FocusCanada Forums

Over the last week or so, when the car is cold or has been driven a short distance, it will arbitrarily stall or come damn close when shifted from any gear to Park.

Shifting to any gear from Park results in same old, same old - runs fine, no issues. Pulling away from a stop is fine, but the odd time braking hard and coming to a complete stop will cause it to idle really low (<400 RPMs) and then shoot back up. Actually, it did stall once for Sara last week when she came to a full stop from highway speed at an intersection. Driving at speed makes for the same experience as always, although it does feel a tad bit more sluggish above 5K RPMs.

Things I've put my finger on so far that could be contributing to this:

- Factory plugs are still in (and approaching 100,000 KMs).
- Fuel filter hasn't been done in quite a while (>20,000 KMs on this filter by far).
- Fuel injectors haven't been serviced at all since new (is this needed before 100,000 KMs?)
- The last couple of gas additions were 10-15 dollars with the tank near reserve. Have a sucked a bit more particulate than usual into the line and into the filter?

Fuel economy doesn't seem to be suffering much if at all. We're heading down to Caledon this weekend and I'll keep my eye on it.

Should I throw a can of fuel injector cleaner in it? Should I just get the dang injectors flushed or changed when I get an oil change next week?

I'm thinking the the fuel filter is where I would start, seeing as how you say you haven't changed it in more than 20K and you've let the tank get near to the dregs in the tank.

NefCanuck

it really sounds like the dpfe

did the same type of thing to us, although we were in a standard. Especially when braking and when the engine was hot and it was hot/muggy outside. Never threw a code.

Hmm, I didn't think that the car had a DPFE... I thought that was a ZETEC-only part. I've never heard of any SPIs getting DPFE work done.

I'll figure it out next week at Stockfish when I get the oil change done. We'll start with the fuel filter at the same time and go from there. If anyone else has any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks Brian and Daniel :)

Oh... who has serviced their fuel injectors before 100K here? Should I bother getting a tankful of that cleaner through them?

I've got it booked into the dealer for Tuesday morning for an oil change and fuel filter repalcement. I'll be swapping the spark plugs tonight.

NOS2Go4Me,Aug 11 2006, 12:26 PM Wrote:Hmm, I didn't think that the car had a DPFE... I thought that was a ZETEC-only part. I've never heard of any SPIs getting DPFE work done.


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oopps. not too sure on that myself :blink:

I put 4 brand-new Motorcraft Platinums in tonight... it cleaned up the idle, and it doesn't get below 500 RPMs now when shifting out of gear into neutral/park, but the quick drop-off of the engine is still noticeably there.

I think the easiest road here is to get the fuel filter done Tuesday and then get Oscar's car side-by-side with ours to inspect things - run them at the same time, do the same stuff.

OK, I'm officially freaking confused. I did over 700KMs on a tank this weekend (430 on 5/8ths indicated, then 320 back on 3/8ths indicated). Fuel economy is NOT suffering. Most of the stumble is gone. If the fuel filter change doesn't fix it, screw it. I'm not wasting massive cash for nothing.

EDIT - haha, shot my mouth off too soon. I've stalled it twice today shifting from drive to park. Too funny. I hope it's just the damn filter :(

Well, it was a cracked ignition coil. It cost a few bones, but at least we got the fuel filter done at the same time and all my maintenance woes are done till at least just before winter.

Yay for RBC Rewards points!

I've NEVER changed my fuel filter yet, and I've run the car down to absolute fumes (car was starting to die on way up the Hamilton Mountain, and I had to pull into Fiddlers Green and Wilson Street to buy gas...lucky for me, I had some highschool kids with ricemobiles checking the car out...

I wonder though...if I corner really hard without braking, and my car bogs down on accelerating again...wonder what that means...fuel sloshing to the opposite side of the tank? Low fuel pressure under lateral G?

Still, I agree that it's likely the fuel filter or dpfe for your situation. I would just replace both and call it a day...

my focus had around 100000km when i sold it, never did any fuel injector cleaning or change fuel filter. check the factory service manual for the car to see the service intervals for those?

It's already done (the fuel filter). The cracked coil I'd say was the actual cause of the stumble.

For some time, I've always wondered where my nice, smooth "ripping" noise went with the car. I always assumed I was hearing secondary valvetrain noises or something that was being cancelled out with the new intake / exhaust mods. WRONG.

That wonderful "rev me till I bleed 5W20" sound is back. :D I'm SO happy right now, it's nuts. Yeah, I'm still slow, but I'm a happy kind of slow.

Thanks to everyone for their ideas and for listening. :)