Ford Fiesta (2002 - 2008) - 03 1.4 Overheating - now problems

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Sat 6 Jun 2009 19:14
03 1.4 Overheating - now problems - graham3232

While diving at seventy the car started loosing power and then began misfiring badly and wouldn?t accelerate. I pulled over into a lay-by a few hundred metres down the road. Popped the bonnet and was greeted by a strong smell of burning antifreeze an empty coolant bottle and a very hot engine. Took the air filter assembly off to reveal a split hose between the heater matrix and engine.

RAC guy stretched the hose to re-fit and filled the bottle back up with water and off I went. Fitted new hose and antifreeze and had system vacuum filled next day. The car drives as well as before, acceleration is good and it doesn?t loose any water or oil and there is no contamination between the two, so the head gasket seems ok. I have driven about 4k since the overheating and there is a slight misfire or hesitation noticeable around 3k revs when accelerating that wasn?t there before; no other symptoms or fault codes. I have changed the plugs to no avail, coil pack and leads changed last summer.

Can anyone offer any insight here before I go wasting money replacing random parts? I?m looking for a cheapish fix if possible!

Also (it?s a digital dash display for temp) why didn?t my gauge show the car was overheating! The cooling fan works fine, but he gauge never goes above normal.

Car: 53 plate 1.4 duratec 110k miles. DIY serviced oil and filter every 6k. One final thing, the Haynes manual states valve clearances should be checked at 100k, this hasn?t been done (sounds expensive!)

Thanks in advance

Graham.
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Sat 27 Jun 2009 14:29
03 1.4 Overheating - now problems - graham3232
An update the my post - problem solved!

The hesitation problem was getting worse and so i removed the leads from the coil and it turned out that the hose that burst under the coil pack has sprayed coolant all over the coil and leads and although it had dried out some must have got on to the contacts on the coil where the leads go on as they were badly corroded. New coil pack and leads for £50 and it runs like new!

Still not worked out why the temp guage didn't go up, is there a sensor to replace somewhere?
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