The Ford Focus is sitting at the local quickie-mart and won't start. Ran fine until it just failed to continue working. No, it's not the battery. It cranks okay, but just won't catch. At this point, the car needs more work than it's even worth. Along with whatever's wrong with the engine, it needs $600 worth of AC work, plus new brakes all around (another $600?), and the stupid back trim piece with the license plate lights replaced. It's a 2000 Focus wagon with about 140,000 miles, so probably not worth $2,000 even in good running order.

What do I do with this thing? It's paid for, for what little that's worth. I have to get it towed out anyway. Do I fix it and try to sell it to recover my costs? Set it on fire? Rack up the charge card (again) to keep driving it?

Further background: we have another vehicle, an even older but more reliable Grand Cherokee, and I'm between jobs at the moment, so adding a car payment is not going to fly.

I know, asking GD for suggestions is full and . Fire away!


UPDATE - got it towed to the shop. Don't know about the fuel pump, but it definitely needs the timing belt and hope the valves aren't fouled up. That's $850 or so, assuming no valve work. Tearing open the head will make it $1500 or so, before the brake work, the AC work, etc.

So what's the value in parting out an old Focus? Or is it worth it to spend as much as the car is worth to fix it?

PS - a timing belt and head work is definitely outside my ability

Lunch box factory........find it.......

Torch it

Do brakes yourself for $200 at most, get on focus forums and figure out why it won't catch on start, replace back trim piece yourself, wait on A/C until you have some $.

Tannerite

Might be a cheep fix.
Coil
Crank sensor
Have a friend with a car hauler to save on tow bill?

Junkyard parts and a cheap fix. type the symptoms into google

Do you have the tools to do the work yourself?  

Zach

do you work on your vehicles?


ETA: what the guy above me said.

crank sensors run around 20 bucks.  its either not getting gas or not getting fire so find that out first.

Rockauto.com and Google should help you.

Might be worth finding out what is wrong before junking a car. It could be something simple and cheap to fix or it could be an expensive repair.


If you don't at least get it checked you could be throwing a functional vehicle out the window for no reason.

I wouldn't worry about the A/C on an old beater.

LOL Google. You'll find every possible problem there from a fuel pump to crank/cam sensors to plugs and wires to relays to PCMs and harnesses



to PATS issues to who knows what.



Have it diagnosed properly and do a cost/benefit analysis on the car.



Not ragging your Jeep, but if a Grand Cherokee is more reliable than that Focus, I'd have that Focus crushed for gross insubordination.

Ever had your timing belt serviced in those 140,000 miles?

Can we place bets? I am going with fuel pump for the win.

OP, can you find a Schrader type valve (like used to put air in the tires) on the fuel rail? Press the center needle on it and see if you get fuel spraying out. Only do with key in run pos on a cool engine. Have you checked fuses?

Thanks for the tips. I'll try the fuel rail thing. I'm minimally handy; I can probably do a straightforward brake job, if there's nothing hinky. I typically don't do much of my own work due to time, but now I seem to have more of that.

Dude, the older Jeeps are mechanically very tough. The Focus is the first model year of a pretty mushy design to start with. I'll take the oldish 4.0 straight six and the 5.2 v8 over any car powertrain Ford put out in the last 15 years.

I had a Passat do the exact same thing.  Suddenly would not start, but would crank over and everything else seemed OK.

Blown relay.  Had to have the shop diagnose it.  Fortunately, it was still under warranty.

Forget the tow, go to U-haul, rent a car hauler, and use your Jeep to pull it.

Been there, done that.

Then check for codes (soft codes may not set of the CEL). Then Fuel, Air, Spark. One of them is not there, or it would start. Diagnose, then decide.

Especially unemployed, you can do this yourself. ARFCOM has fixed worse than a Focus that won't turn over.

ETA: And no shit on reliable. I always laugh at people who claim that Jeeps aren't reliable. Is anything more reliable than an AMC straight-6? Not much, that's for damn sure...

Make sure its not the pats system. My 01 f150 had a bad key would turn over and not start. New key fired right up runs like a champ.

UPDATE - got it towed to the shop. Don't know about the fuel pump, but it definitely needs the timing belt and hope the valves aren't fouled up. That's $850 or so, assuming no valve work. Tearing open the head will make it $1500 or so, before the brake work, the AC work, etc.

So what's the value in parting out an old Focus? Or is it worth it to spend as much as the car is worth to fix it?

PS - a timing belt and head work is definitely outside my ability.

some new fords wont start with a with a bad battery, They will crank fine but not start. even with a jump they wont start. No Idea why, but had this issue with a sable.