Hi, this is my first posting on here, although I have followed the site for several years for advice.

I have a 2006 Ford Focus Sport Tdci purchased on finance 10 months ago. The 3 month warranty has already expired, and I have 26 more payments to make before I own the car outright. For the past 10 months this car has worked fine, with no issues at all, and sailed through the MOT 3 months ago.

Yesterday morning I did what I always do. I turned the ignition key to power up the car, without starting the engine. I waited the second or two for the glow plug light to go off, then started the ignition. The engine started immediately. I put the car in reverse, and just as I lifted my foot off the clutch to reverse off my drive the engine cut out. I put the car in neutral and attempted to restart the engine. This took about 5-10 seconds of whirring before the engine kicked in. The car worked fine for my 35 mile journey, and was fine 10 hours later when I returned to my car for my 35 mile journey home.

This morning I again did the same thing. The engine cut out again at the same moment. This time it took 4-5 goes to get the engine started again, but on this occasion the dashboard showed some warning lights. The glow plug light came on for a few seconds, as did the engine management light. The power train light stayed on until the engine started. I revved the engine, got a small cloud of light grey smoke from the exhaust and the car started fine. I drove it only half a mile, turned off the engine for 5 minutes the restarted, and it was fine. No warning lights.

Any ideas on the problem and expected cost would be appreciated.

I'm guessing the garage or the finance company will not take liability.

When was the fuel filter last changed ?

The finance company will not be interested

No record of fuel filter replacement in service manual

I'd change that first then, as the cheapest, easiest, potential fix & go from there

Cheers for advice, will give that a go

Just had a similar problem, in the end it was a wiring loom issue there is a Technical Service Builtin about it supposedly, the way it routes it catches and rubs then you get a short, get the error codes checked, the second time mine did it it actually complained about a short, took the dealer three days to to come back to me and say it was a wiring issue though

Do change the fuel filter though fords recommended change interval is stupidly long on that.

Will get it looked at for fuel filter. Hopefully car will get me past Christmas until I can get it looked at. Will mention wiring loom. Local garage to me are Eastern European and have always done a good job at a reasonable price. Very popular garage in area. So hoping cost is kept low. Thanks for all the input