Minnesota Focus Owners Club

KRYPTO wrote:are you sure everything is hooked up, and all the fuses are good?

car ran fine for me tell I put belt on and O2 in. I never really got around to it after that. I would say your problem is connected to that some how.

Timing belt?

hermitmaster wrote:

KRYPTO wrote:are you sure everything is hooked up, and all the fuses are good?

car ran fine for me tell I put belt on and O2 in. I never really got around to it after that. I would say your problem is connected to that some how.

Timing belt?

Yes everything is hooked up!
Think the idle would have something to do with timing?
I would say it wouldnt run if the timing was off, but it runs great at times, and how would that lean it out?

Here's my timing blet write up from a recent post on Focal Jet.

My 2001 ZX3 with all the NA stuff on it recently developed some drivability issues. My kid drives this car so I’m not 100% sure what the 1st symptoms were but when he start complaining about it the symptoms were misfire or loping on cold startup (sounded like it had huge race cams) and lack of power. In 3rd gear it struggle to rev past 5500 rpm. It eventually through a CEL for P0171, lean bank one. I checked for all the obvious stuff that can cause P0171, dumped in a can of Berryman’s B-12. The symptoms did not improve. I started thinking this may be a slipped timing belt. Car has 108K miles still on the original belt. I don’t have the cam gear cover on so I look at the belt on a somewhat regular basis. It looked fine but when I pulled on it, it seemed too stretchy. Pulled the valve cover, set cylinder one to TDC looked at the slots in the end of the cams, there both off by about 15 degrees. I already had everything needed to replace the timing belt so about 3hr later I have a perfectly running engine. Amazing what a few (15) degrees of timing will do.

The moral of the story: If you’re running stage 2 race cams, you probably don’t want to wait until 120k mile to replace your timing belt.

PBZX3, Thanks so much.
I will be checking this soon.

KRYPTO, didnt you put a new one in though?

It runs fine above idle then after idling a little it slowly gets low enough to die out.

Timing could be off slighly from when the new t-belt was installed.

I never did a timing belt, I put the serpentine belt on.

My bro said it could be a leaking intake gasket. Did you have the intake off at all? We tightened some bolts that were loose on it.

figure it out your a big boy.

oh thanks.

That could be the problem ZX3pos.


TO KRYPTO-Wow this explains alot to the question he just asked........ And your IQ.

He was asking if you had the intake off and you decide to come up with a smartass answear like that.... The question towards you could have been answeared "YES" or "NO"

Seeing how you seem to know everything about a car you couldn't figure it out yourself???

TO KRYPTO-Wow this explains alot to the question he just asked........ And your IQ.

He was asking if you had the intake off and you decide to come up with a smartass answear like that.... The question towards you could have been answeared "YES" or "NO"

Seeing how you seem to know everything about a car you couldn't figure it out yourself???

(YEAH) lol

be nice

This has gone on long enough. Continuous outbursts and whatnot are unneeded and not helpful. The best way to fix the car is to check everything that can be checked and rule out one potential problem at a time. Coming here and posting "Could this be it?" questions is not going to get the car on the road any faster. Is the intake loose? Tighten it. Is the timing off? Set it properly. Is the EGR system missing? Replace it. Is one of the O2 sensors bad? Replace it. The best way to solve the problem is to literally check one thing at a time, not go back and forth reinventing the wheel.

You have the codes to tell you what to look at, start ruling things out until you shorten list to a few possibilities. Once you have done that it would be more appropriate to start asking questions. If you can't handle diagnosing drivability issues, take the car to a mechanic. If you can't do either of those things (diagnose, mechanic), you shouldn't have bought the car.

Yes I asked you about my car because you had one like it but the more I ask about it the dumber I would get.....

After seeing work on your car though I was thinking hmmmm this guy knows how to hack things together not fix them...