Any ideas why my Wife's focus might be doing this?

[Urban Sports]

Afternoon,

When cold, usually within 5 minutes of starting and with the car not in gear coasting the car idles erratically, sometimes cutting out, it seems to stop when the car comes to a standstill. The engine management light is not on.

It is a 2009 1.8 petrol. It's my Wife's car and because it's cut out a few times she doesn't want to use it

Any ideas?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xxF4PYDuU

[Major Fallout]

Could be a failing idle control valve?

[andym1603]

Idle control valve as already been mentioned.

[littleredrooster]

Could be any one of a number of sensors giving a false reading. A diagnostic check to see what fault codes are showing is the quickest way.

[Urban Sports]

littleredrooster said:

Could be any one of a number of sensors giving a false reading. A diagnostic check to see what fault codes are showing is the quickest way.

Would it show a code without the engine management light on?

[E30M3SE]

Urban Sports said:

Would it show a code without the engine management light on?

Possibly.

Unmetered air, check for split hoses and slight blow from exhaust manifold or exhaust before the O2 sensor.

As mentioned above ICV.

[Viperz888]

Don't know if this will work on such a new car, but it was common for them to gunk up on the late Escorts/early Focus Zetec engines. You could just take them off, bathe them in brake cleaner or petrol, that would dissolve the buildup, put them on and you'd be fine.

[4key]

Only when cold? Does it idle ok on first startup, I dont think that the ISCV kicks in until after a minute. Best guess though is as said, iscv or the associated pipework, that is quite erratic though.

Can you smell petrol from the exhaust? Im suprised that isnt in limp and throwing fuel at the problem.

Edited by 4key on Saturday 1st December 16:23

[littleredrooster]

Urban Sports said:

Would it show a code without the engine management light on?

Yes.

Dog-nosing on the internet is next to impossible, but my best guess would be Idle Control Valve, Air Temp Sensor or Oil Temp Sensor as a starting point. Or lambda sensor, particularly if it's a pre-heat type, or MAF meter being a bit sick.

Could equally be Crank sensor or Cam sensor starting to break down. Better when it stops altogether, then you have a definite fault to trace! Wifies Fiat had an intermittent stalling problem for months before I found it - that was a Crank position sensor which went open-circuit when hot sometimes.

[VeeTEC]

4key said:

Only when cold? Does it idle ok on first startup, I dont think that the ISCV kicks in until after a minute. Best guess though is as said, iscv or the associated pipework, that is quite erratic though.

Can you smell petrol from the exhaust? Im suprised that isnt in limp and throwing fuel at the problem.

Edited by 4key on Saturday 1st December 16:23

An old escort I had only did it when cold. When the engine got up to temperature it idled normally. I guess the valve loosened up as it got warm.

[colindavies]

when you start the car,let it worm up,BEFORE you pull away,if this works,it will prove its your iscv.pulling away cold AND with lights on,will be worse.

[Glosphil]

Easy cure. Don't do this - "with the car not in gear coasting ". Why would you want to?

[BorkFactor]

Idle control valve - my old ST24 did this once or twice.

[steve singh]

Glosphil said:

Easy cure. Don't do this - "with the car not in gear coasting ". Why would you want to?

Masking over the problem through a different driving style isn't very sensible imo...

Something is wrong - get it fixed rather than being left on the side of the road at some point in the future...

[davepoth]

Glosphil said:

Easy cure. Don't do this - "with the car not in gear coasting ". Why would you want to?

If it's the ICV, it'll stall even when you drop the clutch at 2mph when pulling up to lights. I have the crap ICV on my Fiesta to thank for having to learn how to heel and toe.

[405dogvan]

Glosphil said:

Easy cure. Don't do this - "with the car not in gear coasting ". Why would you want to?

Driving a car out of gear is an offense (you're not in control of the vehicle) - it's a horrible habit and you need to break it before it results in an accident.

As for what the problem might be - a friend had a similar issue with a similarly bad driver of his car (his daughter in that case) and it transpired to be a faulty speed sensor (the car thought it was stationary but it wasn't) - but that was a completely different car so isn't a likely cause here necessarily.

If there are no fault codes in the ECU then you could be spending a LONG time chasing a problem like this - as someone said, you'd be better-off telling her to drive properly (you should always be in-gear if the car is moving - basically) as that would appear to resolve the issue

[davepoth]

405dogvan said:

Glosphil said:

Easy cure. Don't do this - "with the car not in gear coasting ". Why would you want to?

Driving a car out of gear is an offense (you're not in control of the vehicle) - it's a horrible habit and you need to break it before it results in an accident.

As for what the problem might be - a friend had a similar issue with a similarly bad driver of his car (his daughter in that case) and it transpired to be a faulty speed sensor (the car thought it was stationary but it wasn't) - but that was a completely different car so isn't a likely cause here necessarily.

If there are no fault codes in the ECU then you could be spending a LONG time chasing a problem like this - as someone said, you'd be better-off telling her to drive properly (you should always be in-gear if the car is moving - basically) as that would appear to resolve the issue

That's a bit harsh. As I said I've had this problem with an ICV and it would stall even when pulling up to lights - and that could well be what the OP meant.

[Urban Sports]

Lol I was waiting for the coasting comments and you didn't fail.

It's my Wife's complaint and pulling up at lights and junctions it does it and has cut out when you dip the clutch, the video shows how bad it is when just coasting I did that for the footage.

Thanks for the constructive comments so far I'll look at the ICV.

[Mr AJ]

Fairly common on the mk1 focus, Not sure about later models? Mine does it, I think P0113 is the error code i get - So possibly a duff intake air temperature sensor on mine. Idle control valve and throttle position sensor are another possibility.

Do you know anyone with an OBD reader?