focus rs starting problem

[chriz1]

I seem to have a bit of a problem when starting my car from cold.I press the button to start and it takes its time to start and when it does it runs really rough and revs rise and drop and sounds like its on 3 cylinders,after 10 seconds or so its fine then and starts good when warm.
Its running the latest engine map but still struggles,no engine mods either any one got some kind of idea??

[Trooper2]

What year Focus is it?

If its an older model it could be the idle air control valve, dirty sticking or on its way to failure.

If its a new one, unfortunatly the latest OBD standards dictate that the manufacturers have to run the engines so lean at start up that in cold weather they will often misfire.

Does your check engine light come on?

I've seen allot of Jag S-Types with this second condition.

I would also recommend checking your batteries voltage before the next cold start, if the battery is going flat in winter weather while sitting overnight there may not be enough voltage to go around and that could be why the cars idle stabilizes after the engine runs for 10 seconds or so (generator kicking in). Voltage should be 12 volts or above with 12.65 volts being fully charged.

[chriz1]

its a 53 plate,il check the battery voltage this morning now and see what it says.
Im also going to try and look for the idle speed control valve and get it off and give it a clean with carb cleaner see if this helps.

[RS-Dog]

If its a 53 it should be on the AF map, Have you checked this as AE had cold start issues.

Have you changed the plugs? Mine occasionally started on only 3 cylinders, plugs looked okay but I swapped them and it cleared it, the faulty plug showed higher resitance than the others when cold.

Rich

[chriz1]

its on af had this checked just took the idle valve off today and cleaned it what a job!!
Put it all back together and it certainly fired up with more oopmh!!!
So wait and see really.