My 2008 Focus 1.6 tdci is suffering from intermitent hesitation/misfire at cruising speeds on motorway, and occasional erratic idle /cutting out at low speed and idle after leaving motorway. Any advice please

Start off by a basic of services, you need to replace the fuel filter and make sure that the filter is installed correctly.

90% of the time, its a clogged or damaged filter that causes this...

As jee says...has there been any codes issued on the cluster or by scanner?

Thanks Jee, last fully serviced January and dealer has had car in for day and not tracing fault to this. Could not find the problem

Thanks johnH, dealer says there was a code that relates to fuel pressure but nothing showing on diagnotics as a cause for it and no faults traceable otherwise. Breakdown patrol mecahnic got no codes at all, but said my exhaust was too hot and flow restricted. Dealer does not seem to agree.

Hmmm tis a bit odd... My sister is having the same/similar issues in her fiesta. Still havnt found a fix but checks on cylinders and injectors should be done

Exhaust was too hot never heard that one before it could be a fuel pump issue hence the fuel pressure code i must admit the breakdowns answer sounds ominous

yes odd as no warning lights coming on the dash either, and i am hoping its what you say, though dealer has had in for two days so i would hope has checked the injectors. i hope its not same untraced issue as when this happened before last year, because again no codes or lights showed initially. When engine warning light eventually came on i had to get towed in and have diesel filter and an exhaust valve replaced. £1,500 ouch.

is your sisters car a diesel?

Ouch that is a smack in the face. Yeah she has a 1.4tdci starts jolting and hesitating at around 60mph and really bad in wet only code ive got is p1202 and dealer had it for 4 days and i dont think they took injectors out to check, they tend to use live data on IDS but nothing to say the circuit is reading false if that makes sense. The only thing that seems to work is using shell vpower diesel...im gonna change all glow plugs and swap injector 2 with 3 to see if i get same fault or different.

But btt, proba next step is to ask diesel specialist to check injectors and fuel pump pressures etc.

On a further note, ive read scenerios where people stop at the top of a slip road and the car cuts out. They replaced the cam sensor and viola all sorted. They are cheap and can pick up from any factors. If ive read your issue right this could be another next step.

im wondering if you have a partially ruptured fuel line?

Air getting in through the tiniest of cracks will be enough to cut the engine out, go undetected, and not have fuel pee out...

Thanks all for help sadly none of suggestions check out. Despite getting second opinion from another Ford Dealer. Any other thoughts welcome.

Hmmm sounds like a case of keep driving it until a warning light comes on.

Does the fault reoccur at the same revs at a slower speed?

I hate it when you get to this situation...

I would say take the car on the motorway and thrash it. Just force it up the revs and see if you can force something to happen...

did this with my sisters fiesta, mentioned above. Now ford definately say injector is knackered lol £350 for parts and labour...might help her a little as she is due to give birth to a boy in the next week or so and will need all the help she can get lol

Hello again

Been on a few extra drives been monitoring for a week and progresive mpg loss, increasing power loss when engine cold and juddering/cutting out when cold too. Erratic idle once warm. Car cut out within a second of starting this morning, and just kept cutting out with idle needle ranging 500 to 1000 before cut out. Tried to rev it and pull of drive but cut out again. Engine oil seemed very high on dipstick. No warning lights or faults codes.

sounds like mechanical failure unfortunately, could be a knackered injector, but I would say one should only cause a terrible misfire and poor driving at least...

if theres no error codes though, it sounds like there is a loss of fuel or air, maybe spark but I doubt it as much...

well just to let you know my sister got an injector works and no more hesitation on hers... I would take it back to ford for a full diagnostic...will be even better if you can show the foreman the faults.

Thanks John H i just hope its that simple and its third dealer lucky hopefully. This time they have video, sound recordings, AA engineer report, and a log with a weeks worthoi of daily issues.

Jeebo thanks

Just play havok on them, say you have been messed around and there is blatently an issue etc

Doing this my sister and her boyfriend managed to wrangle a brand new fiesta as a acourtesy car for free.

In the end ford werent 100% if it was injector and they dont want to be seen making a heavily pregnant lass pay £££ for something she might not require.

So they took it to a few bus fitters at a local depot and they had it 2 mins and said defo injector (benefits of being a bus driver and them working day in, day out with diesels) they managed to get parts and swap it over...now she said it drives awesome.

What they did recommend was putting some injector cleaner in with some premium fuel as 8 times out of 10 its just a dirty injector and a bit of carbon has come loose.

Anyways keep us posted

Hello again an update on my issues

Third dealer could not replicate or trace fault and went back to basics and changed oil and oil filter. Oil level has risen by a quarter since though! Plus slight misfire returning on warm start.

Got a sample of the old oil tested and very worrying. Lab says main concerns are

TBN three

Viscosity Cst @40º = 36

Iron =100

Traces of fuel in oil

The Lab says all bad signs but cannot comment on effects on specific cars. Any ideas what this is telling me specifically with Focus?1.6tdci?

PTG