[jprosser]

Hi,

I have recently bought a 1998 Ford Focus with a 1.8 zetec petrol engine. Shorly afer I bought it, I began to experience what can only be described as cruise control. My car of course is not fitted with such a device but it does seem to cruise at 45 to 50mph on a flat road with no throttle applied. If I slip into neutral and coast then the RPM increases to between 3500 and 4500 and when i come to a standstill, drops down to idle speed. What is even worse than this is when going downhill and you select a lower gear to allow the engine to add to the braking effect, you can feel the car start pulling away at a great rate of knots.

The car has been into the garage on a number of occations and undergone a number of tests. Each time I have been told that nothing can be found. Has anybody any ideas?

Regards,
JP

[confused] [?|]

 

[Zantetsuken]

G'day mate...

I have a sort of similar problem, during gear changes, the engine revs can stay up where I left them, only dropping off after a second or two, but not for long periods such as what you are describing. What country are you in, by the way? Focus's only started selling in Australia in 2002 from memory.

Cheers........ Tim

 

[sydneyzetec]

hey zantetsuken It's SydneyZetec here!! Good to see you online here.

The revs stay up partly (or possibly wholly) due to the throttle body being a bit sticky, one way to fix that is to get a better, wider throttle body with better internals. It helps your engine respond quicker and drop revs quicker too. Not sure that his problem is as easy as this but adding a tb may help you out mate.

 

[Zantetsuken]

Yeah, my throttle body on my Falcon had a similar problem, always cleaning the stupid thing out. Wouldn't have expected it so much on a breand new car though. It sounds a bit dumb in a manual to have the revs staying so high, like you're a fool who can use a clutch.

Well, the new 65mm body should fix it when it arrives. [read]

Cheers........ Tim

 

[sydneyzetec]

hey timbo keep us informed on that coz i wanna do the same and as u've got the same car etc, it'd be great to be informed!! How much is it costing you?

 

[Zantetsuken]

Yeah, not sure yet. Depends who I go through, Infocus Motorsport have theirs for over 500 bucks, but I'll be doing a little homework to check out what else is around. Infocus can be expensive, but their gear is good stuff.

I'll let you know what I eventually go with!

Cheers.... Tim

 

[Resty]

Don't forget guys that the way the car revs is normal. It's built for mid range power. Yes the TB will change it.

 

[sydneyzetec]

yeah I just want a little low down power considering it's got little. TB should at least widen the midrange a little which is perfect for me. Too much high end and it's not good for the engine or the fuel consumption anyway. Besides, peak power arrives at 5,500 rpm and above that it falls of real quick.