[countryclarinet]

Hi Everyone,

I am going to have my car looked at by the ford dealer tomorrow, but wanted to know what could be causing the following issues. I have a 2003 ford focus SE Sedan, has about 145,000 on it. Within the past week, I have noticed alot of vibration at idle and at high speeds on the freeway along with poor acceleration. Can this be a broken engine mount causing the issue?

I'm not sure if this pertains to a broken engine mount as well, but can it cause the car to have a rough start or do I have a battery that is failing?

Any advice would be helpful.

Thank you, Doreen

 

[sailor]

Welcome to FF

"Which engine" is usually the first question, we can often guess but you can find info. to help determine that here:http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=337457

Engine mounts can be a cause of vibrations, but they aren't related to poor acceleration or problems starting. Not running right is a better guess at your problem, unfortunately there is a long list of possible causes.

Battery is OK if the car "cranks" normally, the poor running probably relates to the poor starting I'd have to guess IF it cranks as normal.

Is this a recent problem that showed up all at once?

Crossing fingers for an easy fix....

 

[countryclarinet]

Hi Sailor,

Thank you for your response, I have a 2.3L Pzev it looks like a Duratec motor with the coil to plug design.

The vibration and acceleration problems happened at the same time about a week ago after I put my car into reverse and it made a clunk.

The rough starting happened yesterday. It is not a normal start either it is very choppy and has trouble turning over, but it still starts with one try. but it only does it every so often not all the time.

 

[sailor]

2.3 is a plus, primarily used in CA Emissions states at that time. Problems common to another engine used in sedans then don't apply.

The list of symptoms doesn't sound good, anything else odd when driving? Noises, shifting oddities etc.. Clunk from trans followed by vibrations & slow accel. is worrisome, not a common combination particularly with the occasional odd cranking.

 

[countryclarinet]

there isn't any noises or shifting problems, and when I have it park, it sounds fine, no rough idle and no vibration at all.

 

[sailor]

Really can't guess at this point, you've ruled out engine mounts to a large extent - rear lower could still be a vibration problem when accelerating but it wouldn't slow the car down.

If you were looking at it yourself, the first question/check would be the spark plugs/coil boots. They could be old (when last replaced?) or a leaking valve cover gasket could put oil in the wells leading to a miss when accelerating. When that happens long/bad enough you would probably get a check engine code for that.

Test driving it I'd be putting it in neutral while rolling to see if it still vibrates then or slows down more than normal. That test isolates engine/trans from the rolling/running gear to a large extent.

 

[countryclarinet]

Thank you for the heads up, I will have the dealer test drive the car and see if they can find or target the problem and also have them check the coil boots, I had the spark plugs changed a few months ago.

 

[countryclarinet]

Hi Sailor,

It ended up being the top motor mount giving me issues, the car is smooth with no vibration and has renewed acceleration since having it replaced. the dealer also told me that the battery is causing the rough start and should be replaced soon as it might throw a code.

 

[sailor]

Happy it WAS the simple problem of a bad mount causing vibration, maybe the bad vibes just caused you to back off the throttle a bit without realizing it.

Battery that won't always crank well can be assumed going bad, now that someone has checked for connection problems & tested it (grin). We never suggest replacing before checkout, as other problems can mimic a bad battery.

Nice Dealer, telling you to replace soon rather than saying you needed one right now to sell it.

Cheers

 

[FocusNovice420]

my focus engine blew at 155K. just so you know.

 

[sailor]

And you have a different engine type than the OP here, that is known for the Valve Seat potential problem.

Your point?