[BlkFocusMet]

whats up guys, well for the past few days now my car has been lacking power. its manual and it seems if i let go of the gas at around 3,000 rpm's the car slightly jumps back and forth, as if it needs to be in the next gear, and when i shift it goes slow so i have to down shift. And as for going up hills i have to really press on the gas, and if i change gears going up hills i cant do it under about 5,000 rpm's or else i aint going nowhere! [???] i had a few people suggest changing the egr sensor, i had the check engine light come on that read p0401 but it went away so i thought it was ok now. and dont get me wrong, the car does have speed its just start up is slow, going up hills and shifting gears under a little over 3,000rpms is the problem, i dont want to beat on the car just to get it to go, so i got no clue!!! anyone suggest anything?? i'd apreciate any suggestions, thanks alot guys [] [thumb]

 

[hondaluver]

my first thought would be that you have a focus....lol.....no seriously tho I have almost no mods to my zetec and it is pretty slow....i keep it in higher rpms most of the time to fool myself into thinking its fast, but we all know the truth....my opinion if you havent already..start some heavy modding...i/h/e and you'll feel ms. foci's pep soon... can't wait til i get some cash to do so...good luck man

 

[bigjordan]

my focus has felt unusually slow these past few day, i just assumed it was the overwhelming heat we've been having recently in my area

 

[BlkFocusMet]

lol i know a focus isn't a race car but what im saying is the car lost power that it had when i first bought it. (few months ago) it only has 60,000 miles. the only thing i have done to the car is asa rims, eibach sport springs, headers and exhaust. i dont have much money to work with right now but im thinking i should replace the egr sensor?? its about 100 bucks but its worth a shot i guess... I just dont want to dump any money into the car if theres something wrong with it. I know when i purchased the car it had adjustable kent cams on it and whoever installed them did it wrong and skiped a tooth, so it screwed up the timing and ran like crapppp reallly slowwwww.. but i had new ones put on as well as a timing belt, and it ran right for awhile and now im starting to feel a slight power loss... thanks for the reply guys, let me know what you think!!!! []

 

[hondaluver]

when did you put on the exhaust and header??? It's possible you may have damaged the egr esp if it was throwing codes. Def have it checked out at autozone to see if it is still throwing that code...it may not light up on the dash but it can still be affecting your engine which could be the reason for the power loss. Have the place who put the cams in check the timing again to make sure its just right. Good luck.

 

[whynotthinkwhynot]

First off.. it's EGR valve, not sensor. It stands for exhaust gas recirculation, and it's a valve that allows some exhaust gasses to enter back into the intake when the engine is cold. If it sticks open, this will cause you problems once the car is warmed up. Most of the time, you can clean the valve and get it working again, but I haven't seen the Zetec design so I'm not sure if it can be cleaned. Usually carburetor cleaner will do the trick.

When was the last time you changed your fuel filter? Those are scheduled for change every 25k miles.

Does the car ever die at stoplights? Or do you have problems, like slow response when accelerating from a stop after the car is warm?

What do the spark plugs look like? That's a good way to see what's going on in the motor is to look at the spark plugs and the deposits built up on the plugs. I know someone will give you some better help if you will look at the condition of the plugs and report that back here.

 

[BlkFocusMet]

sorry i thought the egr tube had a egr valve and sensor (maybe i ment pressure sensor?) i thought the small black box with the two hoses that plug into it was the sensor. but anyways i replaced the spark plugs recently, they dont have any build up on them so it looks fine. the car stoled out on me once at a light for no reason. but never again. I notice the car is slow at the begining but on the highway it seems fine. staight aways are not a problem but its not the best at hills. i would have to downshift when it should be able to stay at the current speed. it seems like it reacts the same weither is cold or hot, but maybe i should look into that a bit more. as for the check engine light im an idiot and i had headers put in thinking maybe my cat was no good because it had a dent in it (possibly bottomed out) and that did gain some power but still running weird. some bottom line if i beat on it, it goes. but if i try to drive it slow its lacking... im so stressed out with this b/s and i dont have a lot of money to dump into it but its my daily driver so i dont have time to leave it with some machanic. i was hoping i could fix it my self...[?|]

 

[BlkFocusMet]

note- the headers i put on recently, the power problem was going on before i put them on. the exhaust came with the car so i have no clue if that damaged anything. i spoke to the mechanic and he said over the phone, he personnaly put the cams in and theres no way he made a mistake. very confident i guess? [!]

 

[BlkFocusMet]

HEY GUYS DONT GIVE UP ON ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!![?|]

 

[morgajames]

Sounds all too familiar. I had the same problem up until recently.

In this order: My check engine light came on, the car started to hesitate at higher speeds, started to have SERIOUS problems going up steep hills, then it wouldn't go up a hill at all.

I replaced the EGR valve and the EGR sensor and the problem went away completely. If you read your handbook or service manual you'll see that Ford recommends replacing the EGR valve every 50,000? miles. Have a look!

By the way, a simple test you might want to perform is unhooking the battery for a minute or so and take 'er out for a spin... If the problem seems to have gone away (which will be only temporarily) it will probably be your EGR system.

I purchased the motorcraft parts myself and wussed-out and paid a mechanic to put them in.

Total cost for this fix: $100 (parts), $75.00 (labor), happy owner (priceless!).

Anyway, I hope this helps someone out there.