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Ford Focus Engine Problems

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Comments

  • oldfordmecholdfordmech Member Posts: 124
    How many miles ? If you loose 1 cylinder it will shake like a dog passing
    peach seeds. If you are under 60,000 miles, this should be cover under your car's emmision warranty.

    Cliff
  • kahalakahala Member Posts: 1
    I recently took over the use of our family Focus. We usually only drove it a few times a week. I noticed that if I don't turn the overdrive off, the car with jerk and sputter. It never shuts off, but it won't accelerate, either. I took it to Autozone today, and they said that two codes popped up, P0750 and P0442. I have no problem admitting I'm car stupid, and my husband worse than I am. So if someone has any idea what's going on, or can even explain what those codes mean, I would appreciate it.
  • pauleagletonpauleagleton Member Posts: 1
    I have a 03 plate Ford focus ghia1.6 petrol with zetec engine. Been loosing a lot of oil and water. Took it to a local garage and they have told me it is something to do with the thermostat and would cost over 100 pound to fix. But they can't find where the oil is going. Dad phoned Ford tech at a local store !! And they said the engine has had it and needs a new one. This car is only 7 years old and has only done 54,000 miles. They tell me its because it done only short journies and its a fault with this year engine. Can anyone help me cos I think this is rubbish
  • focuss1focuss1 Member Posts: 1
    I Have a 2003 Focus DoHc 2.0l. It's shuts off while idling. As Long as I Have my foot on the pedal, it doesn't shut off. But when I take my foot off the pedal, sometimes while coasting at a low speed, it dies. Any Suggestions?
  • bighank80bighank80 Member Posts: 1
    I had exactly the same problem. It would be especially temperamental in hot weather, and would function fine in cold weather. The solution to the idle/stalling problem was replacing the idle air control valve.
  • jeremy8285jeremy8285 Member Posts: 1
    I was wondering if somebody could answer this for me.. I bought a 00 ford focus. It sounded great when I test drove it but now it has a mis fire in cylender 1. It has new plugs and wires and cap. Also when I am driving straight down the road it has a lot of noise coming from the front but when I steer to the left and shift the pressure from one side to the other the noise goes away. Please help with any answers. I am not the smartest when it comes to cars but I can do work
  • fordtrucksfordtrucks Member Posts: 1
    Im new to this site. My son has a 2008 focus and when he was driving he noticed the eng temp was in the red so he pulled over and let it cool and then drove off again and it climbed right into the red again. So he let it cool for about 30 min and made it to the house. I told him his thermostat was stuck closed so he will have to replace it. Is it hard to replace the thermostat on this eng? I will do it for him so I am mechanicaly inclined. I am deployed right now so I have know idea where it is on the eng. Does anybody have a pic of where its at on the eng?

    Thanks
    Rob
  • ranronranron Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2012
    I just had my Focus worked on and it received new points, plugs, tune-up timing belt and many other things including head gasket and a new cylinder head. Took it back to the shop and it was reading MAF was too low both at idle and slow speed in parking lot, Fuel Trim high and Fuel pressure was within margin but with wild fluctuations. Any ideas?
  • billt4usbillt4us Member Posts: 1
    I recently brought my 2002 Ford Focus into the shop and they replaced the thermostat and the housing- there was a leak in the housing that made my car overheat. It has been about 2-3 weeks since i brought it in and now I gassed up at half tank and I have gotten only about 75 miles for 3/8 of a tank- normally I get around 100 miles per quarter tank. It seems to be revving about 500 more RPM then normal at all speeds.- Any ideas what would cause the higher RPM's?
  • mwolf9000mwolf9000 Member Posts: 29
    My 2002 Focus (8 valve sohc, 120,000 miles) recently suffered a serious problem on start-up. It started, but extremely roughly with lots of engine shaking. So I pulled the spark plugs and found that something (valve, piston?) had hit the spark plug in the #3 cylinder hard enough to mash the electrode. Spark plug replaced, the car will start and drive (roughly) but has no power and the engine malfunction light is on, sometimes flashing. It's not burning any oil, and no smoke from the exhaust. The car, with a good engine, would book for maybe $3,000. Is this the end? Should I drive it, gently, to a salvage yard?
  • sara1199sara1199 Member Posts: 2
    So glad I found this forum :) this will be long, I'm in love with details.

