Purchased car about 3 weeks ago and then went on long trip around Europe. After a long run on motorway noticed slight "staggering" (small hesitations in power) at high speed. This only happened occasionally and worse when on level road or running down hill, always picks up ok when accelerating. Did not worry too much but on last day this suddenly got very bad when pulled off motorway for hotel and big warning triangle came up on dash saying something like "Engine Failure". The engine then went into some sort of safe mode and we limped the last mile in 1st gear. After stopping for 30 mins to check into hotel, the engine started again ok and warning message had disappeared, car then continued as before with only occasional slight problem. On return to UK stopped at daughters and called out breakdown. Man plugged in his diagnostic unit and said no error messages had been stored. Will go to a Ford garage this week but fearful that they also will not be able to "see" any fault. Maybe I am being a bit pessimistic.

Anyone with any ideas? All thoughts gratefully received.

Regards

Had no replies so have to "bump" because problem continues.

Throughout the last year problem has continued exactly as described in previous message last year.

Ford garage can find no logged details in car computer. They also cannot reproduce fault because it takes couple of hours of high speed driving before it shows. Getting concerned because Ford warranty runs out in 6 months and then could end up with big bill.

Have tried to analyse conditions when problem occurs and the only consistent feature is that it only comes on after prolonged period of high speed driving, on flat or down hill, accelerating up hill always ok. Have again just returned from Europe tour and had several days of long driving, morning would be ok then in the afternoon fault would start. Stop at services would not eliminate fault. But after overnight stop then next morning fine again until afternoon when fault starts again. Does usually not cause an actual stop but just makes us very nervous when in middle of France. Ambient temp, rain, using 98 octane fuel all make no difference.

Can I possibly be the only one with this fault, it's getting me a bit mad but just do not know what can be done.

Had what you describe on a vectra on my way to spain on year ended up being the cam sensor again switched engine off left it started and ran ok till we got to spain have you got an obd reader should throw up a code .

Its the sort of issue you would have with a much older Ford. The symptoms are the same as an HT lead breaking down or a partially blocked fuel filter. The only other thing I can think of is a dodgy coil pack.

I assume the car is still under the manufacturers warranty. I am amazed no codes have been recorded.

It may be worth putting a quality fuel cleaner through the system in case its a bit of dirt in the system somewhere.

I was thinking the same as btmaldon , fuel starvation , when accelerating pump pressure keeping it running fine , i would change the fuel filter first , just in case someone put some crappy petrol in and the filter is dirty or blocked.

Sounds like the problem I had with my 1.8 petrol a couple of months ago, it was losing power intermiterally and then basically packed up and went into limp home mode. Turned it it was the coil pack that had failed and is notorious on focuses.

its only notorious allegedly because of where its placed it gets too much heat and if youre any good with metal work its worth making a small heat shield to cover the part closest the engine allegedly from another forum a guy made one and had no coil issues after having 2 new ones in 2 years after the shield was fitted he still had the same coil pack after 2 years

Thanks for comments, the heat effecting coil pack sounds the best fit with the symptoms eg only occurs after running at speed for several hours.

But has anyone got any advice how to get any action from my Ford garage under warranty. They cannot reproduce the fault under normal running and no faults are logged in the system.