Ford - Focus :: 2003 - Rough Start Occasionally / Stumbling
Jan 17, 2013
IAC issues? 2003 Ford Focus LX 2.0 ... Over the last week or so, my car has occasionally started very roughly. It stumbles and is very rough. After about 20 or so seconds, it smooths and drives fine.
Also, I've noticed in the last few weeks that there is a noticeable drop in power when I turn on the blower, even with the AC off. Not a loss as where it stalls, but still very noticeable. Then I've also noticed that when I'm at a long light, or other times I start it and it doesn't stumble/start rough, that it will sort of feel as if someone is slowly pushing down on the accelerator and releasing, and this can go on for a while. Not dramatically, but definitely noticeable.
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I recently bought a 4.2L V6 2003 F150 with only 20,350 original miles. This car belonged to an older gent who barely used it, then passed on about 3 years ago, and truck sat around barely used by anyone. When I picked it up I ran some Seafoam through the first two gas tanks as it was occasionally running rough and losing power. Since then truck has been running incredibly smooth, but in the last few days it is getting harder to start. If I pumped it two or three times it would start OK, but today I have had to pump it while cranking it to get it to start. ( the pumping may have nothing to do with it starting)
I am replacing the fuel filter in the next couple of days, as any accumulated junk that was in the tank or lines is now probably in the filter, but it seems that a badly clogged filter would also give me some problems running, and it runs really smooth once it starts. I get a pressure gauge, (I understand the rails have a pressure test port) what pressures should I expect at what moments?
Turn key on :
Crank engine :
I am brand new to the F150 and trucks in general.
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So the last couple times I got a car wash the truck started running real rough, sometimes dies, then runs fine after a few minutes. Well, the last car wash I got it did it again, but the issue didn't go away. I checked the injector plugs, cleaned and greased, no change. Validated the bowl is filling with fuel, changed fuel filter, no luck.
Sometimes it will start and idle fine, rev in neutral fine, if you come off throttle abruptly it will fall below normal idle and start stumbling with an SES light and eventually die.
I managed to get it idling good, started logging with TPro (attached) and it was throwing codes P0475 - Exhaust Pressure Control Valve, and P0705 - Transmission Range Sensor Circuit Malfunction, as well as P1211, p1249, p1316 listed as 'multiple descriptions'.
I'm assuming this is an electrical issue since it happened after washing the truck, just not sure what sensor would cause all this?
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Driving the last week, gone about 10 - 15miles when all the sudden I noticed a stumbling in motor while going up hills. Got where I was going, shut her off and came back a few minutes later, loaded the kids and popped the hood. Nothing obvious but a vac hose from the vac reservoir(?) to TB was a little rough looking. Jumped in, hard to start - low on fuel or ignition and idled at 300 - 400 till throttle got it going. Has started and idled fine ever since. Raced home with the whole 15 miles stumbling up hills - repeated that every drive since after a few miles of driving. Warming the motor up prior to driving doesn't seem to speed up the problem - it takes a few miles to start. Assumed fuel pump at this point.
Got to work on it. Replaced the suspect vacuum hose. Nope. Checked fuel psi - 31 and 40 w/o vacuum. Doesn't hold pressure - reading conflicting things on whether the system should hold psi with key cycle. It doesn't - bleeds to 0 in minute. Replaced fuel filter, regulator and pump. Checked the relay and pump after install - good click and good hum. Felt like problem was gone but I didn't drive more than a few miles each time I checked due to pulling the bed for the tank work. Plus we dropped 30 - 40 degrees while working it.
Never a CEL but decided to checked codes.
Continuous pulled up Neutral Safety Switch that I replaced last year
KOEO - P0232 which I assumed was from pulling the inertia switch multiple times to do the fuel system work
One time I did get P1207(?) Cylinder Head Temp Sensor out of range. Got it once and never again. Curious..
KOER - has never found a problem
The cold seems to have lessened the problem making me think electronics. My BIL is saying #4 or #5 coil or plug. I am starting to feel like I am chasing a gremlin.