    For about a year now, my focus has been doing this stutter kind of thing when idle in drive and sometimes when I am in the middle of driving it. It feels like it is going to stall and a few times has, but rarely & it would start back up again & go.

    I have had it in to mechanics to see if anything is wrong but they always say no, it's fine. I don't drive it a whole lot since 2009, (laid off, started home business), but 3 weeks ago I was moving from central CA to Oregon (a 10-12 hour trip). I had it in for a full inspection & to make sure it was "road ready" to my Dad's mechanic. He assured me yes, go for it. 3.5 hours into the trip unexpectedly it started violently stuttering (felt like an extremely exaggerated version of it's normal stutter) and losing power to the point where I had to pull off to the hwy shoulder. The car kept running, no warning lights have ever come on and none came on at that time, no overheating, but when I tried to drive it again, it would only go a little way slowly and then again lose power & just not go.

    I had it towed to a local mechanic who could find nothing wrong with it, nor could he duplicate what happened. He literally told me that it was probably from the heat (it was 108 in the town I broke down in) and the long trip but this confused me a little. It's a car. I was only 3.5 hours into my journey. That should not have happened, right?

    I was running the ac most of the trip for my cat who was in the backseat hyperventilating. I was able to keep it running for him the whole 45 minutes we waited for the tow truck and as the tow truck drove around looking for an open shop. Then as we pulled up to the shop the car died suddenly on the tow truck.

    Had it transported up to me in Oregon, took it to the Ford Dealer where they said no codes came up & they could not duplicate the issues but it was likely the fuel pump needed replacing. $1000 later the car is still doing the original stuttering, never missed a beat. I had assumed that when this "fix" of a fuel pump replacement happened it would have taken care of the original issue which I had (again) assumed was directly related to the car dying on the road.

    Now since the "fix" there is also a lovely fuel smell every time I get in and all of a sudden my ac doesn't work properly. I'm scared to death to use it, or to even drive this nightmare of a car now. I'm supposed to bring it back in on Friday to the dealership but this move & car problems has broken my bank & I'm sure they will want more $$ to fix the issues that magically appeared after they gave it back to me a week ago.

    Any ideas? I moved 25 minutes from town, I need a car but I don't even want to sell it because I would hate to give these random problems that nobody seems to know how to fix to anyone else!

    Thanks a million for any ideas & sorry for the length ;O
  • sara1199sara1199 Member Posts: 2
    Shoot, forgot to mention it's an automatic. Also forgot this, the car I rented while ford worked on this one happened to be an f-ing focus!! I didn't even notice until I was driving it. I think it was a 2012 & it did the exact stutter that mine does. It was eerie.

