Ford Fiesta -- Chugs in 1st gear

[alexnic]

Looking for some help re: my son's Ford Fiesta. Whenever in 1st gear if you accellerate hard it 'chugs' really bad (like Kangaroo petrol) OK 2nd, 3rd 4th etc. The mechanic had a look at it, changed a sensor (fuel / air mixture) that according to him caused a lot of similar problems, only £20 so not too bad but the fault is still there. The plugs etc were also changed

He thinks it might be a bad contact and reckons that it needs to have a diagnostic check at a Ford garage, given tha fact that it is a '95 model my son does not want to spend a fortune on it

Anyone any ideas on the matter, before we go down that road (excuse the pun)........

 

[AdamW]

This is something I have experienced in the past when driving older performance cars. You give it a bit of welly (but don't floor it) and it seems to kangaroo.

I always put it down to the acceleration forces, i.e. the car speeds up, foot gets pushed back, throttle eases off, slows down, foot gets pushed forwards, throttle increased again. A feedback loop between foot and car!

Perhaps you should think outside the box: pull away in 2nd!

 

[alexnic]

I suppose that's one way to get round it but it's a definate fault and comes to the fore when you stop at a roundabout or a steep incline (we live in a very 'hilly region' ...not good for the clutches) and a ford fiesta lx doesn't have a lot of ooomph!