Problems with the wife's Mondeo this evening, trip to the Supermarket, back on a tow rope. I'm faced with a car engine (shudder!!) issue.. it's a 2.0i Zetec, 1995, ECC-IV
OK, the engine still starts and runs, idles smoothly, hunts a liitle, then back to smooth. Touch the throttle and the engine dies, dump the throttle and the engine will sound like the throttle is being blipped, revs rise and fall and then after a few cycles, the engine dies. Chop the throttle and the engine will idle smoothly again. Fuel pump sounds OK, I haven't measured line pressure though. There's no OBD codes coming through on the voltmeter swing-o-meter to help.
If it were a bike lump, I'd suspect the throttle potentiometer (position sensor). I've pulled it off, I get 3.3K to 230 OHM centre to side one, and 500 to 3.5K centre to side two. It's smooth and linear all the way, doesn't look like a failed pot. Haynes says 400 to 6K OHM, so it's about half.

Comments/suggestions Zetec wizards MOST welcome

Air flow meter/sensor? just unplug it to test! The missuses little KA had a similar fault.

Cheers

Rich

There's a "Tee" piece in a small dia pipe somewhere that splits that causes the symptoms you describe. Sorry I can't remember any specifics but it's a known fault so should turn up in a google search

as uncle fista says,its on the n/s end of inlet manifold and joins the breather to manifold

agreed - sounds like something with the intake / afm causing the problems

I had something a bit similar with a Mondeo. I was driving along fine then it seemed to lose power no matter what I did. Managed to limp home. It turned out that the catalyst had collapsed and had to be replaced.

Cheers,
Don.

Thanks guys, just got back home to start looking. Just under the ignition coil, very well hidden and a real POS to get at, is a rubber T-piece. Not so much as as split, but there's a big hole where the T meets. I guess this is the problem...

Don't think I've got anything to hand that'll make a good bodge, but I'll have a rumage. It's giving the old farts next door something to photograph...