"RD" wrote in message
...
My Mondeo did this, like a diesel at Idle and rattles at faster revs. It
turned out to be the cam belt idler/tension pulley had broken up, so the
cam belt goes slack and jumped a tooth. I got away without any other
damage, do not run your engine till you know what it is.



Well done that man! You get the prize ! Said tame mechanic chum turned up
out of the blue late afternoon and whipped off the belt cover. Lo and
behold, there it was. Belt tensioner broken up. He made a quick call to one
of his suppliers, and we got a tensioner kit for 35 quid. He's only fitted
the actual tensioner right now, as it got dark and cold, but he's going to
come back and fit the idler that was in the kit, as well as a new belt,
which he says is overdue for replacement, and should be done at the same
time as we are changing the tensioner gubbins. Still, like you, no other
damage, and looks as though the timing has remained correct, as the engine
is starting and running fine, and doesn't seem to be lacking any power. I
just took my lad into town, and it was hunky dory out on the dual
cabbageway, so good result all round.

Just out of interest, he said that he had asked another friend who is a Ford
specialist, if the leaky injector thing was valid on Ford engines (he is
mainly BMW which is where he has come across this). That guy said that the
injectors on the Focus engine never ever give trouble, but that the
individual coil packs did, as someone else suggested further up the thread,
and they can produce a very similar symptom of the engine sounding like a
diesel at low revs, and then evening out as the revs come up. Apparently
though, the earlier single four-way coil pack, like mine is fitted with,
doesn't suffer like this.

Thanks all for the suggestions.

Arfa