Ford focus mis firing nightmare

catoutthebag

The saga continues

After engine light coming on 1.5 weeks ago & roadside man saying core plugs leaking (soaked) & coolant level down, I took it to the nearest garage. Despite them being rude, defensive, abrupt & quite nasty on several occasions during the 2 days, they replaced 2 core plugs

Next day, mis firing started again.

We went to another garage, who came recommended, and were highly helpful & honest (string of customers), they checked my car briefly for free. Leads fine, coil pack fine, pressure fine. They topped up coolant too. They thought the other guy may have used non genuine parts or wrong size plugs. There's heavy leakage & its unlikely the popular jet wash issue. He said it wouldn't be far him charging & to take it back

Took it back, after further delay, he reordered plugs (from ford apparently) & put sealant around something. He said come Back in couple days if I want for him to check if there's still water.

Picked car up. It's ok, I think. No obvious juddering, but it doesn't feel 100%. Not powering fully (I feel) & possible slight mis firing happening.

No idea if its my imagination, I feel maybe not. Should I see how it goes & go back to the bad garage & make an appointment with good ones (who I have an mot with in 1.5wks, plus service)?

Bantex_2

Why would a leaky core plug cause a misfire (unless the engine overheated)?

catoutthebag

No idea. Engine light was on, car juddering, lacking power - is that not mis firing? Don't pick me up on technicalities, just what I've read. Can you help on the issue at hand?

Bantex_2

catoutthebag wrote: »

No idea. Engine light was on, car juddering, lacking power - is that not mis firing? Don't pick me up on technicalities, just what I've read. Can you help on the issue at hand?

Sounds like the lack of coolant may have caused the engine to overheat, it which case it could be permanently damaged.

catoutthebag

So thst can cause those symptoms

Also not saying it was empty, just higher than minimum mark - do you think 'engine permanently damaged' is therefore far fetched?

forgotmyname

If the engine light is on there will be fault codes stored in the ECU. Read the codes.
Then you will know where to start looking.

A core plug wont put the engine light on unless its causing another issue. Leaking water/coolant into a wiring loom or engine overheating because of a lack of coolant.

Saga continues? If you had another thread then you should have carried on with that as nobody reading this knows what the saga was.

catoutthebag

forgotmyname wrote: »

If the engine light is on there will be fault codes stored in the ECU. Read the codes.
Then you will know where to start looking.

A core plug wont put the engine light on unless its causing another issue. Leaking water/coolant into a wiring loom or engine overheating because of a lack of coolant.

Saga continues? If you had another thread then you should have carried on with that as nobody reading this knows what the saga was.

Actually, they do because I re wrote the whole thing with added up to date information

Guy who did the ecu said it was leaky core plugs relating to coolant

ChumpusRex

catoutthebag wrote: »

Actually, they do because I re wrote the whole thing with added up to date information

Guy who did the ecu said it was leaky core plugs relating to coolant

But low coolant and leaky core plugs alone won't cause the malfunction light to come on.

The light generally indicates some sort of engine running problem or electrical problem. You'll need the code to see what the ECU thinks the problem might be.

Hopefully, low coolant won't have overheated and cracked the cylinder head - that would cause misfiring and loss of coolant.

catoutthebag

Thanks

Is it safe to drive another 20 miles?

Hope to take the car in to the good guys. Hopefully not landed with a big bill or car beyond repair

Westmead_Fan

catoutthebag wrote: »

Thanks

Is it safe to drive another 20 miles?

Hope to take the car in to the good guys. Hopefully not landed with a big bill or car beyond repair

if it has done internal damage like others saying cracked head, that writes most vehicles off if you don't want a big bill.

reeac

ChumpusRex wrote: »

But low coolant and leaky core plugs alone won't cause the malfunction light to come on.

The light generally indicates some sort of engine running problem or electrical problem. You'll need the code to see what the ECU thinks the problem might be.

Hopefully, low coolant won't have overheated and cracked the cylinder head - that would cause misfiring and loss of coolant.

Leaking core plug leads to drips of coolant on plug and/or HT leads. Resultant short circuit might be detected by ecu[?]. Just speculating.