Hi All

I'm after a bit of help and advice please, to cut along story short I needed a good vfm car with a good reliability record that was cheap to tax, insure and run, which brings me to my topic:

I took a Fusion 2 (03 plate) 1.4 tdci on a test drive earlier this week with a long establised dealer (going for 35 years), basically it's an elderly gent with a mini forecourt of some 18 cars or so (mixed manufacturers).

I liked the car, it had it's mot yesterday and today i went to buy it , after doing the usual hpi style car check (all clear), i got in it, it started first time, I drove 30 yards to a fuel pump (yes diesel, I also have a cdti civic) as it was on the bottom bar of the fuel gauge, got back in and nothing, except for a constant flashing immobilization warning sign on the instrument panel.

We pushed the car back into a workshop and after speaking to someone that works on fords, pumped the black rubber fuel valve, in an attempt to get it hard (apparently low fuel levels can cause an airpocket that kicks the immo in ??), we could'nt get it hard but could ocassionally hear fuel gushing thru, we also repeatedly tried arming and disarming etc.

Having turned down the option of a full refund (still in mind though), i left the car with the dealer to sort out who's taking it to a "Ford man" on Monday.

Is this a known problem on Fusions and is it easily resolved ?. Quite clearly the immobilizer is working fine and the car although 7 years old is in great condition (63k), I do have a 3 month warranty and I got it for a good price (less than £3500), i am hoping it's something simple, sadly despite having lots of Ford's in the past I fell out of love with Ford with my last one a K plate Mondeo, cash cow / unreliable / shed etc all spring to mind, since then it's all been ultra reliable jap cars, surely Ford's have improved since then ?.

Any ideas please, is it a simple one off problem where I've been very unlucky or should I be asking for my money back ?.

It would seem the fault was a blockage in the fuel line, possibly as a result of low fuel ?, which resulted in the immobilization problem.

The blockage seemed to cleared itself over night, the black rubber fuel valve/pipe is now rock hard and the car starts first time every time.

As well as ensuring the car does'nt get low and it's a one of occurence, i.e there's is'nt a problem elsewhere, would i be right in thinking that a fuel additive like redex can help, if so is there a better product (for ford use) that anyone can recommend ?.

I would also look at getting a new fuel filter fitted just in case.

A fuel filter was fitted less than a year and 4000 miles ago, how often should they be changed ?. and would something like redex help ?.