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My son drives a 2003 Ford Focus with 183,000 miles on it. At random times when he starts the car, the engine runs very rough at idle speed but when he drives away, it runs fine until he slows for a stop sign/turn, etc. and the engine is at idle speed again. When this happens, the engine runs so roughly, that he loses vacuum to the brakes and his brakes stiffen dangerously. The car may not do this at all for a couple of weeks of driving, and when it doesn't do it, it runs beautifully.
Also, it only runs like this if it does it from start-up; it never idles roughly in the middle of a drive in which the car started normally. I have changed the spark plugs and wires, PCV valve, fuel filter, and air filter, but it still goes through this about once a week. I bought the car used just a few months ago and it had just had the valve cover gasket changed because the valve cover was leaking.
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my 2000 focus se, 2.0L SPI, with 82k began to recently run rough at idle then progressed to stalling at longer lengths of idle. The condition starts once the engine warms after 2-5 minutes. I 1st tried gas treatment. I replaced the ignition coil as suggested in the other threads, but it has not improved the problem. I had the fuel pump recall-replaced 2 years ago. I would guess that a bad fuel pump would exhibit loss of power at all engine speeds? Before I proceed to replace plug wires and plugs.
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I purchased a 1999 F-150 Lariat 4x4 automatic transmission about a year ago. When I did, the previous owner told me about an idle issue that he has occasionally. He said that the issue was with the IAC. He claimed that he had replaced it several times but "it was hard to get a good aftermarket IAC that actually works". He said he tried several, but it never fixed the issue. That sounds like he wasn't replacing the defective part to me, but I don't know. This is my first truck to ever purchase.
Fast forward a bit (about a year), and I have had intermittent issues with idle and running rough since I bought the truck. I don't drive the truck that often, but they are becoming more common, so I want to get things fixed now.
Issues:
1. When running at idle, especially in park, the idle seems to fluctuate and never stay consistent. The idle drops as soon as I put it into drive, and the truck jerks a bit when going into drive because the idle was too high in park. It has never died while at idle, however.
2. When driving, especially up a slight or moderate hill, the power seems low and the truck starts to ping and jerk. The only way I can avoid the jerking is to stomp on the accelerator and go into a lower gear. And even when doing that, I still can notice an ever so slight jerk.
3. This past week, it was rough for an entire 40 mile journey on the interstate. Slight ping the entire ride home. When I pulled into the driveway, it was jerking until I turned it off. I haven't tried to drive it sense.
Potential issues:
1. IAC - maybe the previous owner was right. Maybe I should replace it again, or clean it with some carb cleaner.
2. Cam Phasers - I saw some posts about this on the forum.
3. EGR valve - Also saw some posts about this.
4. Maybe even the transmission? It doesn't seem to have an issue going into or out of gear, though.
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I have a 2007 F-150. Here is the story....
Last summer the truck was idling rough and seemed to be stumbling a bit. Took it to the dealership and had it diagnosed. Had a mis-fire code on cylinders 1 and 3. I was told to do the spark plugs and clean the MAF. After replacing all plugs and cleaning the MAF the truck seemed to run better but it didnt last long before it started doing the same thing. My Edge Evolution started showing misfire codes in cylinders 1 and 3 again and the truck is stumbling like crazy. Here is what i have done:
1. Swapped the plugs from cyl. 1 and 3 with cyl. 5 and 7 and the problem followed.
2. I replaced the bad plugs with new ones and i no longer get a code for those cylinders but the truck is still acting the same.
Now I am getting two codes saying the system is running rich on bank 1 and 2 and a misfire code in cylinder 4. I cleaned the K&N filter and replaced the MAF but it is still the same. The truck stumbles horribly under a load and has NO power.
History:
2007 F-150 5.4L Lariat
75K miles +/-
K&N Filter
Edge Evolution (has been kept in stock mode)
new spark plugs last summer
new MAF (this week)
New Fuel filter (two summers ago)
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I have a 2003 Ford Focus Sedan with 75K miles, bought used from a Ford dealership 3-4 yrs ago with 45K miles.
