So a few weeks back I drove my car for 1.5 hours. Not a single problem. Parked it up for an hour in around -4c, then drove home. I sat on the highway doing 60mph, and the car starts spluttering, as if there's no fuel, I dropped gears down until it stalled. Restarted, and carried on. It happened again, eventually called Rac to come help, but they couldn't see a fault. They followed me home for over an hour, the car stalling every few miles. I did have an error from the turbo not putting out enough power, but that wouldn't stall the car... would it?

My assumption was (cheap) diesel in the cold weather was blocking the filter, maybe even frost/water in the filter, starving the engine.

But where the hell is the fuel filter? Underneath like the transit? In the tank?

Or does anyone suspect something other than the fuel filter being the problem here?

Yes, fuel filter is underneath on the 2.0 Ecoblue S-Max/Galaxy.  Slightly different to the Transit though.

 

If the fuel filter was clogging, it seems odd that it restarted easily every time.  A lack of boost could stall the car in a high gear as it means less torque than normal.  (Basically like trying to pull away in 3rd gear for example).  I'd also be considering the in-tank fuel pump.  That seems more like something that could slowly wane over time and then jolt back into life next time it's powered up.

 

Thanks. If I restarted the engine too fast it would stall, so I had to give it a few seconds each time. Then it would stall in any gear, even from idling once the chugging started. But then the longer I left it the longer it would run. It only has 24k on the clock, which is why I wasn't suspecting the internal filter, but I won't rule it out.