Ford Ikon Jerking/missing after long or traffic drive

Dear All,

I've a Ford Ikon 1.6 lt 2002 model. The milage is 120,000 kms. I just read the posts from Suraj to Jin to rohit to greymatter. I think we all are sailing in the same boat. I've had the similar kind of problems with my josh machine whose josh is getting fadded day by day... 

My problems are/were as follows:

• Whenever the heating fan starts, the RPM goes for a toss. If the A.C. is on then the engine stops. And if the A.C. is not on then it picks the RPM after couple of seconds.
• Till last week, the car used to run for approx 30 kms and after that I had to come out and dance in front of it as we do it in front of a horse of a groom. My mechanic said its the problem of Fuel Pump, so I got that replaced at the cost of 3k (including labour cost). But, the same day, after running the car for approx 50 kms, it started giving jerks. I didnt touch the car till today. Somehow, because of saturday, being an off, I showed it to the different mechanic and he found that one of the spark plug was shot. The car was running on 3 plugs. He replaced the spark plug and since then I'm not facing any problem. Although I just drove for about 10 kms till now.
• If I'm driving the car on top gear, the moment I press clutch and brake, the engine stops. The moment I leave clutch, it starts. One of the mechanic said, the RPM motor is weak. I dont know if my first point is also related with it or not.
• The power steering doesn't seems to have that much power now. Although the power steering oil is full in the container.
• The temperature meter doesn't even show the 25 of temperature, however, the engine smells as if its over heating. The coolant container is also full till the prescribed level. After reading some posts here, I think I should get the radiator cleaned.

Whatever the problems we all face but at the end of the day we must realise that this is our car and we have bought it with our hard earned money. I dont know why FORD or FORD dealres dont realise this. The parts and service cost are so damn expensive at the service centers that we are forced to go out and look for the local mechanic and get the local parts fitted. 

I wish FORD starts the counter selling of parts at the controlled rates as Maruti does. I'm sure, people will be more than happy to be associated with FORD and FORD cars.

Regards,

Jeetin Ghai

@Jeetin - your car has multiple problems...a lot of it has to do with either electricals or sensors and actuators. For a start get all electrical connections checked/cleaned/repaired.

Change the air filter element - easiest and cheapest to do.

Check if the radiator fan starts or not - I don't know how it is in Ikon but if there is only one fan then this is shared by both the radiator and AC condensor. An easy way to check if the fan (and its relay) work is to start the AC. The fan should start immediately and air flow should be strong. Very carefully feel the air flow towards the engine and make an educated guess as to whether it is strong or not. Be careful not to touch the fan or engine though. If it is fine then that would leave the temp. sensor as suspect. If car has two fans then one would be for radiator and other for AC condensor and the preceding test method cannot be applied. The only way is to run engine for a long time and see if the radiator fan starts at all. If it doesn't (or if you don't have time to verify) remove the fan connector and connect it directly to battery - it should start and produce strong air flow across the radiator. In this latter case the only way to verify if the relay is fine is to wait till the fan starts - or doesn't after a long time, in which case each has to be checked individually.

Next change the coolant temperature sensor (if the above indicates fan/relay are good) - this is the one that sends temperature info to the ECU and dashboard. If it is faulty then the ECU will think engine is not hot enough and radiator fan won't start leading to engine overheating.

Next would be complete replacement of ignition components (mainly plugs and cables - all of them). Depending on problem persistence, change the spark-plug distributor (or its cap), followed by the ignition coil. Ask mechanic to put some water-proof silicone grease (NOT rubber) into the cables' boots (apply a thin layer to the inside of rim) before plugging them in.

Next comes the tachometer - this sends the engine RPM info to the dashboard and the ECU. If this is faulty then it will directly affect fuelling. Of greater significance is the tacho reading higher than the actual RPM in which case ECU will reduce fuel into the engine, possibly causing it to stall - and this will be frequent.

With these I hope that the engine would be back to full power and then you can tackle the AC and other issues (if any).

My car (Ford Ikon 1.3 Flair 2003 model) was dragging and pick up was very bad, after i press the acclerator for a while slowly the car picks up speed, showed it to Ford Service guy, he says that he has checked the fault through diagonostic decoder and the problem is engine misfire and hence some circuit board which controls fuel injection needs replacment. The cost he says is 25k, i thought i will take a second opinion before i go for this. He said all the spark plugs and everything else are fine. In case anyone has faced similar problem let me know, how it was resolved and whether service guy is taking us for a ride. I will come back to this thread once i get the 2nd opinion from some other place.    

Show the car to a local mechanic - see if there is any problem other than the one mentioned by the service centre before doing anything.

Hello MOD Guru's -  I have 3 issues. But some updates on my Car before i ask any questions..

Car : Ford Ikon 2003 1.3 ROCAM NXT -  37790Kms Driven.

I purchased the car last month. (I am the 2nd Owner.) So far i have driven it for 987kms.

Since it is a 2nd purchase, i felt it to be my duty to replace worn parts.

Parts replaced : Wiper Blade(Rs.280),Spark Plugs(Rs.420), Air Filter(Rs.320), Oil Filter(Rs.100), Brake Oil, Engine Oil, Fuel Filter(Rs.210), Brake Pads front(Rs.1450) & Back(Rs.950), Coolant(Rs.240), New Tyres(Rs.14800) and a New Battery(Rs.3800), 1 Rear tail light(Rs.1100) 

Usage : Daily for 3 kms as office is just round the corner. And every weekend i drive to Mulund, Mumbai from Pune as i work in Pune.

Positives : Drives crazy fast. Crossed 150Kmph... (Only after tyres were replaced & Nitrogen in the tyres). Excellent Control.

QUSTIONS :

1. After driving a Long drive say 30Kms to 150Kms, when you power off the Engine the Coolant Leaks. This happens only when you power off the Engine.(Found to be leaking from the cap- When purchased there was no cap on the coolant box, hence mechanic provided me a 2nd hand Cap which looks a perfect fit but i guess its not) Also Silencer tip looks completely rusted- planning to change the same this month.

Temperary Solution : I keep topping it up with water.

2. Recently Noticed white smoke coming out of exaust but very little and a little drops of water as well.

3. Powered on the AC and felt some Jerks - Was afternoon 2.30pm and i was driving in 2nd or 3rd gear for close to 30min as road was very bad. (Ac cooling is not that great)

Well, maybe you have the incorrect mix of water and anti-freeze in the coolant. Replace the entire coolant with correct mix. As for boiling coolant escaping after engine shut-off, it may or may not be normal - something which can only be determined by actually seeing. However, normally the radiator fan continues to run if coolant is not cool enough, after engine is shut-off. But this is only in case of cars that have ECU and electric radiator fan - your car should fall into this category. Also check if you have too much of coolant - if so then remove some till the level is normal - don't exceed the F mark on the coolant reservoir.

White smoke and water droplets in exhaust - again maybe its good, maybe bad. Good because it shows that the engine is burning fuel at almost perfect level such that the exhaust is mostly water vapour (which because of the cold weather condenses and appears as white smoke). Bad if this is happening inside the engine - usually points to coolant leakage into the engine and accompanied by power loss/accelerated coolant loss.