Very High Idle!

I have a 2000 Focus SE 4dr w/ a 5 speed manual transmission. I recently took it to my so called "Blue Oval Certified Dealer" and had it tested for an idle problem. Here's the issue:

I will be driving down the road and push the clutch in and the engine will continue to idle at 3000rpm, if I press the gas to check for a stuck throttle....it idles higher. (ie. 4000rpm). If I am stopped, then engine often surges to from slightly about 1000rpm's to about 3000rpms.

I took it to the dealer and they tested it and kept it overnight. They had to call the Ford Hotline and speak to some of the engineers at ford. Well, the engineers at ford said that there is NOTHING wrong with the car and it is supposed to do that. There exact words were "This is a characteristic of the car!!" The car was not reading any type of trouble codes etc.... Everything seems fine. The dealer was able to duplicate my problem, but could not find a resolve for it.......then ford said it was supposed to do that!

I know for a fact that it didn't do it for that last 64,000 miles and it shouldn't be doing it now either! The dealer did eat the charges for diagnostic testing....so I didn't get billed.

I called ford's customer relations line....well that was a waste of time. They documented and affirmed that whatever the engineers said...is what they are sticking to. They will do nothing.

Can anyone shed some light on this????

Thanks, Doug

snipped-for-privacy@localnet.com

Reply to
Doug Stewart
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How does it idle when it's cold ? Linda

Reply to
HbgpodLW

You know... it's worse when it's warmed up. But it has definitely done it when it's cold. I would say it does it less frequently when cold though.

-Doug

Reply to
Doug Stewart

"Doug Stewart" wrote

If there's no diagnostic codes showing up, it could easily be a sticking injector. Perhaps the reason why Ford says it is OK is because it wasn't revving that that high when they had it (It's supposed to hold elevated revs briefly when slowing down, but nowhere that high).

One easy possible fix is injector cleaner (a gas additive). Get good brand-name stuff recommended for your car.

Reply to
Dave Gower

Well, I think I am going to do that and see what happens.

I put the odometer into dtc mode and it's blinking a code now. But, from what I can tell it's regarding some equipment they had connected at the dealer and forgot to reset the code.

"SBC Message not Recieved" is description. The code was "d262"

Thanks, Doug

Reply to
Doug Stewart

I spoke with someone in the autos.ford group, and he said it sounds like an Idle Air Control (AIC) problem. He said it's not usually detected by computer scans (codes).

I'm trying the injector cleaner, then I'm going to see if the dealer will replace the AIC.

Thanks for the help.... If you have any other ideas or comments please feel free to contact me.

Thanks, Doug

snipped-for-privacy@localnet.com

Reply to
Doug Stewart

And theres me thinking that only the UK suffered from the dreaded "There's nothing wrong with the car because the ECU is showing nothing wrong". Really jips me off when they do that. Mechanics are no longer mechanics, they just plug the computers into engine management, read what it says, if it doesnt report anything then you're completely imagining the problem. I had a similar problem with my Focus and it was the idle speed control valve.

Reply to
GH

I have exactly the same problem and it's really annoying me. I find I can cure it by turning the car off and starting it again. I know I'll have a problem explaining this to the dealer so I'm putting off the trip! Please let me know if you get it fixed and what it was they did I'm sure it will help me when talking to the service department. Thanks!

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Paul

Reply to
Paul G

I had a similar problem with a F 150 truck it was the throttle position sensor, it was not very expensive. It was hard to test for as the resistance was not open or closes it was just not right. I changed it and the idle returned to normal.

Reply to
Tom Kirkpatrick

I had the same problem with my 2000 ZX3 idle at 3,000 or so. It seemed to be an injector issue I used some injector cleaner and the problem has stopped as to wether it will return is yet to be seen. Oh the problem started shortly after 60,000 miles on mine.

Reply to
Adam Smith

I had the same problem on a 1.8 Escort Zetec - removed and cleaned the Throttle Position Sensor (with some Foam Cleanser usually used on PC's) - Worked perfectly after that

Hope this helps

Reply to
Andy23

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