I have a 2010 1.6 petrol Ford C-Max which has up until recently been running great and without any issue, only ever doing short journeys. Just over a week ago I was queued to get into the car park at Denmark Hill Hospital when this issue first happened and it started to sort of struggle with engine revs and light-ish shudder upon acceleration as if misfiring. This fault has happened twice since I purchased the car privately around twelve months ago. On each occasion I was either in slow moving (London/Rush Hour) traffic or as on first occasion, very slow moving (one car length) or stationary for around 45-60 minutes with raised revs at around 2k to prevent stall.

The revs are normally below 1k and it seemed like it may be fuel starvation on one cylinder (I am no mechanic but have tinkered for the past twenty years on my wide variety of second-hand cars). Then when I tried to edge forward the car died. I would sit for around twenty minutes with oil and expansion tank caps off then the car would start and run fine.

On the most recent occasion I had visited my wife to be in hospital and was on my way home, stuck in slow moving traffic all the way from Denmark Hill Hospital to Orpington via Clifton's roundabout when it happened again, but this time the engine management light came on flashing/not solid. I rolled to the side of the road as the engine had once again died, removed the two caps previously mentioned and waited for around twenty minutes. I replaced the caps and the car started and ran normally for the remainder of my journey.

I would appreciate as much assistance as I can get to get this issue rectified as I am due to be married on 19/08/20 and I don't want this issue affecting/ruining our happy day.

Please help.

Hello

Intermittent ones are a nightmare, but we can try a few things first to narrow down the problem.

Most engine issues are basically down to problems with Electronics, Fuel or Air systems.

It could be any of these parts that have gone bad.

Electronic:

Spark Plugs - could have a crack in a plug, giving intermittent shunting.

HT Leads - as above, I've seen intermittent issues before one lead fails for good.

Ignition Coil - could be faulty.

Battery - as your battery dies, the ECU learns to cope with the reduced supply voltage and this can lead to problems in how your car performs and idles.

 

Fuel:

Fuel Filter - sadly I believe you have a "life-long" filter and it's housed in the fuel tank for reasons I won't go into.

Fuel Pump - as above

Injectors - ok probably not, but a bad injector can cause issues.

 

Air

Air filter - could be clogged, been serviced recently?

Throttle Body - Could be needing cleaned, it could be sticking which a good thrash can make it come unstuck, it generally sticks at lower revs.

MAF Sensor - could be bad!

 

Let's start with something nice and simple though, have a look at this video and try and do it yourself, it's really easy.  Just reset the ECU, and then the car will relearn things like Throttle Body trim values, fuel trims, revs etc, it can really save a car that's not performing well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZAsoqmqhdM

Getting to the negative can be difficult, so pulling the positive is fine (yes I know the safety issues, but it will be fine for this).  Also, test your battery for voltage, any issues starting up?, does the car crank up ok and then quickly become sluggish?

Buy an obd2 code reader and plug it in. Read the error codes stored in the car's memory. Current and pending codes will show you what the problem could be. 

All of the above advice from Desmond could help fix it. But you need to know where to start.

Yes, of course, good advice and it’s so obvious it slipped my mind, getting old!!

quite often intermittent faults don’t  throw up any codes, sadly.

thanks though!

Not sure if you resolved this issue. I brought a used 1.8 diesel C-Max which developed this fault about a month after we got it. It was so intermittent and would sometimes do it everyday and then go for months without doing it. The car used to start but would then cut out after a few seconds or when you first went to pull away, it would then not restart for a good 10mins. Once it did start it would run fine and would start perfectly for the rest of the day. It also sometimes felt as though it was dropping power when driving but only for about a second.

It went back to the garage we got it from under its limited warranty but annoying never did it whilst it was there and as I say once it was running would be ok for the rest of the day! They changed the glow plugs and other things but it still had the annoying fault every now and then. 

A few weeks ago it did it again but after the first time it cut out, it would not start no matter what we did. It went to our local garage and they found a low fuel rail fault code on it (every other time there was no code stored). He started with the fuel filter and found that the seal for the filter was on upside down and so it was constantly sucking air in. He said he had seen this before on cars with a similar issue. He changed the filter, put a new seal on the correct way up and it’s been fine ever since. 
 

May not be the cause of your issues but worth a check as a relatively cheap thing to eliminate as the cause. 

Not sure if you resolved this issue. I brought a used 1.8 diesel C-Max which developed this fault about a month after we got it. It was so intermittent and would sometimes do it everyday and then go for months without doing it. The car used to start but would then cut out after a few seconds or when you first went to pull away, it would then not restart for a good 10mins. Once it did start it would run fine and would start perfectly for the rest of the day. It also sometimes felt as though it was dropping power when driving but only for about a second.

It went back to the garage we got it from under its limited warranty but annoying never did it whilst it was there and as I say once it was running would be ok for the rest of the day! They changed the glow plugs and other things but it still had the annoying fault every now and then. 

A few weeks ago it did it again but after the first time it cut out, it would not start no matter what we did. It went to our local garage and they found a low fuel rail fault code on it (every other time there was no code stored). He started with the fuel filter and found that the seal for the filter was on upside down and so it was constantly sucking air in. He said he had seen this before on cars with a similar issue. He changed the filter, put a new seal on the correct way up and it’s been fine ever since. 
 

May not be the cause of your issues but worth a check as a relatively cheap thing to eliminate as the cause. 

Lulu34 I'm having the same issue as you with my 1.6 diesel what seal do you mean as I've changed my fuel filter and there isn't any seals that I can see, just the feed pipe and return aswell as the sensor. I've tried putting a cheap reader on it but no codes either so im at a loss and dont want to use the car with the kids in it incase it stalls in a silly place like a round about or something. Really hope someone can point me in the right direction to cure this. Thanks guys