Hello all
I bought my 2001 2.0 Zetec estate at the beginning of 2004 and after a few months of driving fine it started to become slightly jerky under acceleration - not so much that passengers notice but I can feel that it's not as smooth as it should be.
When it was serviced at the local Ford dealership they said it would cost £70 to diagnose the problem, so I got them to do the full 4plus service and that solved the problem - until it came back a few months later.
It's not a serious fault and doesn't seem to be getting any worse, but I'm mystified as to why the service cleared up the problem but then it came back. Has anyone got any idea please?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Dan
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Dan
Were the spark plugs changed on that service?
This could be an HT leads or coilpack issue; new plugs fire much more easily and that might have helped for a while.
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Yes, I asked them to do the 'full' 4plus service (£100 at the time rather than the £80 one) as it included a change of plugs.
That sounds like a likely explanation. The car is due a service in a couple of weeks; do you think it would be much more expensive to have the HT leads and coilpack checked at a Ford dealership than at an independent garage? Forgot to mention earlier that the car has done 140,000 miles.
Thanks for your reply, and thanks also to whoever edited my post to make it make sense :)
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Hi Dan, I have had the same experience with my Mondeo, it is also a Y reg, 2 litre petrol Zetec with 145,000 miles. I get plugs changed each year and experience this problem intermittently. I'll be interested in what is said at the service about this problem, so please report back!
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Hi - will do, although I was put off last time by the fact that they wanted to charge almost the same as the price of the service just to diagnose what the problem was .. I don't mind paying for the repair obviously but am trying to keep costs down as I guess the car is only worth £1,000 or so.
Having done some Googling based on Screwloose's reply I think I might change the HT leads before the service to see if that solves the problem, as I presume the leads are cheaper to buy and fit than a new coilpack. If I have the leads changed at the same time as the service the problem will go away for a while anyway I guess, because of the new plugs.
Anyone reckon fitting new leads is too tricky to DIY - any special tools required etc?
Thanks again for all the help
Dan
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The local Ford dealer says the service will cost £183 - does anyone know if 4+ servicing is still available anywhere?
Also the HT leads will cost £99 fitted. As £282 seems quite a high percentage of the value of the car, I'm probably going to get an independent garage to do the service. Then I'll change the HT leads myself - a Haynes manual is on the way..! Will I need to fit new plugs at the same time to try to solve the hesitation problem?
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Dan
These service prices seen a bit time-warp - do you live up north? £100 doesn't get much these days.
The HT leads are a doddle to fit - ideal for DIY, as the dealers will be charging a minimum labour fee for what would take a good fitter three - five minutes.
Get a set from Ford - good value for the quality; but fit a set of Ford plugs with them.
There's a chance that the sparks have burned a track down the plug insulators and unless swapped together, that problem just perpetuates.
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Cheers Screwloose. The dealer is Evans Halshaw, just outside Cardiff. I was hoping the prices would be similar to last year's - £79.99 for an annual service or £99.99 for a major service - but the "4+" servicing seems to have been a special offer which has now finished.
I'm sure £183 is a relatively fair price, it's just that the car is only worth about a grand so I'm wondering whether it's worth having it serviced by a main dealer.
Thanks for the advice about the leads and plugs, I'll get onto that when my Haynes manual arrives :)
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I've just taken the leads off and there is a thick clear lubricant on the contacts that were connected to the coil - is this normal?!
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Dan
Many garages use silicone grease on the connectors - quite normal. if a bit unnecessary.
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Thanks again Screwloose. I was wondering if that was the cause of the problem :)
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Sorry, another daft question: while checking the leads I noticed that there is only one wire going to the suppressor, i.e. only one of its contacts is connected to anything. Is this right?
Thanks
Dan
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Cheers Screwloose. The wiring looks a right old mess with loads of bits taped up etc.
Anyway, will get Ford leads and plugs next week and will get local garage to fit the plugs at the same time as doing the oil change as I don't have the right sockets etc to change the plugs and am worried that I'll cross-thread them.
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Dan
Taped-up? Has someone been bodging?
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Difficult for me to tell - the wires are shown in the Haynes manual as being sheathed in ribbed plastic but mine have some sort of interlaced black material that I don't recognise, and which doesn't go all the way to the ends of the wires, so a few mm of each wire is exposed before it goes into its connector.
The wire for the suppressor was taped to bunch it up, as if someone wanted to stop it touching on something.
Meanwhile the 2nd HT lead DOES have ribbed plastic around it, but the others don't. None of it seems like a major problem but it could make it more difficult to diagnose the cause of the problem I guess.
I'm going to get the garage to fit the new spark plugs and then I'll put the new leads on - or should I put the leads on before dropping it off at the garage so the old leads don't damage the new plugs?
Thanks again for all your help so far
Dan
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Dan
That's a difficult question; I'd just give the leads to the guy changing the plugs - it's a matter of moments to refit the new ones instead of the old.
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