    ..and just wrong.
  • anyoneyoubetanyoneyoubet Member Posts: 2
    So I got a Birthday gift from ford july 11 2013, I wonder If I share my gift with you. My wife's car a 2003 focus < ----- , ford engeners got the life expexity of there cars down to 10 years. Show room to Junk yard in ten years, not to mention the grate amount of cash from the fixes, from the motors blowing up around the ten year mark. 153753 miles when I bought it, for $2750.00 at a local dealership. I never dickered with the price, it was for my wife, it was what she wanted and I thought best to stay out of the way. I trust her judgment someone said to me that out of all the cars on the lot, this one would do her a good car for the money. . sold as noting the shimmy in the brakes and we will check them.
    . good enought, fist thing was she drove the car that day all the way to ... well 50 miles round trip. when she got back and parked it ,, big puddle under the car, and she called the guy and he fixed it. next was the inspection, from then on she only drove it down a hill 1.2 miles at downward of about 400 ft. . and to the store and sitting in the cold on lunch breaks.
    not even a year after we bought it , the coolant jug failed, no cooant in the thing , got a new one, all by the garage I bouth the car form , execpt, New breaks two months after we got it and the inspection was due. we paid for the breaks and the inspection, shudder , sudder , sudder and over heat , always with my wife and never with me, execept , the day befor, started on three cylenders and , I shut it off, and it started and ran fine in the car port, for 45 mins, never over heated.
    Next day wife drives to town in the rain, 1.3 miles. down, goes in and gets back in it and trys to start, sudder ,sudder, bang, clank clalank , and turnede it off.
    My nayber works on cars so my wife calles him, go down and see what is the matter now?
    I get in it in the rain, and start it right up, ok that goes they have a money sucking .... hum him,,, sorry. :sick:
    so it has three cylinders now. well soon will be up and you see the results, I will do my best.
  • anyoneyoubetanyoneyoubet Member Posts: 2
    Ok if your focus shudders on start up.
    Your motor will blow up, the valve guide will stick to the valve and it will push it out of it's proper location, and break, it will then go down into the cylinder and smash the cylinder all kinds of crazy, the bottom of the piston will then break off , coolant will mix with the oil, and the connecting rod will slap against the cylinder wall. Then you will have a 3 cylinder and if the oil does not mix with the coolant you can drive it a short distance.
    This happens sometime after the 100k mile to 150k miles, not sure.
    I was asked , "How long should your Eng last?", well? I got 154k miles.
    Valve guide replacement is the answer to the shudder on start up.
  • rrbcprattrrbcpratt Member Posts: 1
    Driving home on the freeway the other night all of a sudden my car shut off. The engine light came on and when I pulled over it sounded like something fell out of the bottom of my car. I was scared to death to try to drive again so my husband came and drove it home.. It started right up for him and drove home fine. We took it to our mechanic who drove it and it did it for him. He explained it as violent. After running diagnostic tests nothing came up. He is baffled. We drove it home about 10 miles and it was fine, however now I am afraid of it happening again and getting stranded. Does anyone have any ideas?
  • cvjointcvjoint Member Posts: 4
    My college student daughter has a 2002 and it has happened to her. We are terrified that this will happen in either a dangerous area or on the freeway. I, too, would like any information anybody may have.
  • twiddledtwiddled Member Posts: 1
    edited February 2014
    I've had nothing but extremely bad luck with my 2007 Focus ! The first FOUR alternators were read as bad by orielys with low voltage... The very last one however was stuck in high voltage which did a number to battery! Like there was no acid for Walmart to even test it which was because the battery decided to spill all the acid all over the engine compartment! Fml it's barely at 100,000 miles and just replaced my 5 alternator and to top it off it's not a remanned it's brand new just like ford said to... And still went out so this is my second brand new one .... And lasted maybe couple months longer than a remanned one ! And still sounds like something is majorly wrong ! When the alt read high voltage it could of been way worse and honestly FORD SHOULD DO SOMETHING LIKE A RECALL ON THIS DAMN LEMON I could keep goin but it gives me a headache just thinking about it.
  • bob8719bob8719 Member Posts: 2
    Cvjoint - I am having the same problem with my wife's car. My mechanic thinks it's the lifters. It's not the timing like everyone thought. Did u ever find the problem??
  • bob8719bob8719 Member Posts: 2
    My wife was pulling out of the driveway and her 2002 ford focus se 2.0L died. It would not start up until after we had pulled everything apart to check to see if it had jumped time. It had also blown a 20amp fuse. Replaced the fuse and put everything back together and now it has a knock. Seems to be lifters so I bought a couple lifters to change out what we think is bad. Only problem is, I do not have the tool to adjust the lifter so guessing on it. We shall see. Any suggestions.???
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