Focus died today...

[FocusLX06]

I was cruising home from work at about midday today (Saturday) listening to music with cruz on as you do. Some slow poke was in front of me so I overtook them, and reset cruz.

It was a windy and hot day, about 33 degrees according to my Focus, and there were sticks and leaves being blown all over the road. I noticed a branch on the road but didn't have time to dodge it, so I drove straight over it. It made contact with the underside my car and the Commodore behind me.

Then all of a sudden the car started to slow down, cruise still on, but not working. I pressed the accelerator and nothing happened, so I slowed down and rolled off the road.

I knew something was wrong, and restarting the car had fixed some issues in the past so I tried that, didn't start, tried again, nothing. I got out and pushed it a long a bit to more level ground (it doesn't like slopes). I then tried to start it again, and it did, but died straight away.

In the end I had to get RACQ to tow it to their garage, so Ford can have a look at it on Monday...

This is the 2nd malfunction I have had with my Focus, last time there was an electrical fault that Ford couldn't fix, but it corrected itself later on.

I'm feeling a little down, as the Focus is my only car at the moment. :(

[Uni]

you ran over a whopping big branch, hardly sounds like the car's fault. may have dislodged some wiring or something, so it may not be as bad as you think

i'd wouldn't be blaming the car.


Uni/.

[FocusLX06]

ok let's change "branch" to "twig"... It was mostly leaves.

[Zetec20]

oh if it was a twig it was definately the car's fault then... :P

[pertuan]

Maybe you should install one of those underbody trays like for WRC cars. That keeps the crap out of the car so you can run over anything. hehehehe :P

Personally, I'd love to get one of those but I dont know if its legal and what it does to the car in terms of stability.

[Uni]

Originally Posted by FocusLX06

ok let's change "branch" to "twig"... It was mostly leaves.

hit anything at 100km/h and it's likely to do some damage. it doesn't strike you as slightly coincidental that the car broke down just after you hit it?

you're unlucky, it's obviously caught in the wrong place, but don't go blaming the damn car until you actually know it was at fault.


Uni/.

[FOCUSonTHIS]

Originally Posted by pertuan

Maybe you should install one of those underbody trays like for WRC cars. That keeps the crap out of the car so you can run over anything. hehehehe :P

Personally, I'd love to get one of those but I dont know if its legal and what it does to the car in terms of stability.

I watched on WRC Magazine yesterday that the underbody steel tray on the Focus WRC can very from 6mm to 10mm in thickness depending on the rally. In Perth they use 10mm I think so lets someone put that on their car

Have you tried pressing the fuel lockoff button???

[FocusLX06]

Originally Posted by Uni

hit anything at 100km/h and it's likely to do some damage. it doesn't strike you as slightly coincidental that the car broke down just after you hit it?

you're unlucky, it's obviously caught in the wrong place, but don't go blaming the damn car until you actually know it was at fault.


Uni/.

hit anything at 100km/h and it's likely to do some damage. - better dodge the ants...

I think the branch did make the car break down, but come on, that shouldn't make a car stop dead in it's tracks. I've done far worse in much cheaper cars and they laugh at it. As far as I'm concerned, that's bad design, and nothing will change my mind.

[FocusLX06]

Originally Posted by BlackLS

Have you tried pressing the fuel lockoff button???

You just lost me...

[pertuan]

When the car has been involved in some trauma, it will automatically cut fuel supply to the engine to prevent fires and such. There is a fuel pump reset switch on the STBD side of the drivers side footwell from memory... or was that my old car. Either way, look in the manual.

[murcod]

Yes, my Mondeo had a similar circuit breaker type thing- it was located near one of the fuse boxes from memory? Have a read of your owners manual and see if it mentions anything like that?

A car stopping dead from hitting a branch on the road is very lame- it shouldn't happen (unless something freaky happened and it was thrown up underneath?) I've had a hole punched through a mudflap on one car from hitting a decent sized branch at 110km/h- it must have flicked up and got jammed? But for the whole engine to die???

Theres a hole on the right hand side of the drivers footwell. In there should be a button.

Can you take some photos of underneath the car? You could have pulled the loom out somewhere along the line, or even damaged a fuel line.

[Piotr]

Sounds alot like fuel lockout valve. They are known to be setoff if you reverse into something. Chances are the brand bounced up and hit the underside and set off the valve so now fuel is getting to the engine.

Have a read through the manual and see if that helps. Might also be worth reading through to find out anything else you might not be aware of.

[amlohac]

id say it was just bad luck, that stick must have hit something in exactly the wrong spot

[FocusLX06]

You guys were bang on. I went down to the RACQ dealer this morning, found and pressed the fuel button you mentioned. The car started no problem and I drove it home. Thanks so much for your help.

[Stugots]

Have to admit though, the underside of the engine bay is very exposed compared to other vehicles. I don't know if they've gone that way due to thermal issues with alloy bottom ends but if there's are covers available, I'd be looking into getting one fitted. My old rolla had 2 plastic ones, was a pain it the *** screwing and unscrewing everytime you wanted to check something under there but it protected against such things like truck treads, roadkill, stones...

Originally Posted by FocusLX06

You guys were bang on. I went down to the RACQ dealer this morning, found and pressed the fuel button you mentioned. The car started no problem and I drove it home. Thanks so much for your help.

Good to hear mate ;)

Originally Posted by Stugots

Have to admit though, the underside of the engine bay is very exposed compared to other vehicles. I don't know if they've gone that way due to thermal issues with alloy bottom ends but if there's are covers available, I'd be looking into getting one fitted. My old rolla had 2 plastic ones, was a pain it the *** screwing and unscrewing everytime you wanted to check something under there but it protected against such things like truck treads, roadkill, stones...

I might have a go at welding one of these up with 3mm checkerplate. My Focus goes off road a little bit, thats why I'm a bit hesitant getting it lowered. On the long weekend last month I want to this picnic area down near a river, it was a fairly downhill rutted track but I kept on the ridges and it only really bottomed out on some sandy ruts, not enought to get bogged or cause damage. When I got down there the 5 or so cars parked were all big 4WDs. The expression on thier faces was of a somewhat shocked face. A bash plate would have been awesome.

[murcod]

Good to hear it was nothing major. Of course the obvious question remains- why the hell do they make those things so sensitive!?

[Piotr]

Its set off via vibrations. With the nature of waves you can get localised amplifing effects through the metal.

Whats probably happened is the branch hit at in just the right location at just the right speed to set it off. You can probably go over different branches thousands of times without effect. They are bound to go off when they arn't ment to so that why Ford makes it so easy to reset.


Anways its good to hear everythings good.

[zetec]

And yet another problem solved by the Focus owners of Australia. Well done team for a great resolution!