Ford Mondeo Fault - Either Engine Works Great Or Not At All?! Please Help!

Hi all!

So on saturday I bought a 2004 MK3 Ford mondeo estate (2.0 TDCI 130bhp, Zetec model, 12 month MOT, 170k miles)

On the way home on saturday the engine cut out twice whilst moving but was quick to turn it back on and I carried on driving like nothing happened. I was quite concerned obviously but apart from dieing twice (on a 50 mile trip home) it ran really well.

After reading some forums, today I cleaned the MAF and EGR, took it for a spin and it was working fine then 5 miles later it just cut out on me again however it didn't start, got the aa to come out and tow me home.

The AA guy first plugged in his laptop but said there were no fault codes and fuel pressure seemed fine. He then spray carb cleaner in the intake and the car started (sort of) so he has said it must be a fuel problem and suggests changing fuel filter.

I will obviously do this when it shows up but I am thinking it must be something worse and it doesn't explain yesterday why it died twice. On all occasions when it died a flashing coil light was showing.

Other potential useful things to know about the car:

Apparently the previous owner broke down a month ago (sounds exactly the same) and had a new EGR valve fitted which apparently fixed it...

There appears to be diesel in the area around the injectors (aa guy wasn't concerned by this).

Update:

Today I thought I would try and start the car and it started straight away, ten min later I went to start again and it didn't work with the flashing coil light... 10 min later i tried again and it worked fine?!!? This time I let it run for 20 minutes then it suddenly died displaying the the flashing coil and another engine management light (top right). What I find odd is that it is either 100% working well or 100% not working at all... no middle ground, suggesting an electric fault but nothing showed in the diagnostics.

Not sure if its related but there is something weird going on with the temperature gauge, does not seem to get to the middle and I think I remember it fluctuating when driving home. Also all the dash light bulbs have blown, replacing them tomorrow.

Anyway has any one out there had a similar problem? I really need some help and would like to do it myself if at all possible as I do not have the money to spend in a garage.

Thanks all!

Ollie