Bought this car Feb 2013. Has full checkable service history. Never missed a service since new.
Had yearly service done in March 13 where mechanic noted that timing belt hadn't been replaced since 09 service which was 21,000 miles ago. He felt "it would be ok for a while".so it wasn't changed.
Car had run perfectly since purchase until 17 May. After being parked for one hour, engine turned over but failed to start. As i was in a huge car park I left it for half an hour and it started normally. However, engine stopped again after 20 minutes reaching normal operating temperature before it did so.
RAC arrived and cleaned sooty deposits from EGR valve and refitted it. Engine started and I made it four miles to a filling station before same thing happened on the forecourt..
RAC came back after two hours and test drove it up to the speed limit for three miles. He then followed me home to my driveway and I thought all was now well.
Later that evening same scenario and it's uncanny the way almost exactly 20 mins pass before the shut down. Thinking there was deposit build up in the fuel system, I added "carlube " cleaner to the tank but so far no joy.
car idles at 8.5 RPM consistently before shutting down and finally there is a low whining sound which carrys on for about ten seconds after engine stop. This sounds like the siren all clear alert from ww11.
Previous owner who used the car rarely reports no problems over the last 12 years. Quite frankly I'm stumped. There are no error codes or lights. It's as if the engine is receiving a signal from some physical component telling it to shut down after 20 minutes only to restart normally 20 minutes after that.
I'm a plumber to trade but I feel like I'm morphing into an apprentice mechanic after viewing 40 pages on this site alone. Thank you sincerely for your time spent reading this.
Regards, Alex.
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