Ford - Focus :: 2013 - Hesitation At Low Idle / Car Moving At Crawl Speed
Jul 11, 2013
We have a brand new 2013 Ford Focus, a little over 2500 miles. We drove the vehicle to NYC, starting the trip with over 500 miles. During stop-n-go driving the following conditions are experienced: - car in drive but stopped, engine idles at 750rpm- car moving at crawl speed, less than 5mph, and RPM between 750 to 2100, engine acts as if it will stall (IT IS AN AUTOMATIC TRANS); when this happens there's an obvious shudder - again almost as if the car will stall out- cannot determine what gear its in, but probably first, second, or maybe third, but no higher
We took the car back to the dealer, but they acted as if this was a normal, if not, non existent issue; they were very dismissive.
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I have a really weird issue with my 2003 Ford Focus. Manual transmission, just over 50,000 miles. I've been noticing a stumble or hesitation (like the engine is cutting out) at steady speed, but ONLY when it is snowy out, more if it's windy as well. I don't recall that this happens if it's rainy or foggy. All maintenance is performed as specified, to include air filter changes.
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A problem just popped up yesterday. 09 Camry, 2.4L, SE, about 178k on the odo. Started out as a slight hesitation when trying to accelerate from a stop, hardly noticeable, in the am. As day progressed it got much worse (very little driving but about 3 to 4 trips). By night the car wants to die upon first start up. Engine will rev higher, then drop, then rev, and will drop way low and stutter and die if I don't feather gas. Very bad hesitation today when trying to get moving. This morning it was revving high, low, high, low (high meaning a little over 1000), then dropped, stuttered and died. Cranked again fine.
My in gear idle rpm is about 650. I will be checking the plugs and throttle body later today as several months back I had issues that seemed to be related to those. I have my suspicions, but want to get opinions. I filled up the tank yesterday morning. Was about 14 degrees yesterday morning, warmed up to around 30. In the 40s today. Engine does get to normal temp, all that fun jazz. I am thinking shitty gas....?
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My 15' SFS 2.4l has been doing this since around the 10,000km mark, it now has 26,600Kms and it seems that when I come to a stop at a light the hesitation has gotten worse! When I mentioned it the first time to my Hyundai dealer they said on one of my oil changes they would put in an additive to clean the injectors (I said it shouldn't be doing this as it is a brand new vehicle) and now other the last 16,000kms since the additive was put in I'm finding it is getting slightly worse. The idle dips up and down a very Mina's amount resulting in almost what would be a cat purring sort of vibration (weird way to describe it) but that's honestly what it's like. I checked to see if there was a cat stuck under my hood but their was nothing (I'm kidding).
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I drove my 2005 Ford Focus 200 miles and parked it at the Kansas City airport for the weekend. When I got back after my weekend vacation, the car started but wouldn't move in reverse gear. I was able to disengage the parking brake. However I could feel that the park brake was not moving easily. I then forced the car in reverse a few feet even though there were some groans and noises coming from the back. I then put it on drive and drove forward to the kerb. I then tried reverse again and voila everything had come unstuck. It moved freely. I was able to drive back the 200 miles without problem. I checked the transmission fluid and it was good. Is this just a case of stuck brake or is it the beginning of major transmission problems? Fyi, I have an automatic transmission and there are only about 70000 miles on the car.
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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 drive a stick Ford Focus 2002 and when I accelerate, the car hesitates/bogs down. This happens more when it is going up and heavily loaded. It happens more on low RPM but it also happens on high RPM. I can accelerate on idle and it does not have any problem. At the same time, I know when this is happening, or about to happen, because the radio volume rises suddenly together with the speedometer needle that goes crazy (up to 150mph) while the car is going at 30mph. The radio volume and speedometer needle settle down after the spurt.
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Morning are getting colder engine runs at 1100 to warm up OK I understand that. But after running around town and engine is warm, I checked again, still at 1100 RPM. Shouldn't it be lower or is that what the batteries need?
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I have a 1988 Toyota Camry. I was driving to work this morning, the car was driving fine. After about 10 mile or so, I stopped at a red light, when the light changed the car wouldn't accelerate it seemed to have a really bad hesitation. If i let off the gas it would idle fine, none of the warning lights are on. However, when I give it more gas the car doesn't have any power at all. It has plenty of gas in it and the exhaust has no signs of any oil or water in it. I was thinking it may be a bad fuel filter or a tank of bad gas.
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I have a 1997 Oldsmobile 88 (174K miles, owned only by my father-in-law and then me) with which I am experiencing a hesitation problem from time to time at highway speed. My mechanic has taken the car on several highway test drives throughout the last two days, and he has been unable to reproduce the problem. Furthermore, he has done a full diagnostic test and found no problems with the fuel system, ignition system, or anything else.