I spent Saturday driving around doing errands. Late in the day, it wouldn't start up again. This was after about 20 minutes of sitting in a parking lot right after a 10-mile drive. It would turn/crank but not actually turn over. Eventually, I had a tow driver come out, who also gave it a try, and then it made an awful clunking-grinding-crunching sound after a couple seconds of trying to turn. Towed to the local mechanics.
They did some compression tests and tell me that a spark plug is "smashed." They say only a major engine problem could smash a spark plug and recommend just replacing the engine. The alternative would be to take apart the engine to figure out exactly what's wrong, at a labor cost of $800-1,000, but they say there would be a good chance that whatever they find out wouldn't be fixable anyway.
Recent history: oil change about 6 wks ago, no history of oil problems, regular oil changes (at least since I bought it).
Recent problems:
(1) About 2-3 times in the past few months (including Saturday morning the day this happened), my car would sometimes take a bit more turning over to actually start. Those episodes would feel like it was "barely" starting, and then the car would kind of gentle buck for the first 20-30 seconds of driving, then be totally normal and start right up again afterward.
(2) For the past year or so, the speedometer and odometer would intermittently go to zero, usually after a sudden speed or lane change or big cranking of the wheel (e.g., reversing out of a parking spot)...this would last a mile or two then randomly come right back on.
(3) The weekend before my engine wouldn't start, my check-engine light came on while driving on the highway.
This happened to occur during one of those brief zero-speedometer episodes. I took it to the shop, they said it was a sensor issue, and it took nearly $500 to repair.
So....questions:
(1) any of the above history related to current engine problem? My shop says probably not, but I'm not sure what to believe.
(2) Recommend taking the engine apart at this point to diagnose the problem, or just replace the thing?
(3) If replace, get used or refurbished? (Shop recommends latter b/c they say history with used is totally unknown)
(4) Tow it to a different shop for the second opinion? (5) Or, just give up on the car totally and get a new car? I have minimal knowledge of mechanics.
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So I bought an 04 3 months ago everything seemed good all deltas were good had a small leak nothing serious. I had the egr deleted then i did the mistake of flooring it 1 morning at top end and the mech is telling me threw a valve. The truck was stumbling and running ruff with white smoke. looks like cycl. 7 took a hit and shows 10 psi of compression. The injector are in working order and so are the rockers. the bill is 3500 all in for new gaskets and oil cooler head work, arp studs and labor.
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I purchased a 2001 Ford Focus 7/17 from a Ford dealer. While my daughter was driving, at a left turn, the engine light came on, the car stalled, and the steering wheel and gas pedal locked up. A friend did a computer scan and said the code came back that 2 sensors, the crank shaft and cam shaft sensors, needed replaced. So we had them replaced.
About 4 days later, while driving home from school, on a right turn, the car broke down again on my daughter. She said the symptoms were the same, engine light came on, car stalled, the steering wheel and gas pedal locked up. So we had it towed to a local Ford service department. They said the ignition coils needed replaced and the valve cover gasket would eventually need replaced (per the mechanic, this wasn't directly related to the issue but a small leakage was found). So we let the Ford mechanic replace the coils and the valve gasket cover. They ran several tests and put 20 additional miles on the car without failures or issues, scans came up clean.
So while driving to school this morning, on a u-turn, my daughter experienced the issue again....car stalled, engine light came on, steering wheel and gas pedal locked up. After sitting a few minutes, the car started up so she drove it home and hitched a ride from dad to get to school.
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My GF has a 2002 Elantra, and recently, she's had a remote start kit put in her car. Previously, though, we were moving something in/out of her car and broke the shift knob and the rod became bent, so we had to bend the rod back to be able to put the car back into park. (The car is an auto).
Recently, she's had a couple rough/no starts from her car. There have been a few times where she would come over to my house and the car would not restart soon after she turns off the ignition. However, the car will start rough about 3 hours later and run perfectly fine once it cranks. This doesn't happen often, but enough to be troublesome.
