Fiesta stalling on cold start unless throttle is used

[Participant]

Hi all

My parents are away on holiday and they've asked me to take their Fiesta to the garage, because it's been having cold starting problems. It's a MkVI pre-facelift, so looks like this:

I'm reasonably mechanically minded and am comfortable doing small jobs on cars, so have decided to have a look myself first, to see if I can save them some cash.

The problem is that when the car is started from cold, it will stall unless the gas pedal is used to maintain idle speed. After about a minute the car maintains idle itself and continues to idle perfectly thereafter, until left for a long period again.

Its got a brand new battery.

I was thinking:

- Split hose somewhere?
- Exhaust gasket / requiring replacement?
- Airflow sensor?

Any ideas gratefully received, many thanks.

 

[Yarde]

Slightly different model car, but the Fiesta ST from a similar period as your Fiesta suffered with a similar problem and this was cured with a PCM update. Might be worth talking to your Ford dealership as I don't believe this is something you can do yourself.

 

[Pestilence]

There were two possible causes when mine (also mark IV) was doing the same intermittently:

1. Front air (lambda) sensor.
2. Loose alternator/alternator belt.

Changed these and the issue disappeared.

 

[Jono8]

Idle control valve?

 

[Deleted member 651465]

I had this issue with my last mk VI. It's the injectors.

 

[freak2002]

I have had two cars with a similar issue. Astra and Picasso.

Both were the Air Flow Sensors. Really easy fix for around £40 and just need a screw driver.