I've been scouring the FF forums for two days now and I can't seem to nail down exactly what my problem is. It's time to ask for help.
My girlfriend took her 2000 Focus SE Automatic to the college she works at to have the auto-techs put a new power-steering pump in. Taking it to the college was obviously a bad idea, but she did it anyway. Five days after she got it back, the car stopped holding an idle. When started, it would attempt to hold an idle, chug, and die. I don't have a code reader, but after doing a little research I figured the culprit might be the TPS. I also figured out that the thermostat was bad, and bought both of the parts.
Yesterday I put the new thermostat in and put the new TPS on. I also put a new air-filter in since I had one laying around. Once I reconnected the battery, the car seemed to hold an idle just fine. I took it for a drive, and noticed the rpm would surge to 2500-3000 when the car shifted, but other than that it drove fine. After letting it sit, it started chugging and refusing to hold an idle while cold.
This morning I got it idling and let it warm up, and actually drove it to the autoparts store to get the codes read. The codes that came up were:
P1120 - Throttle Position Sensor (which was giving me a CEL)
P1000 - Onboard Diagnostics (I guess I didn't cycle through the full "relearning process")
P1285 - Cylinder Head Over Temperature (I'm certain the temp sensor is burnt out because the thermostat was broken in half)
I was a little confused about the P1120 code, because I installed a new TPS yesterday. I took the TPS off, had it tested, traded it for a new one anyway, and put everything back together. All pretty standard so far, I guess.
NOW I'm having a crazy amount of problems.
-Sometimes the car won't hold an idle: it chugs, the rpm sit at around 600, and it seems to choke out.
-Sometimes it will idle at 1000 rpm just fine and then when I shift into drive the RPM will spike to 2500
-Sometimes it will hold an idle at just under 1000 and then when shifted into drive it will start shaking and bogging down
-Sometimes it idles and drives just fine except for occasional spikes in the rpm (2500 at shift)(I took it on a 15 minute "relearning" drive earlier and it ran like a dream)
My concerns:
-The TPS was for a "manual," and there was no automatic listed
-Even after having a new TPS installed and the codes cleared it displayed a TPS error...
-The TPS lined up with the screw-holes without any slight twist, which I have heard means it isn't positioned right
-I can't even find my IAC valve
I tossed in a couple pictures of the TB assembly and TPS, because those are the only things I have been messing with. My current thought is that it's a vacuum leak, but I have no idea where to even BEGIN with that, and it still doesn't answer the concern about why the new TPS was still throwing error codes. Any ideas or help you can give me will be greatly appreciated, just trying to get it running again!
Throttle Body assembly
The TPS lined up with the screw-holes perfectly. Is that a problem?
My girlfriend took her 2000 Focus SE Automatic to the college she works at to have the auto-techs put a new power-steering pump in. Taking it to the college was obviously a bad idea, but she did it anyway. Five days after she got it back, the car stopped holding an idle. When started, it would attempt to hold an idle, chug, and die. I don't have a code reader, but after doing a little research I figured the culprit might be the TPS. I also figured out that the thermostat was bad, and bought both of the parts.
Yesterday I put the new thermostat in and put the new TPS on. I also put a new air-filter in since I had one laying around. Once I reconnected the battery, the car seemed to hold an idle just fine. I took it for a drive, and noticed the rpm would surge to 2500-3000 when the car shifted, but other than that it drove fine. After letting it sit, it started chugging and refusing to hold an idle while cold.
This morning I got it idling and let it warm up, and actually drove it to the autoparts store to get the codes read. The codes that came up were:
P1120 - Throttle Position Sensor (which was giving me a CEL)
P1000 - Onboard Diagnostics (I guess I didn't cycle through the full "relearning process")
P1285 - Cylinder Head Over Temperature (I'm certain the temp sensor is burnt out because the thermostat was broken in half)
I was a little confused about the P1120 code, because I installed a new TPS yesterday. I took the TPS off, had it tested, traded it for a new one anyway, and put everything back together. All pretty standard so far, I guess.
NOW I'm having a crazy amount of problems.
-Sometimes the car won't hold an idle: it chugs, the rpm sit at around 600, and it seems to choke out.
-Sometimes it will idle at 1000 rpm just fine and then when I shift into drive the RPM will spike to 2500
-Sometimes it will hold an idle at just under 1000 and then when shifted into drive it will start shaking and bogging down
-Sometimes it idles and drives just fine except for occasional spikes in the rpm (2500 at shift)(I took it on a 15 minute "relearning" drive earlier and it ran like a dream)
My concerns:
-The TPS was for a "manual," and there was no automatic listed
-Even after having a new TPS installed and the codes cleared it displayed a TPS error...
-The TPS lined up with the screw-holes without any slight twist, which I have heard means it isn't positioned right
-I can't even find my IAC valve
I tossed in a couple pictures of the TB assembly and TPS, because those are the only things I have been messing with. My current thought is that it's a vacuum leak, but I have no idea where to even BEGIN with that, and it still doesn't answer the concern about why the new TPS was still throwing error codes. Any ideas or help you can give me will be greatly appreciated, just trying to get it running again!
Throttle Body assembly
The TPS lined up with the screw-holes perfectly. Is that a problem?