The problem with this though is the fact that sometimes it starts and sometimes it doesn't, and it runs PERFECTLY fine. The lights are not dimming, the battery is not dying, the car has not required to be jumped. While having these problems we drove the car around for about 5-6 hours and it was perfectly fine. Her dad thinks it's the alternator, but the battery hasn't been losing any charge and the battery hasn't been dying. There has been one time where her father moved the shifter up and down and put it back into park and the car started just fine. Could this be related to the shifter, and how the car isn't reading that's it's fully in park to relay ignition? Her dad said he tested the alternator and it was "bad," but like I said, if the alternator was bad, her battery would be losing charge, and that is definitely not the case.
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I've been recently having the engine rattle/knock noise occasionally when I start the car. After my first oil change, I mentioned this to the dealer and demonstrated this to them while they documented the issue. I left my car at the dealership for investigation.
The following day, my dealer said they called Toyota and created a case about this. Toyota responded saying they heard about this and the possible root cause is the Motor Mounts on the Prius. They will be sending parts (date is still unknown) to fix the issue. :rockon:
I specifically asked if there is any damage to the engine and they said absolutely not and there is nothing wrong internally with the car. This also makes kinda sense because if I press the accelerator to the ground when it starts up, the knock doesn't appear. It also works if I put the car into D and drive away.
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I've been recently having the engine rattle/knock noise occasionally when I start the car. After my first oil change, I mentioned this to the dealer and demonstrated this to them while they documented the issue. I left my car at the dealership for investigation.
The following day, my dealer said they called Toyota and created a case about this. Toyota responded saying they heard about this and the possible root cause is the Motor Mounts on the Prius. They will be sending parts (date is still unknown) to fix the issue. :rockon:
I specifically asked if there is any damage to the engine and they said absolutely not and there is nothing wrong internally with the car. This also makes kinda sense because if I press the accelerator to the ground when it starts up, the knock doesn't appear. It also works if I put the car into D and drive away..
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Got an 07 Screw with only 50,000 miles. Yesterday, wife drove it home from work and said it would only do 45mph and didn't sound good. No warning lights were on, she said. I test drove it in the evening and it ran totally fine. Today, she drives it to work and said it ran real rough and "Check Engine" light was on. I picked it up from her work and it idles very rough and slow, and once you hit about 2000 rpm, it runs decent, maybe even normal. Below that, it stumbles and engine doesn't sound right. "Check Engine" light is either ON steady, or flashing. I don't have a code reader, so its likely going to the Ford Dealer Monday. Is there any way to read the code without a reader?
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03 focus SE Wagon, Automatic Tran, has a bit of a problem. Whenever it gets driven through a puddle (big, small, paddling pool, etc.) it will make this high pitch squealing noise, and then when it gets shut off after driving through said puddle, will have trouble starting. (It will turn over, catch, run for .2 seconds & then the engine will cut out, but all the electronics will work) THEN! if you can get it started, it needs to be reeved constantly or it will stall when it idles. Lastly, if the conditions are ridiculously horrible, & you need to go some place, you have to '2 foot drive' the little beauty to whereever you're going. Now, she's been in to see the Ford mechanics and has 'stumped' them.
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Okay so the other day my ranger wouldn't start after i got off work, it would turnover only occasionally but now it wont even do that. I've tried the fule turn on/off switch underneath the passenger glove box. I unscrewed the fuel like valve cap and pressed the pin but the fuel like barely squirted out so does it mean my fuel pump is bad or what??
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124k, original owner, no mods. Car was running rough and stumbling a bit. A bunch of codes came up. I replaced coils because I had them, spark plugs look good. One code came back p0103. I cleaned the throttle butterfly and replaced the maf sensor. Still same problem.
When I first start it cold it idles high but stays running , once it warms a little the idle drops and then it won't stay running. Then the traction control light comes on and then the cel. I checked for a vacuum leak but came up with nothing.
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I have been having odd problems with my truck for several weeks now and what the problem may be. Occasionally the truck will not start. This happens after it has been run for an errand or to church. The truck turns over but no ignition. Sometimes if I pump the gas pedal very quickly I can get it to start. Other times I have to sit and wait about 5 minutes. I have gotten the following two error codes - P1506=Cylinder Head Temp Sensor and P1299=Idle Air Control Overspeed Error. For two days the "check engine" light was on, but now it has gone out. I have searched for an answer to this problem on these boards and one possibility may be a vacuum leak. Is this the most likely? 1998 Triton 4.6 ....
