Ford Focus (1998 - 2004) - 02 1.8 Revs to 3000 rpm then dies off | Technical matters | Back Room Forum

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Sun 15 Nov 2009 00:36

02 1.8 Revs to 3000 rpm then dies off - StanTheMan78

Hi, my dad has a focus TDCi 115 and it has since ever suffered from the following problem:

Drive normally, accelerate hard in ANY gear (though 1st is the least susceptible) and the rev counter needle simply FLIES to 3000 - 3500 rpm...and all the occupants are slammed against the seat...from then onwards the power just stops or else continues to rise very slowly, the engine hesitates, or sticks to that rpm. The local dealer (the ONLY one in my country) took two years to finally diagnose a broken wire from the MAF sensor to the throttle potentiometer. A temporary fix ensued with a simple wire soldered to both ends. The problem was solved for a few months but returned. I demanded that the correct wire be used instead of the temporary fix, but to no avail. Fault codes? What fault codes?? The ECU just records nothing amiss! The car has currently some 30k kms. I had solved it again temporarily by fitting a performance chip, but after 2 weeks the problem resurfaced again. Maybe worth a mention is the simply dismal fuel consumption...urban driving hardly returns 35 mpg...longer, gentle runs struggle to top 40. The car has also passed through the dreaded DMF saga, but the dealer not only repaired it under warranty, but after a couple of weeks also recalled us to fit a modification to ensure the fault does not return.

Any suggestions welcome guys as I am really out of options now. The dealer has basically thrown the towel, either claiming that there is no trouble at all, driving it and saying that the car drives fine, or else asking me to leave the car there indefinitely until they find a fix...and I get to pay for goodness knows how many hours of labour.

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 15/11/2009 at 17:00

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