Euro4D Unscheduled Maintenance - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

Timmeh · 10-12-2004, 05:24

Ending a 15 month straight 100% reliability record, the Focus is now back at Ford. 3 thousand kms out of its last service (30 thou), the car has lost any form of torque, requiring many revs to do a basic hill start. It's also going thru copious amounts of fuel, 60L for 570kms on the highway!

I assume it's just a sensor that's dropped offline or a vacuum hose perhaps, but Ford will soon find out. The RS2000 has assumed daily driving duties in the meantime.

Funny thing that happened while I was dropping off the car, I parked behind two BA XT's, so all three of us were in a line. Some girls were watching me pull up and get out, and I walked past them, squeezed between some poles and the Falcons, when the front Falcon opened his door as I was walking past and took me out. The girls had many laughs, the guy was apologetic, I was somewhat sore!

I'll let you know how Ford goes.

Tim!

whippet_zetec · 10-12-2004, 05:27

bad luck on the attempt to impress the chicks....let us know how your focus goes on its trip....

XR_Strider_GuY · 10-12-2004, 05:28

Hey Tim,

Yeah hope it ends up being of a minor nature and that she will be fixed soon. I know how frustrating something like this can be.

Oh pretty stooged about the incident in the dealer.

Gary.

Dark_Horse · 10-12-2004, 05:34

Ah, damn about the BA Falcon assault!

Good luck with EUR04D dude.

Zetec · 10-12-2004, 19:09

Damn, not fun at all. Damn electronics. I say bring back low tech engines...

Timmeh · 10-13-2004, 01:57

Yeah I'll get into low tech engines in a sec and you can re-assess which are better...

Got the Focus back from Ford, apparently the software locked into limp home mode, so they upgraded it to the brand new Zetec settings released this month and its running extremely well now. One day off the road wasn't bad, happy there.

I drove the RS2000 to work - it still had a miss in it, wasn't charging the battery properly, and was over heating. So when I got to work, there wasn't much on so I decided to spend the day on the car. Move over Hornet, I drove it into one of our hangars and got to work.

Discovered it was actually an RS1500 3 cylinder, so I replaced all the leads, plugs, distributer cap, and points. This cured the miss, and made it a world more driveable down low. Running on all four cylinders, it was smooth as and a huge difference, as you'd expect. One problem down, a few to go.

Was looking for the timing marks on the crankshaft pulley when a friend pushed on the alternator belt and the whole alternator moved! Danger, danger, danger! A quick inspection revealed the alternator tensioner bracket had cracked and the bolt was MIA. This explained why both the alternator was not charging and the engine was over-heating - neither the alternator was spinning, the water pump not going, and the fan half heartedly spinning around. Crikey!

The arrow is pointing to where the bracket was sheared, you can see the new bolt, washer, and strengthening piece forming a stronger bracket than was on there previously. Also you can see the water pump on the lower right hand side of the pic needs replacing due to deterioration for reliability's sake. And oil on the rocker cover - eewww!

So we took the bracket out and tried some bolts to find the right thread and size, found the appropriate hardware, then went to work on the bracket. The bracket had sheared at the hole down near the engine, so we ground off the half-a-hole, welded on an extension, then another strengthener in front of it. Re-manufactured the hole, then cleaned the whole lot up, machined back to a smooth surface. Hit it with some paint to stop the rust, and in she went with the new bolt and a locking washer, to hopefully stop the same thing happening again. Was handy having pretty much any tool I needed at my disposal, plus mulitple persons also similarly time-equipped to help out.

So.... what were we saying about low tech engines again?

Still, it was good fun, picked up the Focus after work, its going well also. So both cars are now serviceable, the Escort still has a list of things to go (like new gasket set and a pre-emptive new water pump) but its running 100% reliable and smoothly now.

Tim!

smciner1 · 10-13-2004, 02:02

Alternator Bracket breaking are a common problem on the 2 Litre. My old Escort did the same thing with its Alternator Bracket. Only noticed it when I got it back from being Chrome Plated. I had to get another Bracket and get it Chromed!

WASACL · 10-13-2004, 02:54

Glad to hear that the EURO4D was back on the road so soon.
But more importantly WHY WERE YOU WORKING ON YOUR RS WHEN YOU SHOULD OF BEEN PROTECTING THIS COUNTRY???

Hmm upgraded software settings... Can they just upgrade the software if i ask them too or does it have to have a problem?

Russ

Timmeh · 10-13-2004, 03:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by WASACL

But more importantly WHY WERE YOU WORKING ON YOUR RS WHEN YOU SHOULD OF BEEN PROTECTING THIS COUNTRY???

Priorities?

Quote:

Originally Posted by WASACL

Hmm upgraded software settings... Can they just upgrade the software if i ask them too or does it have to have a problem?

Russ

I am not sure, just say the car lacks power (its true anyway!

) and is using lots of fuel (well it is getting expensive) - thats what really happened to me! Or just ask them if they will

Tim

fordel · 10-13-2004, 05:13

Thats all good to hear they are both back up and running again all nicely

Thats how i got my software upgraded, said its using to much fuel and thats its BS :D

chris