We bought my wife a Ford Focus some months ago and love the car apart from it's tendancy to stumble and hesitate. This is most noticable when pulling away or when slowing down, dropping into 2nd and then trying to increase speed once more.
Car was still under warranty and had covered 30k miles when we bought it.
Soon after purchase I booked it into Ford to have this issue fixed - no joy, booked in a further 3 times with no fix (also raised a complaint with Ford UK).
I then realised that the mpg was way off the quoted figures (approx. 25%).
Booked car in for this to be investigated and guess what they fixed the hesitating/stalling issue!
I think mpg is now better but not overly concerned as drivability is now as it should be!
and the fix...
Ford dealer checked the chassis plate and found that the final drive ratio of our car is 4.06. They checked the engine management system and found that this was set for a final drive ratio of 3.41. They corrected the setting and all is ok now.
It appears that if you book car in for hesitating they follow one set of procedures, if you book in for poor mpg they follow another set...
I have posted this as I had previously searched for a fix and never found one.
Please post a reply if your car has this problem and is fixed in the same way.
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Thanks for the update Focus99. I'm left wondering if someone had previously installed a remap at some stage and then had the mappings reset prior to selling the car and whoever did it got it wrong.
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I guess that's a possibility. However, based on what I know of it's history I think it unlikely. I suspect it was factory set like this.
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If it's a factory setting issue then one wonders how many others there are out there with the same problem. It's useful information you've provided whatever the cause, thank you. Hope you get many enjoyable and economical miles from your Focus.
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I have the same model and a similar problem. How much did it cost for the diagnostics and the repair?
Or was it done under warranty for free?
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Warranty work - free of charge.
They would struggle to bill me for something that is set in the engine management system that I can't change...
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Thanks for that. Usually Ford charges for a diagnostic check and the repair if covered, is done under warranty. So I wondered if they charged for the diagnostic check. Or was it a case of, I know whats wrong, no need to diagnose, please adjust.
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My local Ford dealer has not charged me a penny for any of the four visists.
There has been no discussions around payment for a diagnostic check.
It is likely that a diagnostic check will show no issue, it's likely that there will be no error codes logged. There may be later calibration/update available.
Two choices:
Go to the Ford dealer and say that you want the poor mpg investigated under warranty; hopefully they follow same procedure as mine did and find the same issue.
(fixes hesitation but mpg is still poor...)
or
Go to Ford dealer and ask them to specifically check that the final drive ratio setting matches the actual final drive ratio fitted to the car - less than 5 mins at a guess.
Either way if car is under warranty I wouldn't expect to pay.
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Very,very unlikely to be production problem-much more likely to be result of previous visit to dealer.
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Also,re-programming the module for an axle change would affect speedo/odometer on this model and take it outside the legally required accuracy!!All sounds a little suspicious about first(?) owner.Is it the correct module? Part number normally shown on door frame.
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