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.