juddery ford focus (after fill up)

[T14086]

core plugs should be in stock, T.I.S. by the way is technical disc that ford use...loads copies to download on peer to peer sites

 

[Andy Monty]

ordered the Plugs today should be here monday


Had the cover off today and it was snuff dry no trace of coolant round the plugs just a bit of muck and grit and a bit of moisture on the top of the cover...

so cleaned it all out with a stiff paint brush and hoover followed with a paint brush full of cleaning solvent (IPA) and hoover again got most of the rust off




this was taken after a quick hoover to remove the thickest never got round to taking an after shot :bang: but its all nice and clean

then removed and cleaned the Spark plugs and HT leads filled the cap with silicone grease

so am going to pick the plugs up this week and give it a few weeks to see if there is any trace of coolant leaking from the plugs


I did clean the engine bay about a month ago (low pressure free running hose) so that might have been a source of water ingress

but i'll wait and see how this goes

Thanks again T

 

[T14086]

sorted??

 

[Andy Monty]

sorted??

Shhhh don't tempt feat


yes thanks T its run fine since i cleaned all the dirt out cleaned the HT leads in solvent put some HMP silicone grease in the HT caps

also noticed when refitting the 2 drain holes on the Rocker box cover were blocked so cleaned them out

will pop the Ht leads out again this weekend to double check but so far so good


Thanks again

 

[T14086]

good stuff.....it'll be fine.

 

[Andy Monty]

good stuff.....it'll be fine.

yep and i now have a nice small torque wrench courtesy of dad (to refit the cover) Ideal for my mountain bike

 

[TD1947]

just used google and now see what the core plug is

will get the cover off give it clean and see what is going on and if there is any trace of coolant in the area of the core plugs

INPUT:
Hello, I beleive that the FOCUS ZETEC, and any similat top-end like in the picture, can suffer from odd misfires. The water ingress issue mentioned here (usually after too enthusiastic use of pressure-washers!!) can be avoided by liberal use of this excellent Silicone Grease from MAPLIN: (URL TO FOLLOW AFTER I DO 5 POSTS - RATHER A DRACONIAN RESTRICTION IN MY VIEW - I am in IT for G SAKE)!! <URL REMOVED by me to do the post>
note that the picture is wrong against the 50g TUBE
(RE90X) as the primary product offering is the aerosol!! The tube is the one to go for, at £3.99.

Obviously before you use this grease, absorb ALL the water from the recesses, clean off any grunge from the rubber (to avoid tracking),

AND ALSO THE PORCELAIN PARTS OF ALL PLUGS. The latter bit is important. WHY? - well ANY carbonized stuff left on the porcelain creates a potentially conductive path for the HV ignition circuit. Even mundane operations like removing the plug with a cheap plug-spanner can leave a rubber residue that will turn into a mis-fire track, that is VERY HARD to see and diagnose (my cheap spaner had a rubber grip insert that had a very high metal content - I had to use an abrasive foam (JML stuff) to remove the track-line from the porcelain. Then - applying lots of the Silicone Grease fixed it permanently - I have never had a mis-fire since (apply at the base of the plug, and around the insulator, and enough to seal the top holes in the rocker cover, but try to avoid getting it on the metal top of the plug). TD

 

[T14086]

disagree with pressure washer idea as the HT leads form a good seal, the problem is as i stated leaking core plugs...known problem on zetec engines. Ford supply their own good grease for HT leads.

 

[richibeno]

hi i have the same problem on me dads car is the plastic rocker cover easy to take off ,,

ordered the Plugs today should be here monday


Had the cover off today and it was snuff dry no trace of coolant round the plugs just a bit of muck and grit and a bit of moisture on the top of the cover...

so cleaned it all out with a stiff paint brush and hoover followed with a paint brush full of cleaning solvent (IPA) and hoover again got most of the rust off




this was taken after a quick hoover to remove the thickest never got round to taking an after shot :bang: but its all nice and clean

then removed and cleaned the Spark plugs and HT leads filled the cap with silicone grease

so am going to pick the plugs up this week and give it a few weeks to see if there is any trace of coolant leaking from the plugs


I did clean the engine bay about a month ago (low pressure free running hose) so that might have been a source of water ingress

but i'll wait and see how this goes

Thanks again T