Thinking caps required!! 2.0 Focus with poor idle.

[Rickydanger]

I wonder if anybody can offer any advice...
We purchased a 2003 Ford Focus 2.0 16 Zetec a few months ago and not knowing anything about cars I thought it was a steal at less than a grand..

The issue is as follows:

Starting it can sometimes take a few seconds and a blip of the throttle but once running from cold it is fine.
As soon as it heats up it runs really lumpy at idle and sounds like it is trying to stall but rescuing it at the last minute. There is plenty of vibration from the engine whilst it ticks over.

The engine management light came on soon afterwards and I took it to a garage who diagnosed it as a faulty coil pack. This was changed a week later but the problem persists.

I have also changed the plugs and leads so can assume it is not ignition related.

Tod and Tad (our brothers from across the water)seem to offer all sorts of advice on You Tube but I thought I would consult you guys first before shelling out on the 101 things they suggest.

Today I checked the breather pipe between the head and air filter housing and it was fine.

I checked the connections on the MAF sensor and tested it by unplugging it whilst the engine was running. No real change but you can hear it kick in when first reconnected.

I removed the Idle control valve (bloody knuckles to prove it) and cleaned it out but again if anything it sounds worse.

This is my wife's car and she is due to give birth in 7 weeks so I really bought this as her RELIABLE get around.

Thank you in advance for your help.

[Zad]

I think at this stage, with a sprog imminent, I would take it to a local independent and get them to look at it. At least get the codes read again and use that to guide diagnostics. The ICF could still be sticking, or there might be an air leak somewhere, or possibly a faulty connection to the ICF etc.

[dilateous]

Rickydanger said:

The engine management light came on soon afterwards and I took it to a garage who diagnosed it as a faulty coil pack. This was changed a week later but the problem persists.

Diagnosed?? Highly unlikely I'd say. Perhaps I could be forgiven for thinking that cars with computer producing all sorts of error codes - most of which are doubtless unrelated to a relevant problem - must be a nice little earners.

As for your problem with a 10 year old car with all the things you've tried with an apparenly misfiring vehicle, if it were mine I'd now do a compression test. A mechanical fault would doubtless throw up all sorts of unconnected error codes. For example, I've had a number of second hand cars with burnt or pitted valves. One even had a broken piston ring. And none were anywhere near as old as 10 years!

[neiljohnson]

As others have said check compression is a good idea but also look down the back of the inlet manifold & you will see a couple of pipes check niether of these have split & that the white blanking plug is still in place & complete as these do fail causing an air leak & the issues you describe

[neiljohnson]

Also check the earth strap on the drivers side from the engine lifting eye to the body is intact.
The idle relearn for the ecu is done by disconnecting the battery for 15mins then turning everything on (lights heated screens blowers etc) then restarting the car & allow to idle for 10mins then take for a short drive