The car will start from cold no problem, but when the engine is warm or hot the car is struggling. It takes about 4 or 5 attempts, but eventually the car will start, but it struggles for about 10 seconds on low revs, then the revs will climb and the engine ticks over fine. The car is driving well and we have seen no drop in power, warning lights or excessive smoke.

I took the car to a mechanic and he advised that the actuator rod on the turbo is not opening when we are trying to start the car, this is therefore ‘choking’ the engine, causing it to struggle.

I therefore rang a nice chap at ‘Turbo Vanes’ to enquire about a cleaning product for the turbo or even a new actuator. He advised that a problem with the actuator would not cause any problems with the car starting and this was definitely not the problem. He further advised that the actuator will ‘flutter’ when the car starts, but does not fully open and would not prevent the car from starting.

After doing some further research I noted that a lot of people had a similar problem to mine and suggested that a software update and recalibration of the injectors may solve the problem.

I therefore rang a Ford dealer. The chap in the service department advised that the software update MAY solve the problem, but not necessarily. He then advised that the actuator rod not opening definitely WOULD prevent the car from starting and then went on to explain that they had the exact same problem I was describing with another model and they had just replaced the turbo and actuator on that car and that HAD solved the problem. He also said that actuators could not be purchased separately however and I know that this is not the case!

So, I appear to be receiving completely conflicting advice from various people, with some saying that a sticky actuator WOULD cause starting problems and some saying that it definitely would NOT! I don’t know what to do!

The car has recently had a replacement cooling fan, replacement alternator about one week ago, replacement battery about 1.5 years ago and many other things, I am therefore at the point now where I am reluctant to spend large amounts of money to keep it on the road.

PLEASE HELP!