The owner of this 2005 Focus 1.8 diesel phoned to say the car wasn’t doing as it was told. I asked her to clarify a little, and she said that when she pushed her foot down on the accelerator, the engine wasn’t revving up as it should.

When she arrived, I checked out the problem. I often hear convoluted explanations of a problem, and so it is always best to actually check it out myself. In the case of this Focus, I realised that the problem was a lack of response from the throttle pedal, and I suspected that the fault was going to be the throttle pedal itself.

This can be checked using a scanner and sure enough, once my scanner was plugged in, I was able to confirm that a press of the throttle pedal did not always relay the necessary information to the ECU.

The new pedal is easily fitted and as this is quite a common problem, the pedal was readily available from our local factor for just under €140.

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