Ford Focus TDCi 1.6 - Juddering on motorway and engine system fault indication

I was driving down the motorway and all of a sudden noticed the car was juddering or jolting somewhat like it was loosing power momentarily. This has happened a few times in the last month but the problem seemed to clear itself up after a minute or so.

This time though the engine system fault indication light came on. As I was nearly home i carried on but the engine seemed to lack power. From what I could gather from pulling away at lights etc that there was something wrong with the turbo as it wasn't pulling with any power.

There was no limitation to the number of revs (i.e. under 1500rpm) that others haved suggested can happen if the car decides to go into "safe mode" almost.

I left it a little while and started the car a little later and it started fine and the light has gone out. I went out and everything seemed to be working fine and the turbo was now back and active. I blasted it down the motorway and again, there was no indication of any of the problems from the day before.

I was wondering if anyone has any previous experience of this? Could it be the clutch is on the way out? Something to do with the turbo? Fuel filter?

Asked on 16 May 2012 by davenpearsall

Answered by Honest John
There are major problems with the turbo of this engine because owners have been switching it off when the turbo was red hot. This carbonises the oil in the oil feed to the turbo bearing and eventually blocks it. More here: www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/ford/focus-2004/?sec...d
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