Right, I put the car in the Ford garage today because when it's cold the pedal sticks. It also pulls away like a dog like when they chokes were continually on.

They can't find anything wrong, so I was wondering whether anyone here could shed any light.

I have asked them to use good old fashioned mechanics instead of a computer to figure out the problem.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mark

 

Mark,

THe ST170 (SVT 170 over here) has notoriously crap mapping. When cold the idle speed can go berzerk and be as high as 2200rpm then it becomes really irratic. The bogging down when pulling away is also a nasty charcteristic. If you get it chipped/re-mapped whatever you want to call it then it cures these irritating traits. I'm about to get mine done so I'll let you know how it works out.

 

I have had mine with bluefin since i bought it and never experienced any problems with idle or bogging down when cold. Just drives a bit crap when cold but intelli start sorts that problem out in the mornings

 

What they have told you is complete bollox I have recently left ford after working for them as a specialist technician for 7 years .

The focus ST170 suffers from vibration and sticky throttle cables there is a revised part that they should change F.O.C. or at least honour part of the costs The revised cable is longer and is routed across the engine diffrently .

With regards to the running faults they should connect WDS up to your ST and carry out the nessasary PCM updates to correct hessitation and stumble on acceleration and deceleration.

Hope that helps

Regards Doug .

 

I had a sticky throttle cable,the way forward was a longer cable that wasnt so tighly wrapped in the engine bay,free of charge aswell.

 

The last thing I heard was that metal cables weren't elastic

 

Thanks peeps, some really helpful stuff and certainly gives me some amunition for tomorrow. I told them to keep the bloody thing until fixed, though their so-called chief mechanic has taken it home (15 bloody miles) for the evening.

The dealership has never impressed me, thus I deliver it to their doostep whenever I can.

I'll update you all when I've finished shoving some ideas down the phone. (hey, I may even get a job there)

 

Marco i have had this problem with the sticky throttle. The garage i took it to did the cable mod and told me it was all fixed, but soon as i picked it up i knew it wasnt, but this cable mod did fix the throttle vibration.

Mine was only sticking if i went full throttle and then lifted off quickly and the next time i tried to press the throttle again it had stuck shut. They had to fit a new throttle body to cure my problem (all under warrenty)

 

The jerkiness and crap cold start idle is down to the mapping - check out the ST forums for those that have used Bluefin/Diablo/Excalibrator to cure it. I've read about stiff cables with tight turns in them and also poorly calibrated full open position on throttle but mapping stands out as the biggest issue with these things.