buy a $20 dollar Haynes book and take it to the shop with a bookmark under b-2 and tell them to read and do it right.

 

Misfire I would personally point fingers at the coilpack. How are the wires going right into the coilpack? Mine were frayed and I had one bad plug wire.

For the timing belt, did they use the tools? You would have to be the biggest idiot to mess up a timing belt job with the tools. I just did mine this weekend, absolutely fool proof with the tools unless they didn't use the 20$ tools. Maybe they're tools themselves?

Good luck!

 

Does sound fishy.

Answer me these though,
Have you heard the car run/drove it since it's been repaired?
-How much different was it?
How do they know it's misfiring, other that the sound of the exhaust?
-How to they know the cat is 80% blockage? (this should consist of a differential pressure test, pressure is measured before the cat and after, the resulting difference will tell you how much the cat is blocking, if they don't mention anything like this they didn't do a test and are just hoping that's what it is)
Have they checked compression? (There is the off chance of bending a valve if the timing was that far off, not common but possible.)

Odds just seem in you're favor here IMO. If the car ran well when you brought it in, it should run the same/better coming out. So it seems something they've done has caused this not to be true. What that might be I'm not really sure yet.

 

same thing happened to me. The guys said it was because i had installed an UDP and adjustable cam gears so they could not set the timing. SO i handed them the stock parts and said have at it. they still couldnt do it. trying to say it wasn't the timing but a misfire. i bought the tools off CFM did it myself car runs fine.

 

Well after the plugs, coil, and wires were replaced there was still a slight miss and rough idle, so just being curious I put my hand over the exhaust and there is barely any exhaust gas coming out, so maybe it is clogged??? but everything happening at once like that just tripped my trigger...lol So if a new cat is in my future, does anyone know anything about Magnaflows performace cats?? worth the money??

 

a plugged cat would set off a cel most of the time... and ushually causes more of an issue in the upper rpm range when flow is important... it shouldnt cause much of an issue at idle unless it is completely plugged...

I'm leaning towards they still have the timing a tooth off... it would sound very lobey like a misfire and wouldnt want to run...

what does the car do when you rev it up?

-AcId-

 

well I pushed the gas and it seemed to smooth out, but then would stumble, but like I said at idle with my hand infront of the exhaust I could barley feel anything coming out, then i went to my buddies same car at idle and put my hand back there for reference and Id have to say mine is more than 80% clogged? but I guess ill have to put my man pants on and spring for a cat

 

This sounds like the fine work of Sunnyvale Fraud.

 

I sure the hell hope not, I priced new O2 Sensors and a new Cat, and seems thats going to be around $300 after labor...dont get me wrong I like my lil focus..lol but damn she's cost me more in 2 weeks than my 2000 LandRover Discovery II has cost me in 3 years...isnt it suppose to be the other way around..lol

 

What kind of shop takes 3 days to do a timing belt and 2 more days to fix their own screwup? You need to find a new mechanic.

Threads like this are the reason so many go the DIY route

 

Take your car to someone that specializes in what you have. A previous poster mentioned them not being able to do the job because of aftermarket UDP's/cam gears. Dont take your car to joe shmo's garage with that stuff put on there. Most of their mechanics will not know what those parts are meant to do or how to compensate for them. Find someone who specializes in Ford performance to do the job. Yeah it might cost you $50 more, but is it really worth the headache?

 

yea i hear ya, I usually always do it myself, but not having the proper tools nor time recently had me taking it to a shop...

 

A zetec timing belt takes me about 3 hours on a lazy day. There is a zetec timing set that makes things 100 times easier that I would bet they didnt have.

A clogged catalytic converter will not cause a misfire 99.9% of the time. It has to be so clogged you cant make it out of the driveway idling before I would suspect this.

well I pushed the gas and it seemed to smooth out, but then would stumble

What your describing here is the exact opposite of what a clogged cat would do. For the most part they usually idle fairly decent, but when you try to accelerate they have no ballz what so ever.

