This has happened twice now.

I start the car up, pull away and it stalls on pull away. Engine system fault message comes up and red light comes on

Turn car over and it hesitates but after turning it over for a continuous 5-10 seconds, it starts again and the message clears.

I have a 56 plate mk2 1.8tdci focus

Anyone else had a similar issue and be able to point me in the right direction?

Bump

I can't diagnose this, but does it only happen when its first started in the morning ??? If so I sometimes have the same problem. Not everytime, bit every so often, I start it, all seems fine, then when I put some load on the engine it just cuts out. No engine light in my case. And starts straight away afterwards. But sound similar ???

Similar but not quite.

I'm wondering if some sensors need cleaning or if something is about to fail such as the diesel common rail pump. When I go to turn it back over it sounds like it can't get any fuel but once it turns over enough and gets going it runs fine.

Try cleaning the MAF sensor and check the pipes too. not sure if it will solve the problem but may be worth giving it a try..

Could be something EGR related