I recently bought a used 2013 focus SE at a used car dealership. When I bought it it was almost on E so went and got gas and as soon as I was leaving the gas station, the car started acting like it was gonna die, then it would lurch forward…as soon as I would idle it would run fine then as I started going again it stopped. About 5 mins later it ran fine like nothing had happened. The following day, my boyfriend change the purge valve, and it seemed to rectify the situation. A few days later we threw about 10 bucks in it to see if it did it again and it didn’t. About a week and a half ago, while evacuating for a hurricane I stopped and filled up for the trip and it did it again. Along the trip I stopped at a rest area, did not get gas (first time it did it without filling up) and it did it again. Then when I filled up to come home, it did it again. Now it does it every time I use the car. I’m at a loss…have had an oil changed all fluids checked and topped off. No check engine light or anything comes on…it does it for about first 2-5 minutes of using the car then runs perfectly fine. Any suggestions?

 

Sounds like there is some water in the fuel tank. Something you can try, get a bottle of gas line antifreeze , WITH ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL ONLY, not methanol, and add the entire bottle to the fuel tank. Drive it some and see if it corrects the problem. Easy thing to do and cheap.