hello all.





i have a focus 1.8 TDDi 2001(51) diesel. it would seem its got a somewhat strange and increasingly expensive problem.





basically, in the mornings when i start her up which she does without a problem everytime, i can put my foot to the floor on the gas and nothing will happen. it may take 10 secs or more to respond and then it will finally go. it tends to lurch forward to for the first yard and then will slowly pick up speed and then start behaving normally.





this would be a inconvenience and little else but there is more to it than that. it seems to lack power in general and in first and second gear it can really struggle to go when power is asked of it. i live in the south west which is a hilly region and when going from a hill start, say waiting at the lights or something, it can react so slowly to the switch with your feet from cutch to accelerator that it will roll backwards a little. obviously this can be a problem if there is traffic behind me.





worse than that though, twice now i have asked the car to pull out into a gap in traffic at a junction and it has had little power, forcing traffic to slam on to avoid hitting me. clearly thats a little dangerous to put it mildly!





due to the troubles i have had with it i recently took it to a garage to see if they could help. after alot of time spent on it (so they said) they said they came back with a fault on the exhaust gas regulator system. the invoice reads that they replaced the valve, reassembled it and checked again for fault which came back clear. £160 worth of work that was! they also told me that though that should fix the problem with the lack of power, the underlying problem was probably injector nozzle glazing. they advised that i should replace them. i told them to do the work at a cost of over £270. this it was said should end the trouble, but today i got in the car and asked it for some juice to get me out of a juntion and but for a very alert driver who managed to swerve out of the way the focus could well of killed me. i had 2 kids and my other half in the car aswell so to say i am a little annoyed would be somewhat of an understatment.





now i know people will say 'get it back to the garage and tell them whats happened and they should sort it' but to be honest after throwing over £430 quid at them i am now fearful that i am being seriously had off. i know next to nothing about cars and they know it and i am wondering now if i am being taken as a bit of a soft touch. could anyone tell me what else could be the problem? i need some ammo to go in there with cos i am way out of my depth here. i dont want them saying 'oh it will be x,y and z then' and charging me another £400, money i havent got.





any help would be welcome. i have zero income and am currently stuck on benefit to care for my missues whos disabled and need the car for transport, so this is hurting us both badly to say the least

thanks

 

-------------------unfortunatly many garages are like that!!---------
i work around the east midlands delivering parts for a well know motor factors and actually see on a day to day basis servisable items removed to be replaced by new ones to get the labour costs from the customers!-IM ALSO SEING BRAKE DISCS REMOVED TO BE REPLACED BY NEW SO THEY CAN GET THE SCRAP VALUE AND BILL YOU FOR NEW ONES THAT NEVER YOU NEEDED IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!-(THIS GARAGE IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE IS A FAST TRACK BRAKE /CLUTCH ETC ESTABLISHMENT-10 TO 20 SETS OF DISCS A DAY!!!--
your not on your own in this type of situation im sorry to say-its theft and extortion.
AND BEFORE ANY ONE SAYS NOT EVERY GARAGE IS LIKE THAT!!!
99.9% ARE AND THE .1 % WHO ARE OK WILL COME AROUND TO IT IN THE FUTURE.
IM SORRY IVE NOT A REAL ANSWER TO YOU PROBLEM ONLY TAKE IT BACK AND HAVE SOME WITH YOU AS A WITNESS TO CONVERSATIONS.
OFFICE OF FAIR TRADING!!!-ITS YOUR RIGHT!!!!!!
THIS SITE IS MODERATED VERY WELL AND I GET BANNED/SUSPENDED EVERY NOW AND THEN FOR MY VIEWS!!!!---------FREE SPEECH AYE!!!-LOL
PEOPLE DONT LIKE THE TRUTH----------OR OWN A GARAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

not the most helpful post mate but yes, that may well be what has happened. in the garages defence though he did say that if it still has the fault when he does the work he will refund me the cost of it. whether that will happen is something else though, we shall have to wait and see. gonna take it back on monday and try to take a witness with me, though having just moved to the address i dont really have anyone to take with it

 

try unplugging the maf sensor see if it improves, or get it scanned for fault codes

 

Have you checked the basics?

Something simple like a blocked fuel filter or air filter will cause a severe lack of power or i have known the air filter to be sucked into the induction pipe on these engines.

When was it last serviced?

 

had same problem a few months on my connect van turned out to be the primeing pump on the filter head

 

half the problem lads is me checking the basics is a little out of my comfort zone, i know nothing about cars. i bought the thing 10 weeks ago, trusting that it was ok. i then went and bought the haynes manual for it right away and though i have had my head in it ever since i must say i am struggling a bit.

as for fuel filters, i wouldnt know how to get the buggar off. it says easy enough in the haynes manual but doesnt cover stuff like "am i ok putting the old one back in if its ok?" "what is ok?" "tools i might need etc?"

i had a look at the air filter and in it theres what looks like a well worn KN filter. spiders in it and all sorts. i banged out what i could from it but really they need cleaning with oil cleaner or something dont they? personally i feel it needs replacing with a paper one ...see what i mean, i know nothing about cars! lol

would either of these 2 problems cause intermittant loss of power though. the morning lack of complete power on the accelerator. could that be related?

lastly, the maf sensor.

what is that??

mass air filter or something?? is that what it stands for?

is that what plugs into the air filter itself?

can you just unplug them and it does no harm??

the fella at the garage claimed to of run a check on the car with one of the plug in comms whilst driving it about, then to of located the EGR fault via this method, to of replaced the valve for that and then to have run a diagnositic check again. no fault codes came up. surely the maf sensor fault would of shown up at that point or am i seriously clueless here??

gonna put me edd in the haynes manual and try and brave this fuel filter check now. i know, dont be soft, its easy. i can hear you all shouting at your screens hehe. give me your pc though gents and ask me to redesign it, upgrade and even take it to pieces and totally rebuild it and i can do it. give me a car engine and i am complete out of my depth.

we all have our strenghts and weaknesses i guess

 

its got 92000 on it at the mo and its service was last at 80000 11months ago so yes it needs doing. it was ready to be done a few months back but i had an accident in it (some idiot reversed a transit into me hitting rear, bumper, rear quarter and rear door) so it never got done. MOT is due on it on the 27th though so it will be serviced then latest, if not before. i didnt mention the accident though by the way cos it was at the rear end of the car and was only a minor bump. still made a tidy mess out of the car mind you being a van and all hitting me, but still, not in the engine bay so i didnt think it would be related. not gonna be related is it???

 

I personally would start with a fuel filter change and then try it, its the cheapest option. beware that you will need to bleed the fuel system aferwards so it may be best to get someone else to do it for you.

I work for a Ford main dealer and have transit connects to suffer with a similar problem due to fuel filter blockage (same engine as your focus).

 

ive been told these re signs of the box ontop of the fuel pump going which isnt a cheap repair if paying someone sadly

 

it wont run then.

 

i would say fuel pump mate, go to a diesel specialists they can do a full diognostics on it for you

 

I know how you feel, I just bought my first car and I hate taking it to garages as I have no way of knowing if they are taking the p*ss or not. Still, when I bought it the first thing I did was get a full service. I took it to a Nationwide Autocentre cause I got a discount. The point it is, if my memory serves correctly they charge £50 for "diagnostics" (which may be knocked off the cost of repair if you choose to use them, or it may not, i forget) and offer a guarantee which basically says "If we fix the wrong thing they will refund the cost of the repairs"

Which gives you some peace of mind at least. Maybe suitable to someone in your situation?