Ford Ka stalling- help (sorry about the essay)

[holderd]

Evening all,

I’m after a bit of advice regarding our (mine and the mrs) Ford Ka. It’s a 1997 P reg with 60,000 miles on it that we use as our run about (to keep the miles off the ‘nice’ cars). We paid about £500 for it 6 months ago and to be fair to it we haven’t had a spot of bother until now.

Its started cutting out as we come to a stop- just as engine speed is reaching idle. I’ve done lots of Google searching and most people have pointed to the Idle Control Valve. I’ve taken this off today and cleaned it out with WD40 & carb cleaner and it did seem to help- for a short time, although after a long journey it did do it again a couple of times.

While rooting around under the bonnet I checked the usual things like plugs, intake assy, connections etc. I did find a hole in the oil filler cap. There are two (what I assume are) vacuum lines going away from the filler cap- one to the air filter and one that disappears to I don’t know where. Where the pipe that goes to the air filter connects to the filler cap there is a crack in the ‘neck’ (like in this link http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FORD-Ka-Oil-Filler-Breather-... ). When the engine is running you can feel air escaping through the hole (and when its revved fuel/smoke!). Could this hole cause the car to stall intermittently like I describe?

Sorry about the long post btw- I’ve spent most of this weekend messing with the car and I’m pulling my hair out. Although I have ordered a new filler cap I’m a bit reluctant to spend a fortune hunting for a fault on a car that’s probably worth £300 with the amount of MOT it has left on it.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan

[LuS1fer]

Difficult to diagnose these things. I always start with a can of carb cleaner and spray into the inlet/throttle butterfly to dislodge any carbon. I then detach every single pipe running to the intake manifold and spray carb cleaner into it. I have a Golf GTI which had a stalling problem and I suspected the one-way valve between inlet and servo so sprayed down that pipe too and it hasn't stalled for over a year now.

[smileymikey]

Just been through the same process with a Kangoo, clean the idle control valve with some brake cleaner or similar solvent pop it back in and try again....if that doesnt work I'm afraid you are going to have to bite the bullet and replace. However must be a million of the same unit in breakers yards...phone around and cut a deal.

[mrg20000]

hi mate,yes the holes/cracks in the oil filler cap will make the car stall..change it.if still doing it change speed sensor on g/box,still doing it? scrap it! no only joking..change lamda sensor on top of exhaust manifold/heat shield...this is what i use to do.the easiest option by a long hair pulling,non sleeping way is to take it to a good old fashioned back street garage.he should have a scanner/code reader.hel plug it in & the code will point you in the right direction..an oxygen code=lamda or cat..its nothing serious at all.nearly every ka suffers from it,its the quality of a ford!