The timing belt was installed incorrectly.

Tell them they need to do a compression/leak down test FREE OF CHARGE and document the results. Wouldn't be surprised if they bent a valve.

 

A zetec timing belt takes me about 3 hours on a lazy day. There is a zetec timing set that makes things 100 times easier that I would bet they didnt have.

A clogged catalytic converter will not cause a misfire 99.9% of the time. It has to be so clogged you cant make it out of the driveway idling before I would suspect this.



What your describing here is the exact opposite of what a clogged cat would do. For the most part they usually idle fairly decent, but when you try to accelerate they have no ballz what so ever.

The timing belt was installed incorrectly.

Tell them they need to do a compression/leak down test FREE OF CHARGE and document the results. Wouldn't be surprised if they bent a valve.

Well they did a compression check and they said it held around 75 or 80 if im not mistaken??

 

yea thats probably it - - by that time I was fit to be tied at all the **** he was telling me...I have spoke with a few other mechanics an they say that the car is out of time, probably on the exhuast side

 

75 or 80 means timing is off for sure... 175-180 sounds right.

Where are you located? perhaps a local jetter can come by and take a look at it with you to give you a bit of insight

I strongly doubt its a clogged cat... I'm sticking with timing being off a bit... the ford timing tool is a must and like others have said, they probably didnt use it.

-AcId-

 

Im in Mount Washington Kentucky, I took the car this morning to my exhaust shop and they even told me it was out of time, and the cars cat, was fine, they put it on the rack and inspected it, and even took the cat off the car and checked it out checked out OK. So Im convinced they have the timing out, I just called them and said Have it done by thursday, and if its not fixed, I want my money back, or im reporting them to the BBB, Local news they have a reporter that investigates such things, and Conumer Protection Agency in Frankfort Ky. My LandRover mechanic told me he would drive 2 hours with a roll back to get my focus for no charge and get it lined out..I thought that was really cool of him, and anytime Ive had a issue with my Rover I couldnt seem to fix, hes always been johnny on the spot,

 

I'm not sure where thats at but I'm just outside evansville, IN and I'd be willing to get you lined out if I had easy access to the car or it were near by...

Anyways... all they need is the alignment tool and pin and its a cake job... I could have it done in an hour or two tops without much trouble

good luck
-AcId-

 

I'm not sure where thats at but I'm just outside evansville, IN and I'd be willing to get you lined out if I had easy access to the car or it were near by...

Anyways... all they need is the alignment tool and pin and its a cake job... I could have it done in an hour or two tops without much trouble

good luck
-AcId-

Thats cool Acid, I really appreciate it. Im just south of Louisville about 20min, Do you have a picture of the alighment tool and pin ?? just so i know what im looking at.

 

Also Ive noticed the Electric fans have stopped working, any ideas? or common problems.

 

the "tools" are just a peice of flat metal stock that fits into the slot at the back end of the camshafts and a "pin" that screws into the block that stops the crank at TDC. Its a couple inches long and threaded toward the head.

 

the fans not working could be the fan resistor pack between the fans... its mounted in the fan shroud and is a common problem... however the fans wont work if the engine doesnt reach opperating temperature just incase you didnt know

-AcId-

 

well its been over heating so, im willing to bet its the resistor pack, are they expensive

 

After the car is warmed up do your fans go on with the ac on but not when the ac is turned off? This is the easiest way to check test the resistor pack acid mentioned.

Either way if I remember correctly the resistor pack is about $30. If the wiring harness is also burnt out that will run around $20. Check with Tousley ford in the sponsor section for pricing.

 

OTC Zetec timing kit

OTC 6486

 

Well seems the car is running correctly now, next thing im going to do, is check the fan rely, and the resistors, replace all the motor mounts cause im getting alot of steering colum vibration along with a bit of the same through the body of the car,

Fix the running rich issue,

then replace the crappy fuel pump that fords recall wouldnt replace due to my car being 10,000 miles past the recall limits....wasnt there a recall for the fuel rail or something??