I have a 2012 2.0 diesel Mondeo, the 160bhp euro5 version. 240k miles on the clock.

Every time I refuel, the car acts up. For a few days and a few journeys, the engine spits and splutters occasionally if I'm cruising along, and the engine can quit completely if say I'm idling at a traffic light. When that happens, it cranks for maybe 20 minutes before spluttering back to life, and off it goes again like it never happened. Only happens after refuelling as I said......once all these symptoms pass after some miles, the car runs well again until the next refuelling and it happens all over again.

What do you think is the most likely cause?

I don't know and I'm sure others will ask...but does this happen when you fill the tank completely or partially? Has the car been serviced as recommended by Ford...should have replaced the fuel filter at 225,000 miles (every 3 years or 37,500 miles whichever occurs first)

Short term fix - don't fill to the brim. I bet that will cure the symptoms.

As fuel is drawn into the engine it has to be replaced by air via a sophisticated venting system in the tank that allows air in but won't let fuel out if the car overturns (and no, I don't know how they have managed it, but  they have!). My guess is that the vent is partially blocked. Others on here will know what to look for and where, hopefully....

8 hours ago, Frembrit said:

I don't know and I'm sure others will ask...but does this happen when you fill the tank completely or partially? Has the car been serviced as recommended by Ford...should have replaced the fuel filter at 225,000 miles (every 3 years or 37,500 miles whichever occurs first)

It happens no matter how much fuel I put in the tank. I used to fill the car as a habit, but I've stopped filling it since this issue began. Makes no difference though, the issue appears whether I put in 7 or 70 litres at the pump.

I've never changed the fuel filter since I've owned the car, which is three years now. There's 240k miles on the clock. Could there be water at the bottom of the fuel tank or in the filter bowl I wonder?

6 hours ago, alanfp said:

Short term fix - don't fill to the brim. I bet that will cure the symptoms.

As fuel is drawn into the engine it has to be replaced by air via a sophisticated venting system in the tank that allows air in but won't let fuel out if the car overturns (and no, I don't know how they have managed it, but  they have!). My guess is that the vent is partially blocked. Others on here will know what to look for and where, hopefully....

I don't fill it to the brim, and problem still there.

I'm intrigued by what you said about the venting system in the tank however. Can you tell me any more?

3 minutes ago, Irish Paddy said:

It happens no matter how much fuel I put in the tank. I used to fill the car as a habit, but I've stopped filling it since this issue began. Makes no difference though, the issue appears whether I put in 7 or 70 litres at the pump.

I've never changed the fuel filter since I've owned the car, which is three years now. There's 240k miles on the clock. Could there be water at the bottom of the fuel tank or in the filter bowl I wonder?

Changing the filter will be a good start in that case. Draining the water from the filter is also a yearly service item on the years there's no schedule filter change.

I put 50 litres into the almost empty tank yesterday and driving around today has been the worst experience yet. In a short twenty minute trip around the suburbs at low speed, the car had to be coasted to the side five times after cutting out. Not to mention the countless times it lost power at about 1500 revs before jolting back to life again after about a second, then proceeding with an audible "tick-tick-tick" sound from the engine that lasts half a second. ***** thing is really getting to me now.....it's so embarrassing for the engine to quit in the McDonald's drive thru with a pile of honking horns behind me.

1 minute ago, Frembrit said:

Changing the filter will be a good start in that case. Draining the water from the filter is also a yearly service item on the years there's no schedule filter change.

Yeah I'll do that. I have been putting it off because this car has no fuel pump in the tank, which means the system has to be blead every time you change the filter. An arduous enough task requiring patience and a special bleed tool that I'll have to go out and buy.

Yeah, so I believe. It's easier on my 2.2

1 hour ago, Irish Paddy said:

I'm intrigued by what you said about the venting system in the tank however. Can you tell me any more

Sorry Patrick - you've already reached the limit of my knowledge on venting systems!

..... And I got it wrong assuming you were filling to the brim, didn't I!

Do you generally let the tank go "almost empty"??? Maybe when you put the fuel in it's stirring up sediment at the bottom of the tank, but I am guessing somewhat here.  Maybe try refilling really s l o w l y next time.  But that doesn't really address the issue properly.

