I am still looking at buying another car, and have found a Fiesta locally which would be a good deal, but it has an issue with the engine whereby (from the seller's description) on longer journeys it begins to lose power, shudder, and stall.  Apparently turning the engine off and restarting resolves this and it goes back to running fine, so it sounds to me like some sensor/electrical issue.

It has already had the lambda sensor replaced and the spark plugs, so what does that leave that could be causing the problem?

I know that isn't a lot to go on, but it is all I have from the information obtained from the current owner and I want to get an idea as to what it could need doing before I view and consider purchasing.

Thanks!

Throttle body?

23 hours ago, GaryPL said:

Throttle body?

Would that cause symptoms which would disappear by simply restarting the engine?

MAF or crank sensors can commonly fail

both easy jobs to swop out but wouldnt know the cost of parts.

if it goes into any sort of limp mode until its cooled down then i'd lean towards crank sensor as being close to engine block means it gets cooked with heat over time

 

fuel and air filters been replaced of late ?

might as well start with the cheap / obvious stuff first  :-)

10 minutes ago, biff55 said:

fuel and air filters been replaced of late ?

might as well start with the cheap / obvious stuff first  :-)

That's true.  I don't know, but if I go and view it tomorrow or Sunday I'll find out.  I'm not keen on the car, purely because it has the 1.3 engine.  If it were the 1.25 Zetec I'd buy it in a heartbeat at the price, but the Endura-E just doesn't do it for me. 

It would be good as a cheap "beater" to drive and not really care about until the MOT expires, if I can cheaply/easily fix the engine issue.  I don't want to buy it and end up spending hundreds getting it to run right though! 

at a budget price point , i'd probably walk and keep looking.

if you just want a cheap run around then get one thats running right from the get go , no point plowing money into it from the start.

just my op though  :-)

2 minutes ago, biff55 said:

at a budget price point , i'd probably walk and keep looking.

if you just want a cheap run around then get one thats running right from the get go , no point plowing money into it from the start.

just my op though  :-)

No, you're right.  For £100 more I could get a 1999 Focus Ghia with the 2.0 Zetec engine.  Bodywork isn't great (then again neither is the Fiesta!), but it has no running issues and is a much more desirable car.

The only downside to that (aside from shelling out another £100) is that it only has an MOT until March, as opposed to the Fiesta which has one until September.  The Focus would be a car that I'd need to get through at least one MOT if it were to make financial sense, whereas the Fiesta (if cheaply fixed) could be kept going until the MOT expires and then scrapped but still be a good deal for 8 months of driving.

4 hours ago, jmurray01 said:

Would that cause symptoms which would disappear by simply restarting the engine?

I don't know what the setup on these cars is, but some cars do reset them when they are switched off.  The limited symptoms you mention are certainly consistent with a throttle body fault.

See you aren't buying now, but thought I'd answer in case it's useful to anyone :)

19 minutes ago, GaryPL said:

I don't know what the setup on these cars is, but some cars do reset them when they are switched off.  The limited symptoms you mention are certainly consistent with a throttle body fault.

See you aren't buying now, but thought I'd answer in case it's useful to anyone :)

You never know, if the price is right I still may end up buying it.  But regardless, any useful information is better out there so that people can find it in the future.