ford fiesta problem

kkfan20

I have a 99 fiesta. last night when i stopped at traffic lights the car was doing a lot of shaking. the rev bar was fairly well under the 1000 revs but engine didnt cut out. when i drove there seemed to be no problem. when i got home i left the car running for a few minutes. it seemed to be running ok but there was a strange noise from exhaust. Anybody know what problem may be?

Also does anybody know would it be safe to drive it from dublin to kilkenny at weekend?

thanks

crosstownk

The 'shaking' could be due to the fact the one of the cylinders isn't firing. The exhaust could well be making a noise as a result of the uneven running. It could be possible that your catalytic convertor is partially blocked. In reality, it could be anything, but my advice would be to get it checked soon just in case continued driving causes further problems.

daedalus2097

What type of engine is it? I've found the 1.3 Endura can suffer from bad idling when the throttlebody's dirty. Some carb cleaner into the top of it can help this. If it's running fine when you're driving it I doubt it's anything serious, but could be any number of small things. I'd get it checked out soon alright, your cat converter could be damaged by unburnt fuel from a cylinder not firing if it's left like that for a while.

rccaulfield

sure it wasnt the fan and coolant pump cutting in? happened before?

kkfan20

many thanks for the replys. the engine is 1.25 zetec.

dont think it was fan and coocarlant pump. then again i dont know much about cars at all!!

Started it again this morning. the engine is running perfect but noise from exhaust is still strange. think there might have been a strong smell of petrol too. when you sit in the car it doesnt feel right.

zilog_jones

daedalus2097 wrote:

I've found the 1.3 Endura can suffer from bad idling when the throttlebody's dirty. Some carb cleaner into the top of it can help this.

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but how exactly do you go about doing this? I have said engine and it idles badly enough to shake the passenger seat when there's no one on it

Also, is it easy enough to adjust the valve clearances? I don't know if they're set right on mine - it seems to be quieter than a lot of other 1.3 Fiestas and Kas I see around, and I hear that can be a bad thing if it's running too quiet.

daedalus2097

The throttlebody's between the engine and the bulkhead, and depending on what version is used, you can either open the airbox to get at it or remove the airbox completely. The single point injection ones are a very simple chamber with the injector mounted in the centre above the throttle butterfly valve - this is the one I worked on, not too sure if they still used carbs on them in 99... Anyway, spraying a dose of carb cleaner into the chamber did it the world of good once it was passed through the engine.

The valve ´clearances are pretty easy to adjust too - there's a bolt for each valve and if you have the car in 4th or 5th gear you can push it back and forth to change the valves which are open at the time. Always do it when it's cold. Can't remember the specifications, think it's 0.2mm for inlet and 0.3mm for exhaust, but double check it! Adjust the inlet when the exhaust valve is open and vice versa.

The typical Fiesta tappet noise is usually fine, but of course gets much louder when the gaps are larger. This is no harm to the engine but can reduce power and efficiency. Too small a gap and there is much less noise, but can damage the engine by not letting the valves close fully for combustion when it's hot and the metal expands more than the width of the gap. In practice you can get away with having them a little tighter than specified as the engine should never get that hot anyway.

daedalus2097

kkfan20 wrote:

many thanks for the replys. the engine is 1.25 zetec.

Started it again this morning. the engine is running perfect but noise from exhaust is still strange. think there might have been a strong smell of petrol too. when you sit in the car it doesnt feel right.

Hmmm... Could be any number of sensors causing that, it's too hard to tell without having a good look at it. It's possible it's running too rich or too lean, and this could be caused by a faulty sensor somewhere...

daedalus2097

zilog_jones wrote:

Also, is it easy enough to adjust the valve clearances? I don't know if they're set right on mine - it seems to be quieter than a lot of other 1.3 Fiestas and Kas I see around, and I hear that can be a bad thing if it's running too quiet.

Actually, thinking about it - a lot of people with older Fiestas and Kas that I've seen don't get their tappets adjusted, just get the basic service of oil, filters etc. and the natural tendency of these engines is to get louder as the gaps creep wider so they often tend to be much louder than they need to be.

zilog_jones

Ah, so maybe mine were adjusted at some stage? Thanks for the help. There's a label on the rocker cover saying the specifications as mine was made after some revision of the engine were the gap sizes changed.

The single point injection ones are a very simple chamber with the injector mounted in the centre above the throttle butterfly valve - this is the one I worked on, not too sure if they still used carbs on them in 99

All the Mk. IVs ('95-'02, mine's a '98) used electronic injection, so I guess mine's more complicated than that? I can see the throttle cable going into the right of some plastic yoke (dunno what it is) just above the rocker cover. I have the Haynes manual somewhere anyway...

daedalus2097

Nah, the electronic injection's much handier than the carbourettor types, that's the single point injection type I was talking about. Not sure what way it's laid out on that engine, but there's going to be a throttle position sensor and throttle adjust motor on the throttle body, and it has to be somewhere near that plastic part. If it's fairly big I'd say that's the airbox, and it should come off pretty handy, exposing the throttle body and the inlet manifold behind the rocker cover.

Darragh29

Had a problem that sounded similar to this and it turned out to the the MAP (Manifold Air Pressure) sensor...

daedalus2097

Yup, they'll cause bad idling, along with a dozen other sensors if they failed or gave incorrect readings. The MAP sensor is possible the most expensive sensor to replace, so if it's suspected it's probably worth getting the car electronically checked to confirm it's the problem.