Might be worth looking at getting an obd reader and getting a program called forscan.  It might be able to give you more of an idea of what is causing the issue you are having.  Hope that helps

I'm not finished with this issue but here's something I wanted to share.

I got Forscan and bought the OBD adapter on Amazon, got it working. I found a few trouble codes (one of them having to do with fuel rail pressure) but here's a curious thing.

One of the trouble codes was P0087, and it was recorded as being logged on "Thu Jun 26 19:46:51 2036". Yes that's right - the year 2036. Why does my car think it is 2036?? 🤔🤨

1 hour ago, Irish Paddy said:

Why does my car think it is 2036?? 

That is something that FORScan have not addressed, often in the Freeze Frame data 2036 is shown.

There is usually a mileage as well and if you convert that from Km it should give you an Idea when the fault was logged. There is also sometimes a time in seconds which I think is from when the car left the factory although I'm not sad enough to have checked that.

If you clear the codes and see what or when they come back you will have a better idea if they are still relevant.

You will be able to monitor Live Fuel Rail Pressure when driving and if you can induce the fault it may throw some light on the issue.

4 minutes ago, Tizer said:

although I'm not sad enough to have checked that.

Keep up the good work Tizer and you'll get there 🤣🤣

[I'm off to check that out on my car now]

I'm not familiar with used diesel fuel filters, this is mine which I changed today. Is it particularly bad?

3 hours ago, Irish Paddy said:

I'm not familiar with used diesel fuel filters, this is mine which I changed today. Is it particularly bad?

They do go Black when they have been in for a long time but that one does look like it is well past its sell by date.

4 hours ago, Tizer said:

They do go Black when they have been in for a long time but that one does look like it is well past its sell by date.

I'm hoping this was the cause of the issue, fingers crossed. Only driving time will tell.

2 minutes ago, Irish Paddy said:

I'm hoping this was the cause of the issue, fingers crossed. Only driving time will tell.

I don't know why your car plays up after refuelling, it is a strange one.

Normally if the Diesel Filter is not allowing enough Fuel through the Check Engine light comes on and a fault is logged, usually at a time when you are driving the car hard and there is a demand for a lot of Fuel.

In case you don't know, you can monitor a lot of things when driving with FORScan including the Fuel Rail Pressure. If I suspected it was a FRP fault when refuelling then I would do the following. 

Go into the PCM and bring up PID's in the Graph for Speed (VSS), RPM, Accelerator Pedal Position, (all of these for reference when reviewing later) and Fuel Rail Pressure, plus MAP and MAF because these are important.

Then take the car for a run and save the Data for that journey and have a look at it. Then do the same after inducing the problem by refuelling, save that journey and compare the two.

Something from the bad run may point you in the right direction as to what the fault is, especially if you compare it with the good run.   

Thanks to you all by the way.

Since changing the fuel filter, the car has behaved impeccable. With any luck it might he that simple, and the proof won't come until I fuel up next time. If it remains well behaved, then I guess I'll be calling it a fix 🤞

I'll post an update after refueling.

By way of a brief interim update, I put 10 litres in the tank this morning after the fuel light came on. This is the first refueling after changing the fuel filter and I very much was holding my breath. But the car behaved perfectly. Before the fuel filter change, the car would have been hopping, spluttering and cutting out inside a minute after refueling, but not today.

So let's see, next time I'll put in 20 litres and so on.....hopefully this issue is solved.

Glad your sorted, I'd have said definitely fuel filter given the above as well, but couple of points to note, Never let a car run low on fuel, because it will pick up the sludge at the bottom of the tank, always try to keep it nearer the quarter tank mark more than the red to minimise this risk, you could also chuck some Redex cleaner in to clean out some crud, I always put some in a week before the MoT to help reduce emissions.

The venting (no leak) system is probably one way valves and a vacuum combination of sorts so in an accident it reduces the risk of fire\explosion as said above.

One thing to note, if getting this type of problem, make a mental note if it's the same petrol station that it happens after (I know in this case it's not this, but worth a note), there have been numerous cases of forecourts having issues, like water in their fuel tanks, leaking into it from the groundwater table, or any other type of contamination getting in their tanks, the station will deny it most likely, until too many people have been affected, fastest way to check is use another station to see if it helps.