Mk 1 Tdci 1.8 Rough Idle/ Stall Until Warm

[boabbie77]

Hi, I would be very grateful if any tdci owners have experienced the same issue I'm having with my MK1 03' 1.8 TDCI Focus. Since the colder weather has come the car started to stall after starting and the rev counter was jumping up by 200-600 with grey/ white smoke coming out of the exhaust.

I looked around the forums and changed the glow plugs and used some diesel fuel cleaner. The car started without problems for a couple of days no smoke or rough idle. I started it today, it stalled and the rough idle started again. The car was jumpy again until the engine warmed up. Any ideas what it could be?

When the engine is warm the car runs fine, but it is feeling less responsive than normal when overtaking on the motorway. I noticed this morning that when I applied a small amount of acceleration to the car it caused the engine to stall. The car has around 120K on the clock and had a service with all filters changed 4 weeks ago. I have the car serviced/ oil and filter changed every 10-12k miles, no drop in oil or coolant in expansion tank.

Thanks for looking.

[boabbie77]

Tried to start the car again this morning, not even that cold outside, stalled then won't start at all now. The starter was replaced 3 months ago and the battery is only 6 months old. The engine is turning but not firing. I replaced the cam shaft position sensor over a year ago too. No management lights coming on and coil light going out as normal. Will be contacting breakdown or garage soon. Does this look like injectors are not working/ dirty? Is it an expensive job? Might be bye bye to my focus :(

[IINexusII]

when has the fuel filter last been changed?

[boabbie77]

The fuel filter was changed 4 weeks ago (ford one), and I only use diesel from non-supermarket stations. It's as if there's no fuel getting to the engine now. No engine lights flashing on like when the camshaft sensor gave up. I've read somewhere that if it's a mechanical fault rather than electrical the engine management light and ECU wont log a fault. Not sure if this is true or not.

When the car was jumpy on starting yesterday there was no white smoke this time round. Today no smoke at all. Strange, can only think it's fuel/ fuel pump related. Spoke to my Dads friend who had a TDCI years ago said if it was injector failure the car would still start and the fault would be progressive and not so quick to fail let alone all injectors at the same time.

If it's a big job to fix I'm going to scrap it instead. Got a few years out of it, but expected to get more than 120K miles out of a diesel especially when I've had it serviced every 10k miles and fuel filter changed every 20k miles.