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So a few weeks back, i went to the store after work, came out and my truck just cranked and cranked but wouldn't turn over. I simply turned the key off and back on, waited for the WTS light to go out and she started up. I just blew it off, thinking i didn't wait long enough to start it.
Then, later that week i come out of a restaurant and it cranks and cranks but doesn't start. i tried turning the key off and on, waiting 30 seconds between em and still nothing. Then a few minutes later, i try again and she fires up, no problems and runs like a champ.
Well 2 fridays ago, I go out with some buddies, go to leave and it happens again. Cranks and cranks, but not starting. I got a ride to my place, grabbed a fuel filter, thinking maybe its clogged, it's been awhile since i changed it. I got back to my truck, and it started up fine, without changing the filter.
Then last night as i am out of town, 10 hours away from home it happens again. And i kept trying and trying and trying but it never wanted to start. I was about to submit my payment for the Uber back to my hotel when i decide to try it again and it fired right up.
Now I'm kind of afraid to drive anywhere and shut off my truck in fear of being stranded. What could be causing this? I've looked every where and havent found someone with the exact same problem, usually when i find a thread on turning over but not starting, the truck dies once it runs as well. Mine doesn't. when it starts, she runs great.
No smoke coming out the tail pipe when cranking.
WTS light comes on and off as it should.
Tach does not move, and it won't because it's a 2002.
Where to start, would the CPS cause it to act this way? It only seems to do it when the engine is warm.
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I bought my 2003 F-150 XL (4.2L V6, 2WD, had 165k miles when purchased, 170k now, battery is a Napa brand manufactured in April 2012) in June 2012. A few weeks after I got it, I started having some weird issues. The check engine light came on and I went and had the codes read at Advance Auto. They were P0171 and P0174, lean bank one and lean bank two. The vacuum leak causing these codes isn't the issue I'm dealing with, it is the electrical problem.
The truck will occasionally flash every light on the dash (service engine soon, low fuel, oil, coolant temperature, seat belt, door ajar, and a couple others if I remember correctly) when I turn the key to power on the electronics. The first time I turn the key all the way to crank the truck up, it cranks fine, starts up, and dies within 3-4 seconds. The second time, it does the same thing. Third time, it just cranks and cranks, but will not start. After cranking and not starting a few times, the truck basically just clicks because the battery is run down.
This problem has happened randomly since June. It might be six weeks, one week, or only a few days between occurrences. The last two times it did it, I took the battery out of the truck, put it on a 6 amp charger overnight (about 8 hours), put it back in the truck, and it still wouldn't start, lights still flashing, etc. I gave it about 2-3 hours and both times the truck would start strongly and without incident, and the service engine soon light was off.
It rained here a LOT this summer, so I figured it might have something to do with driving through standing water at various speeds. The problem seems loosely associated with rainy weather (it rained last Saturday and I had to drive approximately 10-12 miles in it), but now it has started something new.
Yesterday afternoon, I tried to start the truck and it did the above described problem. I took the battery off and put it on a 10 amp charger for about six hours yesterday and left it disconnected overnight. Reconnected it this morning, gave it a couple of hours, still nothing. I remembered one time a while back that hitting the odometer reset button made the dash lights stop flashing. I held down the reset button and everything stayed lit up, but stopped flashing. Turned the key with the reset button held down and the truck started right up, but the dash kept flashing.
Turned it off, tried starting it without holding down the odometer reset, would crank, but not start. Tried starting it while holding down the odometer reset again, started right up. When I turned it off and tried it a third time, it just cranked for about six seconds before I gave up. This time, the oil, coolant temperature, battery, and service engine soon lights stayed lit (not flashing, they were solid) and the truck refused to start anymore.
Before it did the odometer reset BS I thought maybe I could figure it out because while it was a ghost of a problem that randomly came and went, it was always the same issue. Now I'm COMPLETELY lost.
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