Hi there Ford Modders.

I know this has probably been discussed before but for the life of me i cannot find it anywhere.

I own a ford AU3 2002 and its having some issues starting. The spark plugs and leads have been replaced recently (less than a month ago) but that hasn't seemed to help at all.

The car will turn over fine but when it come to firing up it doesn't seem to want to play ball unless i give it a bit of gas. Its fine after the car is warm but first thing in the morning or after work she struggles a fair bit.
Only other thing that is not factory is the air filter which was changed to a pod filter in place of the conventional square buggers.

Any help on this subject will is greatly appreciated as it is becoming some what of a nuisance.

Cheers guys.

To me it sounds like the Idle Speed Controller (located on the throttle body) is either dirty or faulty. I'm not an expert on the AU ISC but I would imagine it becomes dirty/clogged like the ISCs on E-series falcons. I had a similar issue with the idling on my xh ute, but once I cleaned it out with carby/throttle body cleaner it worked perfectly, so I would give that a shot, make sure you also clean the bypass holes that go into the throttle body.

If that doesn't do it, replace the ISC entirely (you can get them on ebay), and if it still doesn't idle properly, the coil might be worth inspecting, although I doubt a faulty coil would impact it idling while cold.

Also, it wouldn't hurt to clean the throttle body out while you're at it, quite easy to get at on AUs.