Hi,
My wife's 1.1LX 1993 Fiesta has a CFi engine. It has an intermittent starting problem from cold. 95% of the time its fine but other times it just turns over, sometimes vaguely trying to start on one or two cylinders. The (new) battery would go flat before the car would start.
I had the car tuned by a mobile mechanic and he showed me a trick to help get it going. I have to remove the fuse for the injection system (under the dash) then try to start the car. It then fires and runs for about 2-3 seconds, which he says burns off any fuel flooding the cylinders. When the fuse is then replaced, and you try to start again it usually fires, but only on a couple of cylinders with the throttle being pumped to stop it conking out. Usually after a few seconds, it picks up on all cylinders and runs as normal. There is also a strong oil/petrol smell from the exhaust when doing this procedure and it finally starts up.
He says this is a design flaw with this engine and I could spend hundreds getting a Ford garage to fix it. Does anyone have any pointers with regards to this problem? Is there anything straightforward to adjust/clean/replace that would solve the fault?
The mechanic checked for an error code on the ECU, but none were present.
The wife hates fiddling with the fuses and ends up getting them mixed up!
Thanks.