my girlfriend has a 2001 4 door ford focus with a 5 speed and just over 200,000kms on it. now that its gotten cold out it doesnt want to start for her in the mornings. when you turn the key its fires up then dies instantly. it takes about 3 or 4 times before it will finally stay running. my thoughts are air filter, fuel filter or fuel pump i just havent gotten a chance to look into the air or fuel filter yet. any one have anyother ideas on what would cause soemthing like this.

also when she purchased the car it came with an aftermarket cd player.whoever installed it did not hook it so it will turn on with the ignition. she has to manualy turn it on and off its kind of annoying. is what kind of wire harness do they use for focuses? do i need to tap into a ignition wire like they do on 1999+ grand ams?

thax for the help guys

 

air filter shouldnt have any thing to do with this.

cd deck shouledn't as well.

fuel filter and or pump yeah maybe. toss some injector cleaner in the fuel tank next time yeah fill up.

other then that its a fosuc... thier just a run of the mill car that pisses me off every time i gotta do work on em.

 

It might be an O2 sensor. I had a similar problem with a 95 mustang i used to have, unfortunatley I was never fixed and I ended up giving up and selling the car about a year after I bought it for half the price. This was after I blew over 2grand trying to repair it, including having a new engine put in. I will never buy ford again...

 

i agree that an air filter shouldnt have anything thing to do with a starting problem unless it was completely clogged and was not allowing air to pass through it freely.but you have to remember she is a woman and doesnt know the first thing about are vehicle maintenance.ill be trying a new fuel filter this week and see if that solves the problem.

the cd player is a totaly different issue

intresting shouldnt a bad sensor throw the check engine light on? and any idea waht at o2 sensor costs?

 

Ya, it probably would eventually. I am hardly an expert in automotives outside my personal experiences. For me I think the O2 sensor cost a few hundred bucks, totally shitty. (plus a few hours of shop work brought it up to about $500 if I remember correctly). I hate car repair shops....

 

lol if you lived closer we could make it a sat project. i got the shop, scan tools, and tools. lol we could get it done for the cost of hte part. lol