Here are the conditions under which the problem occurs:
---Attempting to accelerate gradually at highway speed (usually from 50-60 mph), but WITHOUT pushing the gas pedal down so far as to cause the transmission to downshift
---Engine fully warmed up (temp gauge at 200 F or just below)
---Occurs more often when I have been driving for at least 1-2 hours
The condition is as follows:
---Car lurches/surges noticeably and does not accelerate
---Speedometer needle reflects the lurching by fluctuating up and down about 1 to 2 mph
---Accelerates well if I step down hard enough to cause the transmission to downshift, or stops surging if I lift off the gas pedal
---NO Check Engine light at any time
Some history on the car and corrective actions taken:
---June 2009: My mother-in-law was driving the car about 6 hours into our trip and it consistently hesitated between 50 and 55 mph with the Check Engine light on for the last 30 miles or so of our trip. The next day, we took the car to the dealer where my in-laws had their cars serviced (note the past tense here), where they told us that "there's probably something wrong inside the transmission" and suggested that we replace the transmission with a new one. This transmission is the second new one the car has had (replaced the first time at 95K miles), meaning that this transmission had less than 80K miles at the time. We took the car to a local shop at the referral of a friend, and this mechanic suggested we try flushing the transmission fluid and replacing the filter to see if that would fix the problem before we started talking about replacing the whole transmission. This worked, and we were glad that we did not have to get rid of the car. Did not notice any more problems with this for over a year.
---May 2010: Experienced engine misfire, had spark plug wires replaced. Problem solved.
---March 2011: First noticed my current problem. Had fuel filter replaced (it was probably a little overdue) and had the mechanics do a fuel system cleaning.
---April 2011: Problem still occurs.
---Had throttle body thoroughly cleaned, which fixed a slight sticking in the gas pedal.
---Replaced spark plugs myself. Car running more smoothly overall, but the hesitation still occurs.
---Inspected all three ignition coil packs myself. Top coil pack had some rust on the poles, which caused the resistance to measure as zero. Cleaned most of the rust off the poles, after which all three packs bench tested at 6.23 (with 20000 ohm setting on multimeter). Car runs even more smoothly overall, but hesitation persists.
At this point, my mechanic and I are both stumped as to what could be causing the hesitation problem. My only thought right now is to try replacing the one coil pack that had rust on it, since a pack with a fault I can see may have others inside that I can't see, and maybe something like this is flaking out on an intermittent basis.
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2002 Ford Focus SE Mileage: 140000
Symptoms: When turning right, especially at low speed while braking, it makes this rapid clicking noise, disappears once you let go of the brake.
In the past when it made this kind of noise, usually goes away after I made sure the brake pads clips are securely clipped around the caliper, but it's not working this time. No noise while braking going forward or turning left. Seems to be worse at lower speed and any right turn can bring on the noise, does not have to be a full-lock turn.
So far what I've done: Made sure the brake pads clips are secured (horribly designed), lug nuts are torqued at correct spec, no obvious broken linkage, bar, arm, coil, or CV boots under quick inspection.
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My daughters car jerks periodically at highway speed. She's been told her transmission is OK and she's not concerned about the car. My wife is very concerned! It has never stalled, and seems to run fine, then a little rough [unless I imagine that] and then jerk, jerk, jerk, and then fine again. She drives an '07 Ford Focus.
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I have a 2009 Ford Focus and have been having a problem with the brakes. When I hit the brakes at any speed there is a feeling of pulsing as I slow down. It is proportional to the speed I am going. It feels like there is an unevenness to the rotor or brake drum that makes one spot on either of those hit the brake pad/shoe more severely than the rest of the pad/shoe and thus I slow down more during that one spot. Maybe the best way to describe the feeling is like this: While the brake pedal is pressed down it feels like I am slowly pulsing the pedal even though the pedal is steadily pressed down. This pulsing feeling slows down as I slow down until I stop. What might cause this?
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A week ago while on an errand my car wouldn't start when I returned to it. Dash panel lights/radio/seat belt chime all worked, however. Luckily the shopping center security had a jump box so after a couple of attempts the car started. Got it home, but then it would restart. Have a tester/charger, hooked it up, showed ok and fully charged. Still wouldn't start. Took battery out to shop to get another test to double check next day---battery was putting out 626 CCA when its rated 590 (a Motorcraft battery I'm sure came with car---I'm 2nd owner). Obviously tested good. Put battery back in car. IT STARTED. Drove on another errand and didn't switch off until returning home. After switching off would not restart.
Tried disconnecting and reconnecting battery cables thinking it was a connection problem of some kind---several attempts over last few days. Has yet to start back, and now the car's electronic display is giving a "Low Battery" message, even after I left on the charger (slow charge, 2 amps) ALL DAY, with charger telling me battery is good and fully charged!! I know it has a starter relay that I've found and unplugged and plugged back in (but haven't replaced yet---$9 from Ford). This does not seem like an alternator problem to me. Besides that and relay, the only thing I can think of is starter is bad. (Also had someone recommend to me trying to start with the car in N---auto trans; also no dice).
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I have a 2000 Ford Focus ZTS with about 135,000 miles on it with a fume problem. Once it's warm, I'm noticing what smells like exhaust fumes in the cabin when stopped or at low speed (not at highway speed.) It runs perfectly otherwise. I took it in a few months ago (before I noticed the correlation with engine temp), and the mechanic could not replicate the problem, and he said there was no exhaust leak, I now suspect this is because he only tested it cold.
