I have a 2007 Ford Focus 1.6 TDCI with 287k km. I got the car from Belgium this spring and even though it is not new and has lots of miles ( km) I like this little car and the fuel consumption. I get over 60 mpg in UK. The car is a company car and been serviced regularly by FORD while in Belgium. Since I brought the car to UK I had it serviced twice by an independent. In July before going on holiday I had the oil and oil filter changed and also the fuel filter. Left UK and drove to Paris. No problems. Drove from Paris to Sint-Truiden, Belgium. No problems. Drove from Sint-Truiden, Belgium to Kromeriz, Czech Republic. No problems. I filled up with Diesel before leaving each place. In Kromeriz I filled up and drove to Romania. No problems until I got about 50 km outside Budapest in Hungary. Started going up a few inclines and the car started loosing power going from about 130 km/h to less than 100 km/h. Pulled over and checked oil level. Everything is OK. Engine does not overheat, oil level is OK, nothing out of place. While in Romania I filled up with Diesel a few times and for a while the problem seemed to have gone away. Drove back to UK without any problems. Drove in UK for a few months and on Saturday took the car back to the same garage to get the oil and filter changed again after 14 k km. Right before I took the car in the SES (Service Engine Soon?) light came on. The garage changed the oil and filter and scanned the computer and told the error is with the EGR and the turbo and both need replaced. Cost £600.00

Sunday I drove to Belgium and noticed the same loos of power as before. On flat road or down-hill the car accelerates as it should but going up-hill on even small inclines it does not accelerate and if the incline is big enough the car looses speed. I tried down-shifting when going up-hill but still the same.

At first I thought it was the DPF and used the re-gen procedure found here and no change. The engine does not overheat. Fuel consumption seems about the same except for today in Germany when I noticed fuel consumption went from 4.8 L/100km to 5.6L/100km but I was driving quite a bit faster in Germany when on flat road or going down-hill.

My thought now is the fuel filter. It either did not get purged properly when I had it replaced or it got clogged from bad fuel I got in Czech Republic. The car seems to be OK from engine start than gradually looses power until I shut the engine down and re-start.

Anyone else had this problem with this engine or does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you

A dirty fuel filter will affect the performance by starving the engine at higher load or demand times.
I'd get the filter checked for condition and also that it's fitted properly.
A bad seal on the filter will allow air into the system and cause rough running and power loss.
It's possible that the fuel you used was contaminated or had water in it, neither will do your system any good.
Clogged injectors and fuel lines ma be worth considering too.
A duff turbo may cause power loss under increased load, easiest way to check is to get to the vanes and check for end float (wobbly vanes) any excessive movement of the vanes will cause them to contact the casing walls and damage the turbo further.
An EGR can be cleaned fairly easily, a replacement is easy to get and not a major struggle to swap over.
Personally i'd get another opinion from a different garage.

Update: the day after I got to Belgium I drove to Germany and the symptoms were all as before. In some cases it was worse than before. Germany has more hills than UK or Belgium. Second day in Germany the hose from the turbo to the intercooler blew off the intercooler but I was able to put it back on. Thursday morning I took the car in to the service garage that did all the previous service while the car was in Belgium. Garage recommended the following:
- oil change
- oil filter change
- fuel filter change
- EGR valve change
- turbo pressure sensor change

The EGR valve and turbo pressure sensor were both setting codes and turning the MIL on.
Got the above parts replaced/changed and the car runs as it should. I guess I could have cleaned the EGR valve or replace it myself and same thing with the turbo pressure sensor.

I'm glad the turbo and the DPF were both OK as the price of the repair would have been considerably higher not to mention the integrity of the motor if the turbo would have gone.

The above work was done at 290000 km and I look forward to at least another 210000 km with normal maintenance.

Thank you