Ford KA 1996, keeps cutting out when changing down gears, why??

how do you clean the valve???

Shodgson1988 at gmail.com

sharon
April 2012

were is the idle control valve

james
January 2011

My 1999 Ka does this too, had me worried it was something serious...but put a bottle of red-ex to a full tank of petrol and leave over night ( let the red-ex sink to the bottom of the fuel tank )...next morning drove to work and was running alot smoother and not cutting out at low rev's. I've done this a few times over the last couple of weeks and it has solved the problem completely.

Jack.
October 2010

My Salvation was my half brother Robert, all hail Robert sandey! !st off he said on't use WD40 as this is a lubricant. Your air intake valve on the KA 96 model with Enduro engine is also known as the stepper motor. Wash it in petrol he said, so i did, secondly remove the terminals to your battery and touch them together off of the battery, this brings the cars computer back to factory settings. I did all this and hey presto no more stalling at junctions when i reduce speed. Hope this tale helps

Eric Mailer
September 2010

ive got a ka that was a trade in at work just a run around but it reved up and down when warm and tappets where loud, i took egr or idle control valve off of inlet to get to rocker cover and get that off off to adjust tappets to correct measures 0.5mm and 0.2 mm across to middle from both side, now nice and quite but now strugles to tick over after replacing egr valve or icv on inlet putting it back together also discovered split pipe going to oil filler cap replaced this to, reves up nice drives nice just dnt tick over any ideas please peeps???????

mark
August 2010

Hi, my ford fiesta 1.3 did the same. I bought an (AFM) Air flow meter form ebay and it solved the problem completely. It controls the amount of air intake your car needs. When it fails your car is just free flowing and takes in too much air causing it to stall. Mine used to cut out when I slowed down to change down gears.
Hope this helps

Danno
August 2010

Hiiiii!! I bought a 99 ka only 2 months ago since then te drivers lock has broken, it feels lik the clutch is going as lack of power wjhen setting off and high revving noise but no smell!!!!! also for the past few days my stereo has been displaying "failure" and recently in the mornings the car is strugling started, i put it down to my street being almost flooded but past two mornings the weather has been dry and my battery keeps dying and cutting out, my poor stereo haas been telling me this for some time, I am just wondering if it sounds like a loose or frayed wire as this is my frst car i have already had the brake pads replaced, oil pipe replaced and rear wipers and blade. ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE APPRECIATED AS MY LOCAL GARAGE QUOTINGME OVER £129 FOR CLUTCH ONLY AND I AM NOT SURE IF EVEN IS THE CLUTCH, ANY ADVICE???

Nattalie
July 2010

My Girlfriends Ka is doing the same...

It's really annoying! I have found faults with everything I have tried that has made the problem slightly better but, alas, no cure yet. I'm not a mechanic, but I don't mind giving things ago as I work in a skilled trade.

We bought the car and was very happy with our purchase for the first few days. After a week our so, the car began to run lump and cut out at any sign of pressing the clutch. The fuel consumption was amazingly high too (about 15mpg)!

I will detail the fault finding path I have used so far to see if it can help someone else.

1) I assumed that the car could do with 'a good service, that.ll fix it'. I will never forget those ill chosen words I said to my girlfriend as I reassured her that getting the bus to work on Monday was not necessary. During the service I found a quantity of engine oil in the air filter box and the air filter itself. As the car had just been purchased, I put it down to bad servicing and cleaned all the air pipes. When I was doing this I found that one of the camshaft ventilation pipes had collapsed. I'm telling you this because it was the pipe that comes out the oil filler cap and touches the rocker cover. It looks like this could be a common fault due to the hot surfaces involved. I also did the normal sparks, leads, air filter type stuff as part of the service.

I'm telling you this because I didn't have the part to replace the damaged pipe straight away so the car was used for a couple of days with the damaged pipe. Since I unblocked all the other pipes, the car now ran normally until you pressed the clutch. When you pressed the clutch the engine ran at full revs for a couple of seconds... How embarrassing?

2) With new camshaft ventilation pipe in hand (four pipes, in a cross shape, £18 from ford) I headed out to the car and replaced the damaged part. I took 2 whole minutes out of my day (I also changed the oil filler cap as it contains a rough filter and the old one looked blocked).

How delighted I was when the car started first time. I rubbed my hands together with glee as I climbed inside, ready to hit the road for a test drive. No revving? No stalling? Yes! I fixed it! How I gloated to the misses when I told of her the story of my fine fault finding skills!

