L reg ford escort 1.4 i problems with running

[wduk2005]

I bought my girlfriend this escort for christmas and since owning it have had nothing but problems. It seems to really struggle when you accelarate, it ticks over quiet high but i think someone put the idle up to try and sort it out, it also stalls when you stop and trys to stall when you drive at a set speed. i have been told so many things and spent lots of money trying, so far i have sorted the cat out, put a new centre box and back box, new pulgs and leads, oil and filters i have also tried some injector cleaner and each time nothing seems to work. any ideas of how to fix it will be greatly appreciated because she really likes it and doesn't want to have to get rid of it.

Thanks will

[derekpara]

I would recommend getting the car hooked up to an electronic engine tuning system like Home Tune who will come to your home or place of work. My guy adjusts the tappets before he does anything else. The system will identify your problem. Well worth the thirty quid or so.

[wduk2005]

sorry forgot to say i have given it to mechanics to look at and they put it on they're diognostics machine 3 times and each time it come up as no probs. will look into tappets tho thanks.

will

[Waggers]

Hi there

Another thing you could look for is an air leak around the inlet. Sometimes you can get cracks in the vacum pipes which can cause strange running problems. To be honest I'm not sure if it would explain the range of problems you are seeing but it might be worth checking. You can do a visual inspection first but a trick is to spray a little WD40 around the inlet when the car is idling - if you hear a change in the revs it indicates an air leak. A quick and easy check so may be worthwhile. Did you also change the distributor cap?

[Jay70]

Hi, My wife has a M reg 1.4 Escort and this also suffers with idle problems ans sometimes splutters and coughs when driving. I tend to have to replace the fuel filter (mounted on the Bulkhead small can) every yr or so. It's only about 7 quid. This makes a remarkable difference. Its a bit fiddly to replace as you have to get right under the car to the back of the engine and it does leak a bit of fuel when taking off so make sure the battery negative lead is disconnected.