Hey Guys,

Right got a bit of a problem with the missus's Rs1800 - Recently its been driving like a proper dog! (mainly when cold or wet first thing in morning, but has done it on dry days) The problem gets better when car is warmed up but its still there but only minimal. Not sure whether its miss-firing or something else but driving along and all of a sudden it will judder so hard i nearly loose my front teeth on the steering wheel.

After it judders a few times i try to plant the throttle to see if i can push through and it will pull like a train for about 4 secs then the car will judder and lose all power.its coughs and splutters out the exhaust like nobodys business. It has even died on me twice going down a hill.

Its been at a garage now for a little over 4 weeks!!! ( and they are supposed to be a very very good garage) they have no idea what the problem is - their complelty stumped, they take it out with laptops all plugged in and it shows no faults what so ever, and its not as if its intermittant fault - its there all the time. they have replaced plugs, leads, maf sensor everything but still no difference.

If anyone on here can shed any kind of light of what i can check or what they think it could be then please please dont hesitate. Because if i cant fix it, i will have to sell up and loose alot of money!!

The garage have come back to me today saying they really believe that the problem is the ecu ( even though i havnt touched it the whole time my missus has owned the vehicle)

they can get a loan ecu for £50 - it it fixes the problem then i just pay the price of the ecu, if it doesnt fix the problem i have to pay the £50.

Could it be the ecu?

Do you guys think this sounds a con? should i try and source an ecu myself??? even if i can borrow one just to see i it fixes the problem?


Things that have been checked:

TPS,
CPS,
Lambda sensor (altho its a non ford one)
Plugs,
Leads,
Maf,

Cheers,

Ade