Benjamin James Hobson

Hi guys, Newbie ere!,,,

Ok so ill start of by saying i own a ford focus 1999 1.8 petrol. Love these cars,, had 3 now and never had an issue with one until recently, So basically i bought it with a fault,I paid 250 quid. It had a cutting out issue. ive obviously as a ford owner had these issues in the past and thought nothing a bit of gaffer tape wont rectify. She said her mechanical friend said it was down to a vacuum leak.... ( BULL SHI*)... So driving it home and it starts to judder like she said it did sometimes, didn't think alot of it even though it was violently shaking me back and fourth. Every time id accelerate, normally in 3rd 4th and 5th it would judder and i couldn't really get alot of speed so had to drive 10 miles home in low gear. got to a slight slope and the car cut out... tried to restart .... NOTHING!!!! , Almost as if it was out of fuel... So i called out the AA, First guy...useless... "Yes Mr hobson , It appears to be a duff coil pack " As mentioned as a previous focus owner i no about coil packs and this certainly wasn't the cause.. Too rule it out i had it checked. ive changed the ht leads too.. after being towed back and checking this stuff out i called out the AA again hoping in the light they may spot something else... He asked if any work had been carried out. i Showed him it recently had a clutch a fuel pump and filter ect He said the first thing he would of replaced as a garage would be the crank sensor.... So i did just that.. Now trying to start it it would fire up and go to run and 2 seconds into it cut like there was no fuel or something.. Now i now the fuel pump is working as i can hear it on ignition. Ive checked the switch to make sure its all good. Ive checked fuses ect. Im now running out of ideas on what else it can be, some people say ecu some people say dodgy wires. ect, the problem is now though 2 days after the last aa visit and i nearly getting it started last nite... I call out AA today to try and give it that little push it felt like it needed to run.. Now its not sparking on the plugs again? Yet the ecu reads a signal on the crank sensor? Any ideas guys. I'm no mechanical wizz but with some instruction im willing to get my hands dirty here!

Benjamin James Hobson

Anybody?

ulash

hi. if your ignition system is okey like your said , and also your fuel pump sounds like working... my opinion your fuel pump works but not enough pressure to start your car... check your pump. 80% your pump died.... cheers

Benjamin James Hobson

Any ideas on how to check the pressure of the fuel tank!
Cheers

ulash

what engine on it ?

Benjamin James Hobson

1.8 petrol ztec

ulash

ok... you have 2 fuel line.. first one fuel delivery second one is fuel return... i think on your fuel rail 2 line and 2 different color line clips white and red white is delivery red is return take off the return line (red one) from fuel rail and pluged with somethin ( cut a little bit 8 mm fuel hose somewhere and find any 8 mm plug or bolt or something insert the hose and other side will be connected to fuel rail.) now just one hose on your fuel rail and the other side (return) plugged.try to start if it is okey or much much better than original connection you will be change your fuel pump mate...... sorry for my bad englishhh. this is simple for you

Benjamin James Hobson

Ok ill give it a go tommorow. Its dark here now and i dont want to poke round in the dark.. Ill let you now tommorow how i get on, I understand you , Thank you for taking the time to help me, Much appriceated...

ulash

nothing mate good luck

Benjamin James Hobson

Anyone else have any input?

Benjamin James Hobson

Ok update for those who are reading. I guess if the cambelt was knackered it wouldnt give any compression on cylinders so i preformed a compression test. Now bearing in mind its a 16 year old car i would guess around this compression is acceptable and id also like to add that the compression tester i was using you couldnt tighten very well .. if i could of screwed it in as hard as possible i would guess it would be slightly higher but either way all 4 cylinders read 125.. I am going to check the mechanical timing later on and ill will try this fuel line thing aswel.. will update later this evening, any more input greatfully appriceated

MikeyRobbo

Compression of 125 across all 4 cylinders will be okay.

Surely if its been running so bad its going to have logged some fault codes? Have you had those read. Just cause the engine management light hasnt lit up doesn't mean theres no codes, never know the bulb might be 'missing'

I'd be checking that pump that was supposedly fitted and if the filter is new check its the right way around! Seen lazy twats cut holes in the floor under the rear seat to do the pumps so see if thats been done gives you easy access

Give it a whirl with the air mass unplugged too, could be faulty and throwing fucked up readings in.

Benjamin James Hobson

Hey guys sorry, haven't had a lot of time to get on here recently. Ok so I want to say I fixed the problem but aint 100 percent sure... Ok so I called out the AA the other nite ...( the 6th guy to come and have a look) No basically the spark plugs all died so replaced those... aa failed to find this) Thery came round for an 1hour and a half and still couldn't find it... although we think we found the juddering issue which would of caused cutting out... The vaccum in the top left had a snapped pipe that had been glued or melted back .... WHAT R TARDS!! they spend nearly grand on this car and wont replace a 5's worth of plastic... Moving on. Ok so I notice the clutch cable is all twisted... and theres the main wire loom wrapped around the cable... I went to tidy this up... plugged it all back in and lifted it away from the gearbox as I found rubbing marks.. saw copper wire so it looked like it may of been arking... went to fire her up ... 1st time... so next day I drove it 15 miles. around what I did last time... then it started juddering. no where near as bad as the first. lost all acelartionm. was like driving a 1 ltr. Called aa out again and they found the maf sensor cable was bust. if he lifted it up the engine went to cut.. so hes repaired that. also the back vaccum hose was loose.. I mean I could touch it with fingertip and it fell right off.. Is that what caused me to loose acceleration?

Benjamin James Hobson

yeah I belived there may of been some codes, had it plugged in 2-3 times and nothing would show up, ... so I think the dodgy arking wire loom may of been the non starting issue!