Help with Ford Focus '05 Flashing Engine Warning Light

Now you're ****ed! :eek:

That's turned into a bit of a disaster then!
Best you can do is get some left handed drill bits and drill VERY carefully up to the size of the threads, if the heat helps extract the remainder of the spark plug as you drill, you win. If not you may as well save yourself the grief and go straight to buying a helicoil kit for the correct size, then drill and tap the cylinder head..

This should give you an idea of what you need to do.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M14-X-1-2...074?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4173f63352

Get that sort of kit, as you get the correct drill bit, the correct tap, the insert and the insert tool.
(Make sure that is the correct thread size before purchase though)

Oh and use plenty of grease on both the drill bit and the tap, (drill a bit, re-grease, drill a bit re-grease etc) as this will serve to catch the bulk of the swarf produced.

Fish what you can out afterwards with the magnet but the bulk of the swarf will be aluminium so non magnetic, best you can hope for is probably turn the engine over so that piston is as high as possible with the exhaust valve open and then blow the remainder out with an airline and brake cleaner (if you don't use some sort of solvent with the airline the swarf will just stick to the oil coating the bore)

Good luck.
 
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Fuzz said:
Now you're ****ed! :eek:

That's turned into a bit of a disaster then!
Best you can do is get some left handed drill bits and drill VERY carefully up to the size of the threads, if the heat helps extract the remainder of the spark plug as you drill, you win. If not you may as well save yourself the grief and go straight to buying a helicoil kit for the correct size, then drill and tap the cylinder head..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M14-X-1-2...074?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4173f63352

Get that sort of kit, as you get the correct drill bit, the correct tap, the insert and the insert tool.
(Make sure that is the correct thread size before purchase though)

Oh and use plenty of grease on both the drill bit and the tap, (drill a bit, re-grease, drill a bit re-grease etc) as this will serve to catch the bulk of the swarf produced.

Fish what you can out afterwards with the magnet but the bulk of the swarf will be aluminium so non magnetic, best you can hope for is probably turn the engine over so that piston is as high as possible with the exhaust valve open and then blow the remainder out with an airline and brake cleaner (if you don't use some sort of solvent with the airline the swarf will just stick to the oil coating the bore)

Good luck.
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Thanks, But no chance. I could never do any of that. I have no knowledge of cars. I damage everything I touch. I am surprised this laptop is still working.

I think it will need to go to my mechanic now. :(

Just checked on line and apparently water in the spark plug well on ford focus is a huge known problem.

Water from the washer jets above it leaks onto spark plug area and fill it. Ford are aware of this and there is new washer jet seals available.
 
That spark plug (looks like it) has been dead long before you tried to remove it. If the other plugs have been changed it would not surprise me that the servicing garage have left that one in (due to removal difficulties) and just let it rot through.

IMHO the only way to get the old plug part out now is to remove the head and have an auto engineer drill it out from inside which is going to be a little expensive. (Cant do with the head on due to the amount of swarf that will enter the engine).

I highly doubt this is something you have done wrong, so don't blame yourself I would be questioning the garage that serviced the car in December, because clearly that plug has not been checked for some time.
 
cheers guys, well my day of is so far depressing to say the least. Always something to go wrong. So a simple £4 spark plug could possibly turn into something expensive.
 
If the garage has to take the head off to do that then they are crap. :D

If you remove the traces of oil from inside the combustion chamber with some solvent and drill carefully with some grease as I have stated then the swarf will be minimal and what is left can either be blown out with an airline or sucked out with a hoover.
 
I had exactly this in the Fiesta I referenced above. It cost £700 to sort it, that was in 2006 :(. Hopefully you can get it done for less as I basically just paid the first quote as I was in a rush.
 
Magic_x_uk said:


OH NO
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Oh dear!

I haven't seen anything like that since the push rod KA's all died and went to heaven

(They were a routine problem, ford even made a "Special Tool" to get the broken bit out but I found a Tx bit banged into the bit left in the head would allow removal , whether that would work in the Zetec engine I don't know. I suspect that the ally head, being less robust, will likely need hellicoiling after the old threads have been ripped out but you may be lucky!)

Well at least you might have solved the mystery of the misfire, Those plugs look like the ones it left the factory with!

(This is also why I try to get people to ignore that "Extended service interval" nonsense. There is no great saving to be made by having spark plugs that only need to be changed every 50,000 miles or so if something like this happens when you try to do it)

Do not risk making things worse by messing around with it yourself unles you really have the skills otherwise you could end up with some very expensive repairs.

