tim_ber

Happy New Year !

Short story first:
Ford Escort 1.8Si Zetec 1997, 120kmiles

After about 5 miles, got sudden power loss and miss firing I think. Only appears to happen under load. Say I am doing 50mph and try to accelerate, there is a flat spot, / no power. Ease off and all was ok.

There was one time in the journey when power went completely, pulled over and started fine.

Pull over, switch engine off and on again and all is fine for a few more miles.

Any IDEAS what to start looking at first? Timing? Ignition system? Fuel injection?

Fuel filter was changed only a few months ago.

Long story:
Before Christmas, symptoms as above. AA called out. He said "exhaust gasses in your cooling water, your cylinder headgasket has gone"

So, I renewed gasket, thermostat, cam belt, aux belt, Head bolts, HT leads, sparks etc. Also put in some Z-seal in case there was a small leak elsewhere.

GASKET that came off was fine !

I should have done my own diagnostics starting with sparks and fuel etc.

Looks like I spent a long time over Christmas in the cold doing a job not needed (and money) because the same symptoms exist.


Any ideas on what to look at first gratefully received.
Cheers,
Tim

nugnah

try air filter fitting, i have induction kit on my 1.8 and sometime it pops off the pipe, guy before me fitted it :-( . any way when this happens same simptoms as your having, no power and feels like its running out of fuel,

jason

tim_ber

Thanks,
will look at that

zetecdan

could be the maf sensor gone duff, try unplugging it and see if there is any difference if not then it may be the sensor, hooking the car up to a fault code reader will confirm it or show another fault.
another possibility is a collapsed cat, not allowing the exhaust gases to escape properly. sometimes accompanied by a sound from the exhaust before the cat where the gases are being forced out any weak joints.

tim_ber

Thanks zetecdan,

Cat is an interesting point because I have noticed a different smell coming from the exhaust since these problems started.

Cheers

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

i would say air flow meter or the cat has colapsed. If it missfiring it could be the coil park too.

CosworthGuy

coil pack for the misfiring under load Id say mate, Get it plugged into a machine though and you may have a bit more success. Some of the aa people couldnt tell there arse from there elbow. I had one guy tell me my cambelt had jumped as it was blowing air out the induction kit, Turned out the in tank fuel pump was playing up?????

wirralphil

Disconnect the MAF sensor, go for a drive. Maf sensors cause the car to banjo on the revs and powerloss.

If the coil pack had gone then it would misfire straight off. These tend to fail around 70k-80k.

tim_ber

Thanks guys.

Managed to get home at least.

VERY strange thing is that if I turn the engine OFF and then ON again, the car is absolutely FINE for another 5 miles or so. I can even do this whilst driving (being careful not to turn steering lock on). That kind of says something is being re-set to me (but what do I know?)

Only happens once car is warm. Cold engine and no problems, it seems.

AA man tried to read the ECU tonight, but his computer wouldn't connect (said it doesn't on some older cars).

Off to a garage to get the thing read , memory erased and then read again - hopefully not too expensive; car only goes to garages for MOT usually, but there are a few things I can't do I suppose.

Don't want to give up on the old girl now what with all the time and money that's gone into her.

Cheers all.

gaztl1000r

hi m8
what problem did you find with your car?
guess what? my 96 1.8 ghia escort is doing exactly the same thing,i know every layby on my way to work

tim_ber

Right,
The ecu read out found no fault codes, but it found the engine temperature sensor to have an intermittent fault.

Autodata states "hesitation upon acceleration..." could be due to this sensor failing (among other things) - replacing it seems to have almost fixed the problem.

The work I did on the car was:

replaced that sensor.
I also replaced the sensor in the radiator top hose and the third sensor on top of the thermostat housing.

Because exhaust gasses were found in the cooling water (but only very minimal I now think) I also changed the head gasket and threw in a load of K-seal. New HT leads and sparks and thermostat of course. I would not have changed the head gasket if I knew what I now know.

If I were you, I'd check the sensor is working or just replace it. Go for the one in bottom of thermostat housing and one in radiator hose first of all.

See if that helps.

If not, £6 of k-seal couldn't hurt. Have you been using much water?

Ecu read out at about £20 is well worth it.

Then start looking at:
Air induction system (no leaks)
general wiring to sensors
Coil
Maf
Hego (sensor in downpipe of exhaust)
throttle position sensor.

Let me know how you get on.
Cheers

gaztl1000r

hi
thanks for the advice,i've only had the car for a week and covered around 250 miles, it's not used a drop of water so far so it doesn't seem like head gasket, it was one of the first things i checked, i've given the MAF a good dose of brake cleaner but that made no difference so i disconnected it and it still had same fault so i guess that eliminates that as a potential problem, next i had a look at what i think is the icv and gave it a good spray with brake cleaner and then a good spray with MD40,took it for a drive and to my relief found it to run absolutely perfect, smooth power delivery it was almost a pleasure to drive, but whilst stuck in traffic today it started playing up yet again, no where near as bad as before but playing up all the same, so maybe it's in need of some graphite based spray to help lube it, i'll let you know how it pans out, i'll also look into the other suggestions you made, cheers

rich_DTM

Hello did you every fix this loss of power issue? Cheers

tim_ber

Well, sort of yes.

A dose of Forte fuel additive has made it a world better.

No sensors, no head trouble, it was fuel delivery somehow.

The new cat made no difference.

Forte made a huge difference, so whether it was injectors, of crud in fuel pump - who knows - but £15 a bottle fixed it up ok.