Hi. My Focus 1.8 TDCI died suddenly and would not restart. It was caused by failure of the cam sensor - a small, black plastic sensor with a grey plug on top of the Cam cover. Cheap to buy and easy to replace yourself, so may be worth trying before throwing more money at the car. Perhaps the sensor is faulty and cuts out when the engine warms up a bit, breaking the circuit inside. Mine didn't cut out until 2 miles into my commute. Mind you, when mine failed the engine would not restart at all until it was replaced.

I also understand injectors have to be coded to the ECU for this engine and the codes can be lost, causing running problems. There were some early fuel pump failures, but I'd imagine your car wouldn't have made it this far if it had been affected. There is various info. on issues affecting the diesel focus in the relevant forum of the Ford Focus Owner's Club (www.ffoc.co.uk), which is worth signing up to.

Other than that, I'd suggest waiting to see what the garage suggest when they've run the diagnostic and then post back on here and see if the knowledgeable diesel people here can suggest a solution, or at least advise if the garage is likely to be ripping you off or clueless as to the actual cause?

hi ben g,

thanks for the tip! i will order a sensor in the morning and see what happens. ive not had a chance to take it back to the garage again as now the dual mass flywheel has started really knocking,so all available funds are having to go on that now!!! but on the plus side ive found a uk company that has supplied me with a complete clutch kit including the conversion from dual mass, flywheel.clutch,concentric and all the nessesary bolts for a total price of £222.99 including vat, delivery and a 4 year warranty! my local motor factors wanted £425+vat! so a great saving! as im new here im not sure if im allowed to post where i had it from in case it breaks any rules! but i will update here next week when its fitted along with the cam sensor. thanks again for the advice, well worth a try! jamie.