Ford focus revs rising

irelandspurs

Has anyone any ideas what this could be,when stopping clutch down brake pedal down and stopped ,i take foot off the brake pedal and the revs rise to around 3000-4000 rpm for about 20 seconds then drop back to idle.
This has been happening for about 3 weeks now and yesterday the mil light came on and code relates to catalyst below threshold.could this be related or just another problem to add to my forever growing list.

George Dalton

Sounds like a vacuum leak.

Mar4ix

recently was dealing with similar problem, checked everything, vacuum pipes, all wiring connections...
Then brought to garage for diagnostics...... at the end turns out it was idle control valve or how some times people call them - stepping motor . in scrapyard got for 60 quid, installed in 5 min.

Suggest get diagnostics done, than youll now what the problem is.

irelandspurs

Mar4ix wrote: »

recently was dealing with similar problem, checked everything, vacuum pipes, all wiring connections...
Then brought to garage for diagnostics...... at the end turns out it was idle control valve or how some times people call them - stepping motor . in scrapyard got for 60 quid, installed in 5 min.

Suggest get diagnostics done, than youll now what the problem is.

When you say diagnostics do you mean just plugging it in or getting everything checked over like compression test etc.
Would love to get everything checked on it as it's the only car we have and can't afford to upgrade.We have a friend mechanic that does our work but he's of the opinion of if its not broke don't fix it,but ever since we have car it feels like it lacks power,i know its only a 1.4 but our last focus 1.4 had lots more power that this one.
Every couple of week we are topping up oil in her as its not even showing on dipstick and there are no signs it is leaking so to me its burning oil and sounds like valve stem seals but again everyone i ask say's 'ah it grand just keep it topped up' but i want it checked and fixed.:(

George Dalton

I would say that the reason your friend is advising you against having it fixed is that he knows it will probably cost a fortune to put right. Once you start working on an older car with several things wrong with it then it can very quickly turn into a money pit.

irelandspurs

George Dalton wrote: »

I would say that the reason your friend is advising you against having it fixed is that he knows it will probably cost a fortune to put right. Once you start working on an older car with several things wrong with it then it can very quickly turn into a money pit.

Ah i understand that just like to know it's running ok,if some tests were done and was told that there were expensive problems then i'd drive it into the ground
.If i did a compression test would this give me some indications on problems and how can i check for vacuum leaks?

George Dalton

Well if it is burning a lot of oil then that will be expensive to sort out, there is no doubt about that. So there is an argument for just ignoring that situation and keeping the oil topped up regularly.

A compression test wouldn't really be helpful in this case.

The excessive oil consumption is probably the reason for the catalyst efficiency fault as well. The catalytic converter has most likely been contaminated with oil which means it can't do its job properly.

The vacuum/revs issue shouldn't be too difficult to sort out. Start with a visual inspection of all the hoses on the air intake system. Pay particular attention to a T-shaped hose right underneath the intake manifold. These are prone to failure on those engines and can cause the symptoms you describe.

If you don't see anything obvious then you should probably get a garage to take a look for you. If it isn't a vacuum leak then the idle control valve as mentioned above is the next most likely culprit.

irelandspurs

George Dalton wrote: »

Well if it is burning a lot of oil then that will be expensive to sort out, there is no doubt about that. So there is an argument for just ignoring that situation and keeping the oil topped up regularly.

A compression test wouldn't really be helpful in this case.

The excessive oil consumption is probably the reason for the catalyst efficiency fault as well. The catalytic converter has most likely been contaminated with oil which means it can't do its job properly.

The vacuum/revs issue shouldn't be too difficult to sort out. Start with a visual inspection of all the hoses on the air intake system. Pay particular attention to a T-shaped hose right underneath the intake manifold. These are prone to failure on those engines and can cause the symptoms you describe.

If you don't see anything obvious then you should probably get a garage to take a look for you. If it isn't a vacuum leak then the idle control valve as mentioned above is the next most likely culprit.

Nice one thanks,cars do my head in,its one thing after another.:(

irelandspurs

Think i got to the bottom of this,the crankcase breather pipe and pcv pipe had big splits in them.Hopefully new pipe should fix it.

irelandspurs

Bought new crankcase pipe yesterday from ford, fitted it and now i'm having different problems,when cold the car struggles to start and when it does it idles very rough and car vibrates but when it gets warm it's fine.
Anyone any suggestions.I have cleaned out the pipe that goes from top of rocker cover to air filter which was blocked from one end to the other with a oily goo,changed air filter and pcv filter which were both covered in oil and the pcv filter had disintegrated.

Hal1

Give the idle control valve a clean out.

This guy:

irelandspurs

Hal1 wrote: »

Give the idle control valve a clean out.

This guy:

I gave that a clean before i changed the breather pipe,it wasn't very dirty so gave spray of wd40 and clean with rag.Is there any way to test if it's bad before i go off and buy new one?

Hal1

Well the focus idles at about 700 - 900 rpm. So if it's fluctuating wildly then I would say it's defective.

cletus

Buy a can of carb cleaner instead of the wd40, 7 or 8 euros in halfords. Will do a better job of cleaning. You could try picking one up in a scrap yard and see if it fixes the problem, but theres no guarantee the second hand one will work either

irelandspurs

Seems to have sorted itself out now after driving it for a few days,running better than it has done for along while.:)