2003 Ford Focus Surging idle at start up

PATBASTARD

MEMBER
2003 FORD FOCUS
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
153,000 MILES

My wife's focus wagon will sometimes idle weird when started up.
It acts like it want's to die if left to idle. If accelerated, it still runs rough, but will stop after about 30-40 seconds of revving up the engine.
This doesn't always happen, maybe once a day, but not at every start up.
After the problem is cleared, it won't do it while driving, just at start up.
I checked for fault codes, but none were stored.
Anyone?

2 Replies

RASMATAZ

MECHANIC
75,992 POSTS

Try cleanng out the idle air control valve and see what happens and test the TPS and MAF sensors

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Thursday, October 15th, 2009 AT 1:25 AM

KRISTOF

MEMBER
2 POSTS

I've also experienced this problem, but only after I have removed the terminal from the battery to work on the car. Try taking both terminals off, and cleaning them, let the car run for a bit, drive it around, and make a few stops to turn it off and on. The best reason I can assume for it, is that either 1. The battery has a weak connection, that comes and goes as the car rumbles, or 2. The computer needs to reset itself.