Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has any idea what is up with my ST. Lately, every morning (or everytime the car is left for hours). I start the car up, the idle will go up and down, (really struggling) sometimes dies. When I press the gas, it struggles to give me power

The car makes a funny noise, the rev counter barely moves and then it will normally backfire.

After this, if I keep revs up it will allow me to move the car but will loose power again. It will be like this until the engine starts to warm up and then runs 100% fine

I have change spark plugs, leads. Anyone have an idea what it could be?

No engine light or anything is on, Like I say its only when the car has been standing that it goes like this

thanks

Coil pack? Sometimes caus certain misfire/backfire situations... Seeing as you are also at a loss of power too.... I know it's not healthy for the engine but after it's been running a minute try booting it and taking it through the rev range just once... What does it do?

Clean the throttle body ALSO

Hi,

I did rev it as soon as I could get it moving, Performance was fine. After I let it settle and tick over was fine.

Its like if you give it some, it makes it work normal

Im going to be cleaning the throttle as soon as I get time

thanks your help so far

it's a 10 minute job if that bud
does wonders and if it's what I think you're talking about, mine did the same before I cleaned it

Yeah I gave it a rub over with kitchen roll once and that even did the job LOL!

yeah same haha and a very small amount of white spirit

Just cleaned it, can't believe how easy and quick it was. I don't think it was that bad let's hope it does the job. Only thing I have notice so far is the rev is higher when kicking in.

I am going to let the engine cool down for a few hours and try it. Fingers crossed it will b fixed as I've just found out I need four new tyres . Hopefully will b able to get some new alloys as I'm fed up of ppl nicking my centre caps. The st is a four stud right ?

4x108 mate

Not worked

Still not worked, still having same problem. Anyone else have any ideas?

Wondering if it could be the fuel filter?

Very unlikely mate fuel filters take years to clog up.

you'd have to put oil in the petrol tank for that to go wrong.

it's likely that the temperature sensors have gone on your engine, or your ECU has packed in.

i had the exact same problem with my peugeot 106 last year, I had the sensors replaced and the problem corrected it's self a little but was still there.

eventually realised it was the ECU that had packed up.

However the problem was never really confirmed and rectified so i still could be wrong.

But what the garage did know and confirmed some part of the reason the car was not working well when cold was due to the fact i was thrashing it when the engine was cold thus before the car could be heated up to optimum temperature i had put stress on piston rings that were unlikely to be oiled up or had seized under stress and then chaffed.

The engine was miss-firing possibly due to leaks or gaps when cold. Obviously when the car gets hot the metal expands oil becomes thicker so the engine would tick over nicely as if nothing was wrong.

well that was their theory anyways, before that i had 4 garages just say the same thing nothing is wrong with the car.

Well there is but on paper/computer the car's telling you it's fine when it clearly isn't.

Anyone else got any ideas or am u going have to get it booked in with ford

Thanks

you might need to get it scanned to see if any fault codes are present, scanned a mates fiesta diesel the other day cos he said it wasnt running properly and air flow sensor showed up even though no lights were illuminated on the dash, a faulty tps sensor or ect sensor could cause these symptoms but so could a dirty air filter, vacuume leak at throttle body or inlet manifold, all sorts of things.

Can only ford dealers do this? is it not worth doing changing fuel filter

thanks for all the replies

fuel filter effecting the car performance is very unlikely mate. the fuel filter will take years and years for it to get clogged up unless you have poured oil sugar or some other substance that isn't petrol.

You can take it to any garage, but I'd recommend the manufactures.

If you are in the AA/RAC then call them out to run a diagnostic on your car... they will be able to tell you the fault code (if any) or try help with the issue.

I just had to change the Spark plugs and coil pack on Sarah's Zetec S for a similar thing.

thanks for all the advice, Im taking it into ford to do a diagnostic. Will update when I find the result

thanks

Ive had it plugged in and had two faults. Oxgen sensor and it is reading an incorrect temperature, which is probably the backfiring in the morning.

I got it resetted this but im guessing the car will play up as soon as it goes cold. So does this mean the oxgen sensor needs replacing and what part controls the temperature? so the engine knows how much fuel to pump through?

Look forward to your advice

thanks

Do you know the actual fault codes ?

Its the lambda sensor on the manifold that needs repalcing. It was also flagging up air temperature sensor. Cheapest is eurocarparts for £48. that about right?

also is it easy to do?

lambda sensor is easy enough to change if you can get under the car, not sure if its a TMAP sensor on the ST, (temperature and manifold absolute pressure sensor) it should be easy enough to change, should be on the inlet manifold.

It's been changed and same problem. However, now its cutting out when its warm on tick over. Anychance I got a faulty one?

sounds like you haven't got the right sensors?

sounds like the lambda sensor has been changed but not the other sensor.

Ford seem to think the temperature sensor is not on the map sensor. so bit stuck. if any one knows where the air temperature is, please get in touch? also you do not think that the air temperature is the in car temperature sensor? you know what shows you on dash how hot it is outside.

because that stopped working a while ago, before I had problems with the car. If it is then the car is not flagging up any problems

Strange one, on the lesser model fiesta inlet air temp and density information for air/fuel mixture ratio calculations is provided by a temp and manifold pressure sensor, TMAP, thought the ST would have been the same.

Hi,

all fixed. turns out the spark plugs were not screwed in properly. Last time I use a back street garage. Thanks for all the feedback