My escort Estate I bought the other night seems to like petrol! Its a 96 1.6 16v Zetec.

I gave her a full service the day after I got her.... well oil, oil filter, air filter and plugs. Also cleaned out the throttle bodie with carb cleaner.

I have noticed that whatever speed im doing if I put it into neutral it will idle at around 1200rpm then after 10 seconds or a tad more will drop to 900ish..... surely it should drop straight to 900??

Ive read on reviews on Carsurvey that a broken oxegen sensor can make them drink that bit more, whatever that is!?

Any ideas/help? I would have thought a 1.6 16v Zetec engine should be good on fuel..... at the mo' its worse than my Golf GTI MK3 16v that was RR'd @ 157.7bhp!!

 

The revs being held when on the move is correct, and shows at least that the wheel speed sensor is working.
The first thing you need to do is get a emissions check, as this will almost certainly tell you if you have a problem, it could still pass with a slightly dicky lambda, but if a mile out will soon be apparant.
A "oxygen sensor", or more commonly called a lambda sensor measures the oxygen content present in the exhaust, from this it determines the exhaust emissions as the oxygen content will change in relation to mixture etc.
It will be found in the exhaust near to the front with normally 4 wires going to it, easy to change if at fault, but you would have other symptoms if that bad.
tabetha

 

i had similar problem with my escort.. idle speed control sensor located under the plastic manifold on mine(not alloy efi ine) i took mine out and cleaned it and wallah running perfect

 

It might be worth checking the fault codes to see if anything's flagged up.