Until the next day when she took the car to work. It stalled at all of the lights. Gutted... It did fix the incredibly high fuel consumption though.

3) The next thing I tried was to clean out the idle control valve. The car felt better straight away but still stalls. I order a second hand one from ebay on a punt. I also ordered a brand new lamdba sensor (£22 - ebay) and fuel filter (£9 - Halfords).

4) My parts have arrived! Woohoo! I decided that fitting them one at a time with a little test drive in between to see what part would be the definitive cure. I started with the idle control valve. The part I got from ebay doesn't fit. It had the wrong connector. Lesson learnt - I've just ordered a brand new one (£18 - ebay, talk to the trader if you're not sure). I then changed the lambda sensor. This made a big difference to how the car performs but it did not fix the stalling problem. Fuel consumption is yet to be seen but should improve further. I changed the fuel filter (incidentally, the fuel filter was a nightmare as it was the original part). Seems to run better but still stalls.

I'm never buying a 'second hand bargain' again!

I will repost when I have the problem fixed!

All of the work I have carried out can be carried out by anyone with a simple knowledge of spanners and the like. You just need some simple tools and a workshop manual.

Ta!

andybantam
July 2010

My 1999 for KA done this today, stalled and cut off at a roundabout, its very annoying because i cant even feel it stalling. What should I do?

M
April 2010

Hi my ford Ka 2003 KA Collection has started to do this same thing cutting put when idel and revs dropping iv changed the ide valve control nothing comes up on the diganostics testing im ready to get RID!!! HELP ME PLEASE!!!

charlotte
March 2010

my 2000 ka done this when approaching roundabouts, breaking anytime etc. i took it to a garage and they cleaned my icv and sprayed cleaner through some tube to clean my engine. this was about 8months ago and touch wood this has not happened since. better yet... i got charged £0.00.

nina
March 2010

ford ka, what a pain i have had one for the past 3mnths bought it for £1000 and seemed a perfect liitle car but since then i have replaced the engine cosing me £500, lat week the gasket went off and i had a new one put in costing £300 and today it started stalling everytime i change the break, or break, i am absolutelt broke and i hate the sight of the thing!

casey
November 2009

when changing down gears when the car normaly is going to cut out you can just see the ignition lights flicker put your foot on the clutch to bring the engine back to life also if you take the idle controll valve off clean it out with wd40 this somtimes helps =)

david
October 2009

Hi,

I have a 98 ka that was doing the same. It was under warranty and the garage had it back four times. They replaced the idle valve, turned up the idle speed and remapped the engine which did not cure the problem. Whats the MPG like, mine was only doing 29mpg and doing some searching on the net I found someone who had changed the lambda sensor and it worked. I suggested this to them and they changed it. So far so good, no stalling, no drops in power and better mpg.

Erica
August 2009

on my 1998 Ka -Same cutting out problem as everyone else! Any one know how I can speed up the idle !! ? I think its the clutch switch is at fault cos I know its recently had a new clutch fitted by a back street garage. Is the clutch switch an easy repair?Definately not the I.C.V cos had that changed and its still the same.

bronze stallion
May 2009

Here we go I'm a mechanic, as some of you have mentioned, it should be an “idle control valve, don’t try to clean it out buy a new one! roughly £33.00 inc VAT & post, not to much for the first thing to change & easy DIY, here are some links where to buy & what it looks like, they differ quite a lot & all look the same so try to get the part number off the one you have, my one is XS6U9F715AA from a 1.3 on a T, registration this is what it looks like http://www.tuneparts.co.uk/prod/is3.jpg & call 01526 348504 very helpful, it is located very top of engine in front of you. If this doesn’t help at least you haven’t paid someone a small fortune to tell you. Craig

Craig Conroy
January 2009

i've got a fiesta mk4 and does the same, its embarrasing when you have to just stop wherever you are, especially since it usually happens to me going over speed bumps, absolute nightmare!

Becki
January 2009

mine did exactly the same, changed everything possible. The last go, just before scrap yard....the garage change a sensor on the electronic control board which monitors the revs. Since then no problems at all and my Ka is a happy little car.

