Hello, im at a loose end, i've tried asking this on another forum but i got zero replies so hopefully this will be more helpful. Firstly my car,

Ford Focus 2005
Titanium
2.0l
Diesel
140K miles

The problem is that in the cold weather (4C or less) my car starts ok but then stalls. It keeps stalling unless i hold my foot on the accelerator, once the car is warmed up it runs like a dream. When it is cold and i hold the accelerator down at about 3000rpm the rev counter randomly drops 1000rpm then recovers. If i drive off when the car is cold i randomly experience power loss in the peddle and the speedo drops to zero, but again after a split second it recovers and is fine once it has warmed up.

So far i have been to 3 garages,

The first, an independent garage, found no error codes on the ECU, the injectors were fine. They did find some air bubbles going into the injector pump from the fuel filter, so they bypassed the fuel filter, the bubbles disappeared but the car still stalled. Eventually they gave up.

The second garage, an official ford garage, at first thought i had put petrol in the car, but then realised i hadn't, which filled me with confidence in their ability. They said that when the car is cold the fuel injector pump looses pressure, so i need a new injector pump at £1000. Not keen on spending £1000 I looked elswhere.

The third garage just took a brief look, a diesel expert, said it was the wrong make of pump, siemens, and they don't have the equipment to service it properly and according to them virtually noone else does either and will cost more than a new pump to service anyway.

So im left with suggestions from friends and things i've found on the internet, they are,

Idle Air Control Valve (This seems to be the cause of 90% of stalling issues i read about on the web but the Diesel guy said he had never heard of this, is it a petrol thing??)
Automatic choke
Dodgy Battery
ECU problem

I will be testing the battery later myself to see what happens when the car stalls and looses revs.

I would really appreciate any suggestions, to be honest if i hit a brick wall im just going to live with the problem, there's no guarantee it is the injector pump and i'm not willing or able to gamble £1000 to find out.

 

oh im ganna keep my eye on this post. iv got a 03 focus RS, 100k and i have exactly the same problem. hope some1 can shine a light before i have to take it to a garage and get them to run a load of diagnostics!

 

seeing as there is some interest i'll keep you updated.

i tested the battery, it started at 11.8V when cold then with the engine started it went up to 14.5V, apparently 11.8V is a bit low but overall the battery seems fine.

i have also found out that the idle control valve and automatic choke are for petrol engines and mines a diesel, so it's not that.

one thing i have noticed while checking the battery was that there is a hell of a lot of air going into the fuel injector pump from the fuel filter. the first garage noticed this and ruled it out but i didnt realise quite how much air there was, surely this air is being injected into the cylinders.

anyway, i have booked the car into Halfords, i'll let you know if they find anything.

 

Well, not good news im afraid, Halfords connected to my ECU but were not able to talk to the injector system so they couldnt do anything. The guy reckoned it pointed to an injector problem. Anyway the car works fine now as the weather is a bit warmer so probably wont have this problem again for another 8 months. I did notice though when the engine is nice a warm that there is no longer any air in the hose between the filter and injector pump.

In the absence of any other ideas im just going to keep driving it and see what happens.

 

Oh doh! Hope it not injectors. I just brought samco pipes
So if it's a leak which is what some people have said hopefully fitting these will eliminate that problem. You said about it not being cold but mine still stalled after I started it this afternoon! :/ time will tell.

 

So do you have the exact same symptoms, stalling when cold, losing power when driving?

I don't know the lay out of your engine but have you noticed air bubbles in your hose between the fuel filter and injector pump? Im inclined to think this is something to do with the problem.

 

Yeah same symptoms. Only when cold. Power dies when coming to a stop... Haven't noticed n e air, but the petrol will bleed it's self!? I'm not sure but have engineer friends that have a better clue then me :/

 

Well mine is diesel so it will be a different system. I would definitely get the idle air control valve checked out as from searching the web virtually all the stalling problems i came across were related to that sticking or broken, for petrol cars anyway.

 

Yeah have tryed a taking it off and cleaning it. Feels free to move!? Ganna get it on a rolling road next month and see what they find :/

 

if there's air in the fuel pipe's between the fuel filter and injection pump, then there's air getting in from somwhere try checking seal's pipes and so fourth. what's you fuel filter like?

 

The fuel filter was changed by the first garage, so there were bubbles before that and still bubbles now when it's cold. I just checked the car again a minute ago after i got home from work, the car is nice and warm and running fine and sure enough absolutely zero bubbles in the line. Unfortunately the inlet hose for the fuel filter isn't transparent so i cant tell whether the air is coming from the filter or somewhere before that. Im tempted to get the whole fuel filter and filter housing changed.

If it's cold tomorrow morning and the car is stalling i'll check for bubbles again just to make sure they are there and it's not a coincidence.

 

i know the thread is a few days old but wondering if any1 has the problem of loss off power while driving. Only seems to when its been raining, changed plugs,leads and coilpack but still the same.

 

Only if I try put the power down when I first start it up.