Engine jerks when in idle or in Drive

Tiny
VARIAN
  • MEMBER
  • FORD FOCUS
The car is a Ford Focus 2001 1.6L zeetec automatic with 75000 miles on it. After having the car serviced the engine does not operate smoothly when in idle. The tachometer gage is at 900 rmp and it jerks up and down slightly, the jerking increases when the car is put in "Drive". When the car is in "Drive" but standing still it starts to rock forward and back. In addition when in a traffic jam in low speeds the rpm goes down suddenly to 400 and it looks like the car is going to stall but it doesn't, this happens randomly. When driving at speeds above 20mph the car works fine.

At service the Timing belt of the engine was changed, the spark plugs (motocraft orginal) oil, oil filter and air filter. Before the service the car was fine.
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 AT 12:06 PM

6 Replies

Tiny
RUDPRO
  • MECHANIC
  • 224 POSTS
You better take it back there and raise some hell. They obviously didn't do something right with replacing the timng belt. Tell them to fix it or you'll take legal action against them.
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Thursday, May 31st, 2007 AT 1:29 AM
Tiny
VARIAN
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But how can I prove to them that they caused the problem?
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Thursday, May 31st, 2007 AT 7:22 AM
Tiny
2CARPRO JACK
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You dont have to prove anything. You came in for scheduled maintenance and got your car back running poorly. Be the squeeky wheel and they will grease you
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Thursday, May 31st, 2007 AT 8:17 AM
Tiny
2CARPRO JACK
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Just explain to them that I came in for maintenance, now my car runs poorly. Had this been a problem in the first place, I would have addressed it along with the maintenance
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Friday, June 1st, 2007 AT 7:18 AM
Tiny
VARIAN
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
I took the car to the shop, they checked the car with a Texa computer and found no errors in the ECM. In addition they cleaned the bore of the throttle housing. This did not solve the problem. Now I am at a point that I think this garage does not have the technical expertise to solve the problem so I am thinking taking the car to an Official ford garage. I did some research and found in the manual that the Oil filter for the car has to be a Motocraft EFL-600, they installed a smaller filter in size - the EFL-134. Could this be causing the problem?
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Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 AT 1:49 AM
Tiny
2CARPRO JACK
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Not likely. Im guessing they might have missed the cam timing when doing the belt. After Ford diagnoses it, get back to me.
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Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 AT 7:59 AM

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