Happy KA
October 2008

i had my ka for 2 years now ,4 months ago it started cutting out whilst stoping at roundabouts,or just even stopping then i kept having to restart it,i had it fixed at a garage along with other stuff which cost me £600 then it starts cutting out on me 2 months ago ,i cleaned the idle valve and even ajusted the revs ,this did work but it sounded over reved to much,so i ajusted the revs by 1 notch but it started cutting out again ,any suggestions

louise smart
September 2008

mine does the same. im so angry cause now i have a car that cuts out all the time. what should I do? clean the idal valve or try get the rev sensor looked at?

Leon
September 2008

My KA did the same, replaced everything from leads to idle control valve. Last attempt before going to the scrap yard.....changed the speedo sensor! Something to do with the fact that when the revs went low,the sensor sent a message an electronics board which was linked to stopping the engine. Hope this helps someone.

Happy Ka
September 2008

It is the idle stablisation valve, 2nd hand risky, buy new and try ebay.

Dave
July 2008

i have a p reg ka and for the past two weeks it sounds like i have the same problem... every time im at traffic lights or slowing down or at a junction it just stalls and cuts off. also i was driving along the other day and it hasnt done it since but my airbag light was on i dont want to have to take it to a garage either as i know it will be something tiny with a massive charge so i will have a look at all the above mentioned bits and see if i can do anything!

charlotte
July 2008

MY 1998 KA USED TO HAVE THIS PROBLEM SO I CLEANED THE IDOL CONTROL VALVE AND IT WAS FINE WAS MONTHS. IT STARTED DOING IT AGAIN AND GRADUALLY GOT WORSE SO I TRIED CLEANING IT AGIAN. THIS TIME NO LUCK, SO GOT A NEW ONE FROM THE SCRAPPY. STILL NO LUCK??? ANY IDEAS WHAT ELSE TO DO???

chris davidson
June 2008

Idle Air Control Valve (page 4A.9 in Haynes Manual), the lump right in front of you on top of the engine.
Unplug the wiring connector, undo the 2 bolts, bolt a new one straight on & reconnect. Just got charged £40 for two minutes work at a local backalley garage including the 2nd hand part... Fixed it immediately (Felt BURNED! 2 minutes for £40 - won't happen again! Wish I'd seen this forum before). If WD40ing the old one helps, even simpler!
Simplest DIY fix EVER!
Find one at the scrappy and spanner or socket to fit (8mm?).

CD
May 2008

I've not got a KA but I have the same problem on my 1997 Ford Fiesta. Is it common in Fords or something? It's getting really annoying. I have to think about what I'm doing all of the time, it's like I'm on my lessons again! Hope it's as simple as cleaning a valve. ;)

Brett
May 2008

my ford ka, 2002; has a problem at the minute, when changing up a gear, it revs, then speeds up. i have a friend who is a mechanic, and he has said that its the idle valve that prob needs cleaning. He said it takes all but ten minutes to do and should cost no more than £10.00 at a garage. He did say its easy enough to do yourself, all it takes is a spanner, and some WD40 (to clean out the valve). but if unsure, refer to the Ford Ka Haynes manual. but for the sake of £10 im taking mine to the garage.

sarah
May 2008

It happens to me on my peugeot 206. I paid over 400 quid getting it fixed and no luck!

katie
April 2008

I bought my 1998 model ka six months ago and found it had the same problem. I've spent over £600 diagnosing the problem with no luck, then I googled it, rang the mechanic and told him about cleaning the idle control valve and hey presto, it's fixed. Annoyed with Ford as i've got into debt to try to fix this problem. I'll be sending them a strongly worded letter!

Caroline Bunting
May 2007

I just purchased my 97 Ka last week and it has started doing the same thing. Having read this particular thread I felt a bit prepared to visit a mechanic. My idle valve has been cleaned and I now wait with bated breath in hoping that this is it - problem sorted. Time will see.

Lets see more follow up feedback, how did you get on ??

Colleen
April 2007

My Ka started with the same problem a year ago. Had it fixed and now it's doing it again.....I found this on the net whilst searching for the problem the first time
I discovered that this actually is a design fault with the earlier models of the Ka. It turns out that the Idle Control Valve has a problem with it. This can either be solved by getting this part cleaned (in the minor cases) or a new piece of wiring loom is need to prevent the staling in gear/speeding up of the car while braking etc...

emily
April 2007

Mine has started doing the same - my brother enquired about it when he serviced his fiesta last week and they said it could be something as simple as the idle running too low or it could be the head gasket on the way out. Taking mine in to a garage to get it checked out. Don't know how much it's likely to cost though

Heidi
April 2007

mine does the same


thought id get an ans here??

june otoole
April 2007