Hi people new on here,

So my daily driver for work has developed a problem. If you leave the car at idle it seems to run lumpy and after a minute or two it will stall. The car will start straight back up without any issues at all but then will stall within a minute or so again. My local garage has had it plugged into the computer which isn't bringing up any codes. About a month ago I had it in to get the injector seals and no.1 injector changed. When I collected it the car ran perfect for a few weeks and now has developed this idle/stalling problem. The car does puff a little white smoke upon startup but clears pretty much instantly and only does this after the car has been sat for a few hours. Any help appreciated thanks.

Ford fiesta 1.6tdci

130000 miles 

Check clean mass air flow sensor,check for vacuum leaks,poss fuel pressure,egr valve needs cleaning ? just a few checks to do.

Gazcaz, I've had a good look around for vacuum leaks and can't find anything out of the ordinary. As for the MAF sensors is there any product I should be using to clean it? I will get these done this weekend and see if it helps. The car drives fine without any hesitation at all just literally is once it's left to idle for a few minutes at a stand still. Thanks

So yesterday I removed the egr valve and cleaned it up and to be honest it wasn't actually sooted up to bad. Took air filter out and cleaned with compressed air and same with the sensor in the air filter box. Checked for vacuum leaks and can't see anything out of the ordinary. I plugged the car into a cheap OBD2 and watched fuel pressure as it was idling. When the car was cold the pressure was slightly erratic and then leveled out when it warmed up but keeps dropping every now and then u til it cuts out? 1st to pictures are cold engine and 2nd to are when warm?

Could try a injector leak off test to see if there isn't any injectors leaking. 

On my zetec s 1.6 diesel the day after I bought it I noticed it would start up but run lumpy with a bit of white smoke coming out. This lumpiness would go away after driving for a little. 

I changed the glow plugs which didn't help sadly so then ended up getting all injectors reconditioned which solved the problem indicating one of the injectors were leaking diesel and so causing those symptoms if I start the car at least after 2 hours. Mine wasn't as bad to cause the car to stall but might be worth doing the leak off test just to be sure 👍

3 hours ago, zain611 said:

Could try a injector leak off test to see if there isn't any injectors leaking. 

On my zetec s 1.6 diesel the day after I bought it I noticed it would start up but run lumpy with a bit of white smoke coming out. This lumpiness would go away after driving for a little. 

I changed the glow plugs which didn't help sadly so then ended up getting all injectors reconditioned which solved the problem indicating one of the injectors were leaking diesel and so causing those symptoms if I start the car at least after 2 hours. Mine wasn't as bad to cause the car to stall but might be worth doing the leak off test just to be sure 👍

Thank for the reply, is this test something o could do myself or a garage job. I'm pretty confident working on cars and have a good selection of tools to have a go. What do I need to do the leak off test?

1 hour ago, Chrissud20 said:

Thank for the reply, is this test something o could do myself or a garage job. I'm pretty confident working on cars and have a good selection of tools to have a go. What do I need to do the leak off test?

Does those symptoms persist after it has warmed up or just when you just start the car? Mine would chug white smoke and run lumpy for a little before it's been driven for a little as the excess diesel in the cylinder must of burnt out. 

I'd think the leak off test can be done by yourself but don't quote me on that. My car had around 115k miles when I did this. 

1 hour ago, zain611 said:

Does those symptoms persist after it has warmed up or just when you just start the car? Mine would chug white smoke and run lumpy for a little before it's been driven for a little as the excess diesel in the cylinder must of burnt out. 

I'd think the leak off test can be done by yourself but don't quote me on that. My car had around 115k miles when I did this. 

The car has a diesel smell and puff of white smoke for maybe 30 seconds after started from cold and has a lumpy idle. When it's warm the idle levels out but continues to dip down to around 400rpm and then back up to 750rpm maybe ones or twice then will cut out. Turn the key and it starts straight back up and does the same again will run for a minute and dip the revs. The car has had injector seals and one new injector last month as it was chugging like mad and no.1 injector was a right off as it was completely welded in and was damaged from removal.. it's ran fine after the replacement tho until now a month later.

Hi did you eventually find out the problem as my car is 59 plate 1.6 tdci and I've had the same problem for a year its had 3 fuel filters as every garage I've been to insists it was that,if my car idles for to long it stalls and comes up as check engine malfunction starts straight back,it would be great to know if u did 😀