2005 FORD FOCUS 2.0 TDCI ENGINE PROBLEM

[creesyboy]

HI ALL,I,VE GOT A FORD FOCUS 2.0 TDCI(136BHP) 2005. I BOUGHT IT IN 2007 AND HAD 51000KM(31000MILES)
1 DAY THE FUEL RESERVE LIGHT CAME ON SO I PULLED INTO A GARAGE AND PUT IN FUEL,ON LEAVING THE GARAGE THE CAR LOST POWER AND STAYED IN TICKOVER FOR ABOUT 5 MINUTES WITH MY FOOT HARD ON THE ACCELERATOR IT RECOVERED,SINCE THEN IT HAS SUFFERED FROM BAD STARTING WHEN COLD,IT STARTS THEN IMMEDIATELY STOPS 2 OR 3 TIMES,THEN STARTS.
ALSO SOMETIMES CRUISING ALONG WITH THE MOTOR AT ABOUT 1400RPM IT STARTS TO STUTTER LIKE A PETROL ENGINE WHEN IT,S DAMP,A FASTER SPEED SEEMS TO GET RID OF THE PROBLEM (THERE IS A CLEAR FUEL LINE ON THE RIGHT OF THE MOTOR WHICH WHEN IT,S RUNNING HAS BUBBLES IN IT) IS THIS NORMAL?????
AND ON STOPPING THE MOTOR SOMETIMES IT STOPS VERY ROUGHLY LIKE THE MOTOR IS GOING TO FALL APART
THIS IS ALL MORE NOTICABLE IN WINTER WHEN IT,S COLDER AND DAMPER.
AS THE CAR WAS UNDER WARRANTY I TOOK IT BACK,ALL I GOT WAS EXCUSES "THAT IT WAS´NT SERIOUS OR A WARNING WOULD HAVE COME ON,ON THE DASH" OR IT WAS MY DRIVING, EVEN FORD SAY THEY COULD,NT FIND A PROBLEM
P.S THE CAR IS IN SPAIN SO IT,S WARMER THAN THE UK
PLEASE HELP

 

[Burnerman]

This may be absolute nonsense mate, but the diesel Focus of this era had several software upgrades, and it could be worth having a chat with a knowledgeable Ford dealer about that one.....
Its probably worth getting the fuel filter changed too.
If the engine management light hasn't lit up on the dash then there won't be any fault codes stored.
A small quantity of air bubbles in the fuel line is normal - these are bypassed by the injector pump and returned to the fuel tank. I don't know where they come from either, but many cars do it!
John

 

[Donkmeister]

How long had the fuel reserve light been on?

I've never had a diesel, but the manual for my previous car said that if you had the diesel version and you ran it dry, it needed a garage trip to repressurise the fuel system...

If you really did pull in shortly after the light came on, I'd agree with Burnerman that you should look into the software version... Dodgy engine software can do all sorts of things.

Lastly, is fuel contamination a risk with diesels? Possibly a blocked injector?