rough idling focus

[Jim Cook]

Everyone has been pretty helpful with my past posts...hopefully, some of you gearheads can help me with this one. I bought a 2001 Ford Focus for the step daughter and it ran great when we took it off the lot but has suddenly developed a really rough idle. I replaced the plugs...they appeared good. The wires look good...in fact everything looks good! At idle the car vibrates violently enough that it just rattles everything....like a kid with a big audio system rattling his license plate! I don't get it...the car pulls strong but just rattles apart at idle.

 

[scott degroot]

These cars are notorious for bad motor mounts, I probably replace a set of mounts at least once a month for this exact same reason...a bit of advice though...get the mounts from Ford

 

[Alan Peters]

Check the motor mounts. One is visilbe on the left of the motor, the right side is under the air box I believe. If the motor mounts fail, the focus will shake like no other.

 

[Jim Cook]

Thanks for the advice guys...I'll check that out as soon as I can get a few moments that the kid actually stays home for more than 2 minutes.