Hi, I just posted this in General, but it might be better in this section (could an admin move it from General if they thing its not worth having on there.)

Hello everyone, ever since the cold weather has set in here in the UK (last 2 weeks) my 1999 Focus 1.4 has started playing games when cold starting. Surpris

Here is an extract from an e-mail I sent to a guy I know at ford, looks like hes too busy to reply at the moment:

"...Ever since the cold weather has set in so sort of the last 2 weeks if that, when I cold start the car like I am just about to now, it will rev a little erratically. It does it when its idling. You get the usual high revs for the choke and then it will go down to 1,000 RMP and then quickly jerk from 1000 to 1100 every second. It lasts about 5 minutes last time I just had to drive the car as I was late and it continued to do it at every junction I got to even when I arrived at Bishops Stortford it was still doing it. (Thats a town about 20 minutes drive away)

Once its warmed up, it seems to be fine. Do you have any ideas as to what could cause it. I usually cold start it and leave it for 1-2 minutes before driving as this is supposed to be good for the engine as opposed to just starting and driving."

Thats my e-mail. And yes, basically I'm confused as to what it could be. It takes the orange engine coolant which is just above max and has been since Feb 07 when I got the car from ford second hand. The car is very jerky if you pull away when its doing this funny business with the revs, its almost like your clutch is on the way out and then it suddenly kicks in and pulls along. - Clutch is fine.

Any help would be super.

 

Mmmmm thats a wierd one. Good look with sort out that fault.

 

Clean out the ISCV, it is a common problem.

 

The idle speed control valve is on the plastic inlet manifold on the front of the engine.