had happened! RAC checked the system and still no faults although it did show intermittent low fuel pressure. Car drove home in fits and starts. Ordered fuel pressure sensor. Haynes manual says you have to replace rail and sensor together at £300 so took off existing sensor and checked part number and ordered new one off eBay for £26. Put it back together and it is running perfectly and smoothly so dead chuffed!

I hope this experience helps someone who has same problem and does not know where to start.

My opinion is that the main problem (apart from turbo) was poor maintenance throughout its life, especially regular oil changes, dirty EGR system and fuel pressure sensor. The other work done would not cure the problem but saved a fortune while engine stripped.

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  • 2 months later...

I have a Dec 2006 Focus Ghia 1.6 Tdci diesel automatic. It has only done 54,000 miles and been serviced regularly. I bought it from a mate who worked for Ford and it was his works car for 6 months. It's a great car to drive and runs well, but for the last 12 months I have had the following problem:

When the car is sort of coasting along, I think maybe when it changes gear, only at 1200 to 1300 revs, there is a hesitation in the drive. It can happen around 10 mph and 30 mph. It is difficult to get it to do it when you want to demonstrate it! It is only momentary and the car has never stalled. When the revs change and when the accellerator is pushed it runs properly. Never happens above 1300 revs. My regular garage said it could be several things! They have changed the fuel filter and when this had no effect they then changed the accelerator pedal - again didn't solve the problem. Ford agent in Chelmsford (Lookers) have had it in and could not even identify the fault! Latest garage says it is the gear box, they say it doesn't know what gear it wants to be in! They have changed the gear box oil and this has not solved the problem. The oil that came out looked good with no discolouration or bits of metal. Latest suggestion is a problem with the fuel injector solenoids on this type of engine. I'm tempted to do nothing more and see if it gets worse.

Not sure if your problem is related to mine though? 

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  • 3 months later...

Not sure if it was there before, probably not, but a fault code found at specialist A & M Gearbox Services Limited, who I can recommend!  Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valve changed at nearby workshop. Problem solved!

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Pete,

I have a similar problem with the same type of car (2008 1.6 TDCI). For years now, it has been stuttering from time to time, also stalling sometimes, but always starting again.
No fault codes, and it was often going for months without any issues.
I usually drive the car at 4k RPM for a while after the symptoms start, which seems to help. I've also tried extra fuel additives, which seemed to help as well.
I've had similar experiences with the local garage as you had. They suggested to replace seemingly random parts, so I said I'd rather wait until whatever causes the problem finally breaks.

Right now my car does not start after it had been stuttering the last few times I have driven it.

Reading your post got my hopes high, so I ordered a fuel pressure sensor. Sadly, it turned out that replacing it is more difficult, than I thought. As a temporary measure, I've tried to bleed the fuel filter, but that did not help.

How did you reach the sensor, it is not described in the Haynes manual. Did you first remove the common rail, or could you replace the sensor with the rail still mounted on the engine.
If so, do you remember which parts you had to remove to get to it?

 

 

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  • 4 years later...
On 9/24/2017 at 11:21 PM, Pete Dyble said:

Thought some of you members may benefit from my experience with 2008 Focus 1.6 tdci.

It started a stuttering/hesitation which came and went - no fault codes for warning lights. Some times it would stall the car, sometimes it would be brief and car ran on with no problems. No  driving reason for the problem, fast or slow, uphill or downhill, cold or hot, it would happen for no apparent reason. Checked into local garage who thought it was DPF so had it changed at £500 with no change so had they said it was the injectors so paid out over £1k to have new ones and still the same. Mechanic said to get rid of car as it could cost thousands to trace the problem and also the turbo was whistling so that needed changing. I am not the type of person to offload a problem to some unsuspecting buyer so decided to tackle it myself. Bought a new Turbo inner part (£80) and used the same casting, cleaned out all pipe-work of all the oil crud. Removed the oil-feed pipe from engine to turbo and thoroughly cleaned with petrol and compressed air, also blasted air into engine oil gallery. So good oil flow to turbo so that should last the life of the car, incidentely the car had done 91k miles.

Still no difference so bought second-hand fuel pump (£60) of a car which had done 42k miles. While engine in bits, changed timing belt, water pump, idler and tensioner pulleys (£77) and ancillary belt (£13). Also stripped EGR system out, which was in a awful state. The end coming from top of engine was at least 50% blocked with crud! The cooling jacket part was full of soot so probably not reducing gas temperature effectively. likewise ERG valve. Cleaned everything manually and with carburettor cleaner. Made sure EGR valve was operating smoothly and rebuilt everything. Took off every sensor I could find and cleaned with carb cleaner. Put back together and it ran perfectly on motorway and other roads for an hour or so and then hesitation and then stop! Called RAC and when they came an hour later, the car started as though nothing had happened! RAC checked the system and still no faults although it did show intermittent low fuel pressure. Car drove home in fits and starts. Ordered fuel pressure sensor. Haynes manual says you have to replace rail and sensor together at £300 so took off existing sensor and checked part number and ordered new one off ebay for £26. Put it back together and it is running perfectly and smoothly so dead chuffed!

I hope this experience helps someone who has same problem and does not know where to start.

My opinion is that the main problem (apart from turbo) was poor maintenance throughout its life, especially regular oil changes, dirty EGR system and fuel pressure sensor. The other work done would not cure the problem but saved a fortune while engine stripped.

Hey I had exact same problem with my car. After reading this I fitted a new fuel rail and sensor (direct from ford).

The car ran great for 2 months and i thought that had cured it. All of a sudden it has started again and is gradually getting worse and worse like it did last time. Just baffling me why it would have been fine for 2 months to then start doing the same thing again?

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5 minutes ago, DannyMc87 said:

Hey I had exact same problem with my car. After reading this I fitted a new fuel rail and sensor (direct from ford).

The car ran great for 2 months and i thought that had cured it. All of a sudden it has started again and is gradually getting worse and worse like it did last time. Just baffling me why it would have been fine for 2 months to then start doing the same thing again?

Just FYI, this thread is about the old 16 valve engine.  Most parts, including EGR, injectors, turbo, etc are different to the 8 valve engine in your Fiesta.

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34 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Just FYI, this thread is about the old 16 valve engine.  Most parts, including EGR, injectors, turbo, etc are different to the 8 valve engine in your Fiesta.

Yeah I noticed 😆 read this ages ago, just had the exact same symptoms.

Gonna take it to a diesel specialist to have injectors tested. As you can imagine, it's a very frustrating scenario.

 

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