Hi chaps.

Quick one - when cold, the idle on my ST seems a little lumpy - it will idle fine, however the revs occasionally dip very slightly, and when it does that the car seems to jump slightly. It's not every revolution though.

I suspect it's probably a dodgy lead so I'm going to replace those his week.

It's been recently serviced by me, with new plugs, however one of the plugs (far left) was stubborn to undo, and when I finally got it out the base and thread were rusty. I looked down the 'hole' and the surface underneath (presumably the piston) was rusty too. My neighbour mechanic reckons it looked like the core plug has/had gone at some point, however the rust was dry, making me think that it's been repaired already. I have no idea if this would be a contributing factor, but has anyone seen this before and is it something to worry about?

Cheers
Nick

Clean your throttle body mate, job done

the rust could be from the washer jets... common problem which was presumbly fixed water runs from under neath when its been raining and trickles down your airbox onto the block

I'll try cleaning it again lol, was so coked up when I got the car I'm not sure I got it all off lol.

Got next week off work so will work through the options rofl

With regards the rust - is there anything I need to do about it and is it safe to ignore?

One other one - when driving along, around 2-3krpm, the engine sounds a little tappety. Quite faint noise, going to check the oil etc this week, but are there valve clearances or tappers to adjust?

Cheers guys - my old Zetec sounded similar so it's probably normal but I'm a worrier lol!

Nick

Cleaned the throttle body again, thoroughly this time, and the idle is a lot smoother. Also, searching around the forums, the clicking seems to be the injectors, which would explain why its louder with some fuels than others.

I had another look around the spark plugs today, I was mistaken, its only the thread thats rusty, underneath just looks coked up.



Which points towards the washer fluid/rainwater getting in there. It all makes sense now I re-fitted the airbox cover... plug 1 (left hand) is exposed, and the others are covered up, it was only plug 1 that was rusty. I'm going to put some sealant around the washer jets shortly to seal those up, just in case they haven't been sorted.

Cleaning the throttle body...is it an easy job? Thinking of doing mine tomorrow.

Yeah mate. 4 8mm bolts, spray some intake cleaner in there and give it a wipe around

Good news mate