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Last night when Ian was driving to my house on a small highway, going about 50MPH, his car suddenly started losing speed and quickly dropped down to around 30. When he tried to accelerate, it would make a lot of noise and effort but the speed would only increase by maybe a mile per hour or so and then drop down even more, until within a minute or so he was convinced that the car was going to just stop moving if he didn't pull over and shut off the engine. At this point he had close to a quarter tank of gas according to his gas gauge.
On the side of the road, he checked the engine's levels and the only thing he found that was unusual was that the oil was pretty low even though he had checked it just a week or two ago. I buzzed down and brought him some motor oil, but when he tried to start the car again it just clicked over on the driver's side of the engine. Not sure if this is a symptom or a function of having left the flashers on for 20 minutes while he was waiting for me. After we got it towed to my apartment complex, the tow truck driver jumped the battery to try to drive it about 10ft into a parking spot.
In order to keep the car running he had to pump the gas and brake back and forth. One other thing I noticed there was that in reverse, the car seemed to move fine, but once he put it into drive it took a lot of finesse and some very scary sputtery noises to coax it into moving forward. It was like the parking brake was on but 2x as hard. Also the gas gauge now read empty, which could have been an electrical thing. The tape deck also spontaneously turned on.
This reminds me a bit of when I had my last junker and the alternator needed replacing, but he just replaced the alternator 2-3 years ago so it seems unlikely and annoying that it would have gone south again so fast.
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I have a 2000 Ford Focus that vibrates more at idle. The previous owner replaced the top passenger side motor mount when I bought it in Nov. I just replaced the bottom and then the other top drivers side mount two days later. 75% improvement but I wonder if there is some thing in the engine like an adjustment of some kind. I have only had it a couple months so I don't know when the last time it had a tune up. I can replace the spark plugs my self but would need a computer diagnosis to determine if there is something else that needs some adjustment of replacement.
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I have a 2009 Ford Focus SE with about 55K miles on it. I took it in last week complaining of a serious vibration at idle. They told me about this "service shield" that Ford recommended in a Tech bulletin TSB 08-24-9. The part was installed but I still have a vibration. They said all the motor mounts look good. I am really at a loss here, it is still vibrating. Someone recommended putting premium gas in. I love everything else about this car but this vibration at idle.
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Ford Focus 2004 manual 150K miles. Most days the car runs fine. Other days it will start and run until it warms up, then stumbles or hesitates at speed. When this happens the headlights and dash lights are also flickering. Sometimes i hear a clicking sound behind dash, left side. I have the sure cure: turn the heater fan to high. This works every time. When the engine is hesitating, i turn the fan to 4-high, the engine smooths out. Turn the fan down, engine again hesitates. Hesitates at 3, worse at 2, worst at 1. It seems to need the extra load.
But after few minutes of high heater fan, the alternator light comes on. I flick the heater switch down, endure the hesitation for a few seconds, the alternator light goes out, engine still hesitating, flick the fan to high, engine smooths out. A few months ago i could get it to fun smoothly with the fan on 3, didn't need 4-high. Now seems to need 4.On the days when it is always running smoothly, the heater fan can be on any speed, the alternator light does not come on.
Next few days or even weeks the engine will run smoothly, no hesitation, with the fan on or off or any setting.
The car has been to three shops in past year, one of them a major Ford dealer, who kept it two weeks. The problem has been diagnosed as battery (replaced), Battery connections (checked), plugs (replaced), fuel pump controller (replaced), fuel pump (replaced - ouch!), alternator (replaced twice - ouch twice), grounds (checked). Every time they "fix" something the car runs ok for a week or so.OBD shows P2004 (intake manifold runner stuck) but all agree it can't be the problem.
There have been a few times when i flicked the heater fan to high that all the dash lights died, fan went off, headlights off, turn signals didnt' work, but the engine ran smoothly. Not so good on the highway at night!There have been a few time, not recently, when the car wouldn't start. No dome lights, no dash lights with key turned to ON, no clicking or starter with key turned to START. It acted as if my battery was missing. The cure was to turn the headlights on. All normal after that.
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I just purchased a 2013 Ford Focus hatchback SE Monday night. Tuesday morning I came out of the house to get in my car, I unlocked the car, and opened the door. Before I even got into the car I heard a "scratch scratch scratch whirr whirr" coming from the engine. The dealer did not show me where the hood latch was so by the time I figured out how to open the hood the noise had stopped (within a minute of when it started.) Driving that day I did not notice any more noise, nor any issues with the engine.
Wednesday morning (today) I came out to get in my car, and when I opened the door I heard the same nose coming from under the hood. I got the hood open and looked in with a flashlight while the nose was still going. The noise was coming from the right hand side of the engine block, but I did not see anything actually moving to cause the scratching and whirring noise.
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I was getting off of the highway and all of a sudden sounded like some grinding and smoke and slowed to a crawl. No codes, no leaks (that I could see), Job 1 truck. Tow driver said he thought it was a turbo as well since they go through so many. Son of a... Was leaving on vacation Friday, looks like we are taking the Volvo.
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