Hi,
Anyone have an intermittent fault with their Focus along the lines of: speedo suddenly reads zero, slight loss of power, all other electrics normal, then a few seconds later speedo returns and power back to normal?
Martin - Bristol, UK
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Loss of output from the sensor on the diff. This causes the speedo to fail and fools the ECMU in to thinkinbg the car has no speed so defaults the engine timing.
Check connector and cable harness.
Peter
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You should've kept the Clio!
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LOL
I know which one I'd rather have, and it wouldn't be the french pile. ;)
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Just had this/similar problem with my Focus today:
1. Switched on ignition, speedo and rev counter went to maximum, dropped to zero, then normal. Started driving, all was ok.
2. Coming back home, wasn't looking at speedo, but complete lack of power in 2nd, dropped into 1st, still almost zero power, oil light came on briefly, then everything ok again.
What did you do to fix it (if anything)?
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Not quite the same...rev counter uneffected, not serious lack of power just slight, oil light not showing. Mine is very intermittent and doesn't effect the performance. The plan is to get the sensor wiring checked out when it's next serviced (in 2 weeks).
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I seem to have solved this problem now - I resecured the connector on the ECU. Everything now seems to be working as it should.
I checked under the car to see if I could spot any obvious problems with the vehicle speed sensor on the gear box, but it is in a fairly inaccessible place.
I suspect the oil light showing was because the engine nearly stalled due to lack of power.
The rev counter and speedo are connected straight to the ECU, which is why I suspected this. Someone also suggested a power supply problem, but the dashboard is connected to the same supply as the radio, and the radio has not asked for the code to be re-entered.
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AFAIK this is a common problem, the fix is to check all the earthing points, include generous quantities of elbow grease and emery paper.
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I had this problem with my wifes Focus from new.It appears to only occur in cold weather.
I did raise the problem some time ago in the Backroom and it appears the dials are recalibrating themselves as the chip looses it memory.... apparently.
The "problem" persists but there appears to be no lasting damage.
Mutley.
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I suffered exactly the same problem last winter with my '99 Focus 2.0 Ghia, but strangely it hasn't occured at all since then.
Would occur shortly after starting the car, never noticed any power loss, but was like someone had pressed a reset button on the electrics (the trip computer would also set itself back to metric each time).
Didn't become frequent enough to worry about too much (you could count the number of occurances with your fingers). Asked a Ford mechanic about it and he said they would need to check out the ECU which would cost me, thanks but no thanks.
I'd actually completely forgotten about it until I read your post!
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Yup,
Same problem with speedo martin
traction control light stays on sometimes
and recently the car has been cutting in motion
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I have not had the speedo or cutting out problem.
I do have the traction control lamp glow very very dimly so it can only be seen in very low light conditions. The odd thing is it only occurs with the side lights only switched on and the engine not yet started.
I will give the connections a shake to see if it goes away.
Its just an irritating fault but just a minor concern that it points to a TCS fault. The TCS seemed to work correctly when provoked in the icy times earlier in the year.
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I had the very same problem with my 1999 focus but also the fuel gauge would also drop to zero. The ford dealer fitted a new speed sensor to the gearbox last week. Problem now is that at any speed above 60mph the needle starts jerking by as much as 10mph. Also, at these higher speeds the car sometimes starts to stutter. I have added a fuel injector cleaner to the fuel tank but to now avail??
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Take it back to the dealer I guess. Replacing the speedo sensor certainly cured my problems (but I didn't have a jerky needle or engine stuttering) - sounds like it's a faulty sensor or cable to me.
Martin - Bristol, UK
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My traction control light has always glowed dimly when the lights are switched on - methinks it's a badly positioned bulb in the instrument display.
Funnily enought I was sitting at a red light on Sunday, having filled up a few miles back, and noticed the fuel gauge showing zero. Rubbed my eyes and looked again, yep, definitely showing zero. Quick check on the trip computer shows I have 300 miles to go...and when I looked again further along my journey lo and behold the gauge was back up to full...weird.
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I had this problem with the fuel gauge once too. Started the car as normal one morning and the fuel gauge read empty. Fortunately I knew I had filled up the previous day.
Haven't had the problem with the traction control light though.
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My traction control light has always glowed dimly when the lights are switched on - methinks it's a badly positioned bulb in the instrument display.
My TCS light glow goes away completely when the dip beam position is selected on the light switch.
Most odd.
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