Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing loss of power

On a journey back from North Wales to Leigh Lancs about 70 miles my car just lost power after about 50 miles and I had to pull onto the hard shoulder,the car did not cut out, but whilst trying to accelerate it would not pull. I switched off the engine and left it for 4/5 mins, no success, tried again 2mins later and away it went, no more trouble all the way hame. It is a 4/4 1.8 zetec engine [2003]. Any ideas please.

I had a similar experience with a 2000 4/4 Zetec on the way home from Le Mans a couple of years ago. It turned out that debris had come in through the air intake and was causing the MAF to malfunction. What I had, effectively, was the ECU putting the engine into 'limp home mode'
Might also be worth while checking if the coil packs are OK
G

A few years ago I had a similar experience at 4000 rpm, engine would die down to 1500rpm with no pull. After a few minutes everything was back to normal. The culprit turned out to be the alternator. No trouble since replacing it. Meabh.

Maybe this might help
http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/ZetecIdleIssue.htm

It sounds to me like an ECU problem.
Good luck

Thanks I'll have this checked out. Pablo

I had similar the other week. I had just filled up with petrol and the car would not rev steadily above 2000 rpm. It was "hunting" for fuel above 2k. It would briefly rev ok but then cut back to 2k revs in a pulsing way.I think it was dirt in the tank stirred up. It cleared itself after I nursed along for a few miles at 2k max revs. A few brief spells at high speed were tried to help flush the system!
Engine is a ford cvh efi.
I have since thought of fitting an extra filter between tank and pump to intercept any dirt. If next winter sees the car off road for a longer period i may remove and flush the tank.

I've just got a very similar problem. Car has been fine in the 6-8 weeks of ownership but today, on starting her up, the engine was missing and sounded really rough. The engine light has come on too.
The dealer says that it might be the 'limp home' mode, as I've travelled over a couple of speed bumps at the local school He's asked if I'm happy driving it until they can have a look, which is fine if it is purely the limp home mode - but what if it isn't? I don't want to bugger the engine up driving it if there is a more significant problem.
Not sure what to do now but think that I'll ask Life's to collect it and investigate. How do you avoid this kicking in again?

Bit of an update.

My fault entirely. I washed her and let too much water drain into the Zetec engine channnel, where the plugs are, so flooded it.

Life's have been great considering it was my fault and they've sorted it FOC including collecting her from my home.

If you have a large sheet of polythene (of reasonable thickness/strength) it's worth putting that over the engine under the bonnet, then doing your car wash.

Helps prevent such, errr, embarassment?

My old X-flow doesn't have the problem...

Shropmog's website has a very nice fix.
http://www.shropmog.co.uk/index.htm

I thought about it when I had a zetec 4/4 but I saw the light and bought a +4 before I did it.