petrol focus unsteady idle

OK, it came in because the battery warning light flicked on, so it sounded like charging, but it is actually that the idle goes too low and then recovers.

Any ideas on what the likely fault is. W plate 1.6 16v. 78,00 miles. No trouble codes at all.

I am going to start with a vacuum leak hunt, go on to a throttle body clean, then see what the MAF is doing and the TPS.

Any bets on the fault?

Reply to
Mrcheerful
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sorry, it is a 1.8 not 1.6

Reply to
Mrcheerful

It's a bad day if you're asking, Mr C.

The only one I've ever looked at I asked about here. Turned out to be an injector in the end.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

I was asking more for fun than anything !! and no one knows all the faults, after all someone might know it was the epicyclic dimodulator unit or something !

I have 99 per cent identified the culprit as the MAF sensor. With it connected the idle is hunting and it can stall, with it disconnected the idle is rock steady . Reconnect it and it may stop or go back to a rough idle.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

My money would be on the PCV box under the exhaust manifold.

Tim..

Reply to
Tim..

Well, I found it in the end, it was actually a tiny air leak that probably increased when actually decelerating (extra vacuum) on the bend in the pipe from air box to inlet manifold right at the manifold end. I initially sprayed around the area and got no changes, but after actually feeling around everything I started to be able to hear the leak and after that it was easy. Interesting how disconnecting the MAF sensor made it run really well !! That foxed me for a while.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

In message , Mrcheerful writes

Taxiing out at Chicago the Captain announced that "We have a light on the panel, so we're going back to the gate". I listened to three engine run-ups and shut-downs and hoped that it was the light on the panel which was faulty. ;-)

I suppose it must have been...

Reply to
Gordon H

Nedavno Mrcheerful napisa:

What did you sprayed with?

Reply to
Yvan

Idle control valve :) .. I'm sooo ameteur it hurts lol. But I had a over revving problem once and thats what it was. Actually same problem twice secdon time was the MAF, log some live data and compare I guess.

Bet the answer has been found already, must read threads before posting hehe

Reply to
Matthew.Ridges

I normally use wd40

Reply to
Matthew.Ridges

carb cleaner till I ran out and then contact cleaner, which actually seemed better for the job.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Nedavno Mrcheerful napisa:

And how noticeable is the rev change to the untrained ear?

Reply to
Yvan

it was more of a unevenness. when I put a digital counter on, the revs were only changing by less than 100 rpm total. The difference when the maf sensor was disconnected was quite sharp and the idle steadied to just a handful of rpm change. Apparently the reference that the ecu assumes with the MAF disconnected is a bit on the rich side, so the idle smoothes out.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Nedavno Mrcheerful napisa:

:-) I could spray all day long, and detect nothing.

Reply to
Yvan

Mrcheerful expressed precisely :

I would go with either vacuum leak or idle valve sticky.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

if there is a leak and you hit it with the spray then you will notice the change in tempo.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Common sense really - unplugging the MAF makes the ECU calculate air flow based on throttle position and engine speed, so assuming no air leaks POST throttle it will run almost lovely. The MAF reading was lower than it should be cos of the leak in the trunking.

Tim..

Reply to
Tim..

The leak was not in the trunking, that would have been easy to find!! The leak was post throttle, the leak was in the half inch breather pipe that runs from the inlet manifold quite low down, comes around the end of the engine and attaches to a metal pipe, I didn't actually check, but I imagine it is the one that goes to the engine breather box on the front.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

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