Questions and Answers

Poor Performing Ford Fiesta Q. Ever since I bought my Ford Fiesta XR2i I've been trying to get it to run right, or rather my boyfriend has! But we've now hit a snag. The car starts fine but it has constantly got low performance and sporadically the engine seems to miss or be choking when the accelerator is depressed. We have tried replacing the spark plugs, air filter, battery and the valve stem oil seals.

The car was given a full service about six months ago so the fuel and oil filters should be fine.

The worst thing is we've taken the car to a garage and the mechanic was unable to recreate the problem so right now I'm very unsure what to do next. Really hoping you will be able to shed some light on the subject.

Thanks for your time,
Emma

A. Your description of the problem is rather vague. "Low Performance" can mean many things and can be caused by many things as well. Also you did not mention the year of the vehicle.

In general, the symptoms you describe would tend to indicate a bad fuel pump. So I would suggest a fuel pressure and fuel volume test be performed to see if that is the cause. Also, a fuel injector cleaning by a Ford dealer would not be a bad idea either.