Hi everyone

First off hope everyone's well and looking forwards to Christmas, secondly my mum has been having some issues with her MK1 1.8TDCI Ghia Focus. The fault is extremely intermittent and can go all day without it happening, basically she'll be cruising at 60mph and the car will cut out, completely dead, and then the car wont start for 5-10 minutes. A garage recommended the fuel filter be changed as the car hasn't been serviced in while, so I did that and its still happening.

On Sunday my mate came round and read the codes, and it threw up P0340 which is in relation to the camshaft sensor, so we took the rocker cover off, and found that part of the insulation was work on the cable and bare wire was showing, so we've taped that up and we gave the sensor a clean, cleared the codes and left it at that for now.

Monday was completely fine probably drover her 80 miles with regular shop stops, then on Tuesday the car cut out again and no matter how long we left the car, it wouldnt start, so had to be towed home, tried it this morning and the engine started but didn't want to risk taking the car anywhere just in case, so my mate came back round and read the codes again, P0340 came back up along with p0191 which is in relation to the fuel rail circuit I think.

Any ideas on what the next logical step would be without it costing a fortune as this time of the year is expensive enough as it is and my mum cannot live without her car D:

Cheers

Chris

I'd re-visit the wiring you taped up for the cam sensor - perhaps this has failed again and maybe blown a fuse if it's shorted against the engine.

Already checked that and the tape is fine, when I first taped it I also checked incase there were any shorts between the wires but only one had worn bare

Had a check of the wiring and it all seems fine but I cant be sure.

Anymore ideas?

Could be that the cam sensor itself is failing and was just a coincidence that the insulation had worn. The engine won't start unless it see's cam and crank synchronisation.

Did you notice if the glow plug light flashed? If so that's almost certainly the cam sensor. Our 1.8TDCi Mk1.5 had the same issue. I believe early cam sensors had a tendency to fail and were later replaced with an updated part. If I remember correctly the old one is green and the new one black.

Hi cheers for the replies, yes the glow plug light flashed like crazy every time it cut out. Bought a new sensor today, the one already on it was black and the new one is grey, unfortunately the battery was dead as well from trying to start her too many times so haven't been able to test yet, but it's on charge right now

I knew the colours were different but senility rules ok!

So far so good not had a problem since fitting the new sensor, cheers guys :D

Nice easy fix then! :D

Yeah thank god, this time of the year is expensive enough without having to repair a car!