Hi,

My beloved Ford is having a hard time recently and I wondered if anyone could help me get a bit more of an understanding on what might be going wrong.

This is my model: Ford Focus Zetec (56 plate)

Issue 1:
Currently the car turns on fine and runs first time. Last week the battery light came on when I was half way down the motorway. It would flash for 15-20 seconds then go out, then would come back on a few minutes later, again for 15-20 seconds. The light flashed about 3 times (each 15-20 seconds each time) during the journey. It tends to come on when I am accelerating (although this might be a co-incidence). The rest of the week, the light didn’t come on at all.

Yesterday it flashed continuously for the whole journey. Today it only flashed briefly and then stayed off for the rest of the journey.

Issue 2:
Sometimes, the car jerks (lurches) when accelerating up a hill. When idle at the roundabout, the car was shaking, even with
the clutch down fully. In a carpark I put the handbreak up and lifted up the clutch in third and it stalled but my foot was probably 75% of the way up before it stalled. I tried to take off slowly in third and again it stalled but again I was able to lift my foot up quite high.

Not only is this car my baby, but it is also my only method to get into work so I'm a little concerned. I know I may have to take it into a garage but since I'm hard up I was thinking I could save some money if I could fix it myself, or at least give them some ideas on what might be wrong.

If you need any more information please let me know. Any help would be hugely appreciated!