Mk1 Ford Focus Cylinder Not Firing

[mopman94]

I think this is the correct section.

I have a 2002 Ford Focus, I bought it for £800 a year and a half ago as a cheap car to just get around. It has done 89,000 miles. The last time I know for sure it had a service was 2011.

Yesterday while driving one of the cylinders stopped firing, or so I assume because the engine judders baddly, the rev fluctuate slightly, the engine managment light lost its mind a bit and there is a smell of petrol where I assume fuel is going into the dead cylinder, no igniting then coming out the exhaust.

I waddled the car home with the intention to try and fix it tomorrow (Saturday).

I am making this thread to ask if there are any obvious suggestions or common faults to look for. I intend to:

1) Buy a new spark plug (if this is the problem I will repalce the other 3 as well) and try it in each of the cylinders to see if the problem goes away (I obviously cannot tell which one it is that isn't working)

2) Try replacing the coil pack, some Googleing said that this could have given up on life.

After that I am stumped so am open to suggestions. If it is too expensive I will probably scrap it for £130 and get another dirt cheap car.

[mopman94]

Jazoli said:

Pull the sticks off the spark plugs, you will probably find that the spark plug wells are full of water, either suck it all out with a vacuum pump or just soak it up with the bit of paper towel, spray lots of WD40 over the coil and plug to disperse any remaining water and reconnect, it should run fine and the EML will go out, its a very common problem on MK1 foci.

If its not this try a new plug then get yourself to your local scrapyard and pull a set of plug tops of a scrap focus (there will be one in there!) and fit them, new plugs are £3 each, a coil and sticks will probably be a tenner from the scrappy.

Edited by Jazoli on Friday 22 January 18:57

Thanks for the reply. I hadn't thought about getting parts from a breakers, that should keep it cheap.

I'm not sure on the water suggestion because it happened after I'd driven about 4 miles, I will deffinetly give it a go though!

[mopman94]

t400ble said:

Dont just chuck parts at the car, do some testing

See if you have a spark from the coil at each lead

Ah yes, good point, I'll do that first then move onto the spark plugs.

[mopman94]

t400ble said:

p.s Price of scrap is down to nothing, so doubt you'll get £130

The webuyanycar website day they'd give £130 for it as a non-runner

[mopman94]

AdamIndy said:

Possibly the coilpack. A quick test to see which is the dead cylinder. Spray water on the exhaust manifold when cold. Start the engine, see which of the 3 dry up. The wet one is the dead one.

I have changed a couple of coil packs on zetecs. When they die they get bloody hot!

Water in the plug holes is a possibility. Make sure the cap is clean and the plug top isn't corroded.

Also leads don't last forever, they do break down over time.

Hadn't thought of that to find the broken cylinder, that should save some time.

[mopman94]

It is all fixed now, thanks for the suggestions.

I checked each spark plug by taking them out, attaching them to the pipe, grounding it and seeing if it sparks. The one on the far right wasn't sparking and when I put it in a different plug it was only sparking a little bit. I went and bought a replacment set of plugs from Ford for £12, fitted them and gave it a drive. It half solved the problem, the cylinder wan't completely dead but it kept miss firing.

So I gave Ford a call to get the price of a coil pack and leads, they wanted £180, can't be bothered with that. Drove my dads car to the breakers and found a suitable Ford Focus there and took the coil pack and leads for £20, it seems this car had it replaced as it wasns't a genuine Ford one and was dated on the back of it 2010/11 when it was a 1999 car.

Fitted the coil pack to the car and jobs a gooden it is running smoother than it ever did. So all in £32 and a morning to fix.