strange problem

Hi,

i have a ford escort, it's from the year 1999. It's a 1.6 zetec and has been okay up until now. When I brake and put my foot down on the clutch to change gears, the revs drop right down and the car nearly stalls, as the battery light flickers on and off, then recovers rev-wise.

This seems to mainly happen in 3rd 4th and 5th, but has happened in 2nd gears once. If i'm changing from 5th to 2nd or 3rd as I approach a roundabout this seems to happen. Is this an issue, or am I just letting the clutch up too late? It never used to do this, and it's very strange. It's not a greatly old car so I wouldn't have thought the alternator was on the way out just yet.

Should I perhaps try disconnecting the negative terminal of the battery for half an hour to see if the ECU can sort the whole idle thing out? Very hard for an amateur like me to determine the problem.

Thanks,

Dave.

Reply to
David R
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I should add that I have just removed the negative battery terminal for 20 mins, and the car is sorting itself out idle-wise.

I have noticed that if I rev the car hard whilst idling (gear in neutral) and let the accelerator go, the car dies or nearly dies! I notice a few old newsgroup posts suggesting cleaning out the 'idle valve' as it may stick:

"> Sounds like the infamous idle valve sticking again. They do seem to require

Right with you Ian, and clean out the throttle body whilst your at it. If its not too bad, use a lint free cloth dipped in carb cleaner or brake cleaner. If its really dirty with a hard ring of carbon around where the butterfly sits, your best to remove it from the inlet manifold.

If after this and had given the ECU time to re-learn idle settings its still tempted to stall, we'd be looking at checking voltage at idle from the TPS and also base idle speed and possibly adjusting these alittle."

I do not know where the idle valve may be in my bonnet, any clues? What about the throttle body also? I would gladly clean these myself if I only knew how to get to them, or even what they looked like!

Complicated business...

Reply to
David R

yes it does sound like the ISCV(idle speed control valve)its a small,silver cylinder like object bolted on the inlet manifold. i think on this model its at the back/bottom of the engine bay. cleaning it out(with brake cleaner or such) is only a short term fix

Reply to
ford_technical_

It's not terrible at the minute, I just notice the battery light coming on when changing gears in an incompetant manner... Suppose it's better to get it fixed now rather than later. Any idea of what price I'd be looking at? Can't be too labour intensive surely if it just involves unfixing a few nuts here and there?

I've got myself a Haynes manual for the car, not any information at all in it regarding the throttle body or ISCV. If I post a pic on a website and copy the link here, can we double-check what I should be clenaing with carb cleaner? I'm fine with simple mechanics, I'm wary of cleaning out something that shouldn't be touched mind you...

Reply to
David R

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