I know a chap who will be able to sort you out if you live in the South East BUT he does not work "Privately" you will need to get a Garage/Mobile mechanic to contract him to do the job.
 
Just checked my service receipts. Cannot find 2012 receipt yet. But both 2010 and 2011 state x4 spark plugs @£3 each fitted as well as service.
 
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Get it TOWED to a garage, don't run it like as you've no idea what might've dropped in. Get it a mechanics opinion and then call the place that changed the plugs. They could well be 2 or 3 years old, just ruined by the problems mentioned above.
 
GeX said:
Get it TOWED to a garage, don't run it like as you've no idea what might've dropped in. Get it a mechanics opinion and then call the place that changed the plugs. They could well be 2 or 3 years old, just ruined by the problems mentioned above.
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Sensible advice. Loose bits of metal in the bores is a bad thing.

Back when I started driving 20 years ago plugs got changed every service which was usually 6k. Last petrol car I had they were scheduled every 40k or 4 years.
 
Okay got a guy to have a look at it (he is a mechanic) but not till next weekend. No problem as I can use bike to get to and from work. Not ideal, but hay ho.

He has looked at the photo's of the spark plugs and thinks they look a lot older than 2011 or even 2010 as stated on my garage invoices.

He has said around £120 for labour to take head off. But will try and remove thread first. I buy the parts. He mentioned Head Gasket, timing belt and x4 spark plugs.


Update:

Just had my garage phone me, managed to track down there mobile number.

They have assured me they fitted new plugs. Either way. I am dropping keys of for them tomorrow morning and they will tow it down to there garage (very close, would take 3 minutes to walk to there from my house) and look at it and try and remove it.

What a nightmare. Hope they sort it.
 
Fuzz said:
If the garage has to take the head off to do that then they are crap. :D

If you remove the traces of oil from inside the combustion chamber with some solvent and drill carefully with some grease as I have stated then the swarf will be minimal and what is left can either be blown out with an airline or sucked out with a hoover.
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Firstly, an EZ-Out would be the first port of call to remove the threaded portion or if access is possible it can be an option to weld something to the section remaining. Either of those options is usually preferable to drilling.

No matter how careful you are there is a possibility of a lump of the remaining spark plug to fall into the engine as the drilling concludes hence why a good garage would prefer to remove the head.

This situation can be brought about by mechanics not greasing the threads of the new spark plugs when inserting them, so I highly recommend copperslip on the spark plug threads once you replace the new plug preventing the corrosion caused by screwing a steel plug into an alloy head.
 
Easy outs are near as damn it useless for that scenario, the threaded portion left behind is too thin and all you you will do is expand the threads into the head as the easyout bites into what's left. The next thing that happens is the easyout snaps.. Then you are truly in deep **** because of the hardness of it.
 
Either way, I'd love to hear what the garage that is supposed to have serviced it say once they've taken a look at it! I'm with your mate the mechanic, they don't look in any way or form only a couple of years old.
 
I've used EZ-Outs for this in many occasions and also seen one snap which results in removal of the head next to remove the portion (because of the fast taper on the EZ-Out a tap with a hammer and punch on the inside usually frees it quickly). So whilst you are correct in some of what you say, it is still a good first port of call.

There is a big chunk of spark plug left other than the threaded portion as well!

Warming the area first can help as the alloy expands at a greater rate than the steel which is why it is always good to remove plugs from a warm engine.

Anyway, it seems the mechanic is going to remove the head and do the job properly. Sure more labour but a far better way of doing the job properly.
 
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The effect of the water could easily have made a two year old plug look like that. Don't assume the garage didn't bother too readily. The dribbling washer jets caused something at least that bad on my Fiesta in two years.
 
Well I have spent all my day off googling this problem.

Mine looked just like these photo's in this Gentleman's post
http://www.fordownersclub.com/forum...h-pictures/?p=100601&fromsearch=1#entry100601

Just hope they get it out, sort it and it is back to normal.

The car's ODC gave these codes. Which did not help with anything anyhow. 9601 and 9681.
So really hoping it is all just to do with the spark plugs.

There goes all my plans for a restful day off!

Always something isn't there.
 
Just dropped keys of at the garage. Mechanic says they have taken snapped plugs out before so hopefully will come out.

Will wait and see
 
Car fixed. Picked it up yesterday.

They got the snapped plug out.
New Oil & Filter
x2 new Heated washer jets (original Ford ones known to leak, Ford revised these, but didn't issue a recall notice)
x4 new spark plugs

Also fixed Exhaust Heat guard which had rusted through its fixing mounts.

£220

At least it is done now.

So far the car seems to drive and appear fine now.
 
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