Have an 07 smax and over the last 3 months it has randomly cut out…enough in it to coast to hard shoulder but everything cuts out including power steering. Give it a minute or so and it starts again with a turn of the key and away we go.

Any ideas? In for a service either next week or following and will tell them about but would appreciate thoughts so I have a vague idea of what they may say.Also is there anything a Luddite like myself can check?
Cheers.

My focus used to do that, it was a loose connection on the battery, have you checked that

my mondeo 57plate used to do that, comming into corners and roundabouts etc.. the fker had me off the road twice. Went back eventually as ford kept telling the problem was fixed and it would then do it again. We had issues with loads of ford electrical gremlins in the company fleet, the whole lot went back early.

supermasrket fuel, accelerate hard in second and third after topping up with Shell or Texaco, best doen in the dark due to loads of smoke etc.

My mate’s 51 mondeo tdci had a similar fault. He eventually pinned it down to a blockage in the fuel tank/lines but had tried allsorts to get it fixed including spending a few hundred on new fuel pump.

It could be lots of things especially on a diesel so start off with the cheapest/easiest fixes first.

You need to get it on diagnostics, it should store the fault codes. Without this it could be a huge amount of things.

When my seat Leon 2.0 tdi did this, it ended up with a new turbo as the vanes had jammed. Expensive.

Does it do it in a specific rev range/speed?

Faulty coolant temp sensor causes intermitant cutting out on the 2 litre diesel (peugeot engine).

Faulty sensor won’t show up on diagnostic check as the sensor won’t have failed.

First port of call would be to change the fuel filter, this should be done at least every second service at 25k and is cheap enough to do at every service. Your engine is the later euro 4 pug /Citroen unit. A common failure point on these is a cam lift sensor this tells the engine where abouts all the bits are in the firing cycle, if the sensor miss reads it tells the engine to cut. Not to pricy to fix as it’s a well known prob. Good luck.

As Inbred said fuel filter or knock sensor

More forum experts – “As Inbred said fuel filter or knock sensor” – Your problem with the second component is that it’s a diesel & you’ll have difficulty finding it…

This can lift sensor thing…any ideas of cost? I was going to be trading it in this year for a newer car, but if it is pricey I might keep for another year.

Not expensive but as pointed out can be a sod to get at. I would check the fuel filter first

That’s very similiar symtoms to the crank sensor failure I had on my older Focus. Though I think that probably ought to fire a flashing glowplug light warning even on the more recent ones? (similiar to cam sensor)

I’d be getting the fault codes read personally.

If the cam lift sensor fails or is playing up your engine light will come on when the engine cuts out. One of our company cars had this fault, turn off ignition then it would clear. Start car everything fine until it decided to cut out again. I think the sensor moves in its holder or comes lose and miss reads the cam position and cuts the engine to stop any damage. 20 mins to diagnose and change plus cost of sensor. That was 3 yrs ago. If of course it is that. As said in previous posts these engines live and die by using good fuel and having regular fuel filter changes.