Ford Fiesta 1998 won't start hot

Hi everybody,

I have a Ford Fiesta Finesse 1998 (trying to sell now as I have a new car). It has 77,000 miles on the clock approx. I have an issue where the car starts perfectly well at first. Then, if I drive for more than, say, 15 minutes and stop the car, it won't restart. Note, that the engine turns over but doesn't 'fully' restart. However, it always restarts eventually; it will need to rest for about an hour or so, then works fine. September 2025 I took this to a garage to fix this issue and the labour description said the following:

"FOUND P0231 FUEL PUMP SECONDARY CIRCUIT LOW. AFTER FURTHER CHECK FOUND WHEN VEHICLE NOT STARTING ONCE WARM, FUEL PUMP NOT WORKING - CHECK ALL FUEL PUMP ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS AND FOUND ELECTRIC FUEL PUMP FUSE CONNECTION CORRODED AND ARCKING - CLEAN AND LUBRICATE ALL CONNECTIONS IN FUSE BOX FOR FUEL PUMP AND REPLACE FUEL PUMP FUSE. "

This seemed to fix the problem until December 2025. Breakdown came out and simply replaced the same fuse and it started again. He recommended a full service, which I did in January this year (2026). Again, fixed the problem until April this year and I've simply been putting up with the issue since (cannot stop the car once I've been driving for more than 15 mins unless I wait for an hour).

P.S. in August 2026 when this happened, breakdown came out and did suggest there was a low voltage through the battery. Haven't had this replaced.

Anyway, as I said, I intend to sell the car, but was wondering if people may have any ideas on this issue and it could be an easier/ cheaper fix that I could potentially do prior to selling it? It seems fuel pump is something to do with it based on the above?

Thanks

Wil

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Will199139