Diesel - Hesitation/juddering

[NoggyDS3]

Hi, posted this on the other car brands forum a few weeks ago but not had any luck with replies so i thought i'd ask in this forum to see if you guys can help...! Thanks in advance!

Given the recent increases in the price of fuel recently I've been doing a bit driving in my other half's wee diesel and i've noticed a couple of problems which i hope someone can help me with!

It's an 03 1.4TDCI Fiesta Zetec. It seems to idle pretty rough (nothing major though and not sure if it's just me not being used to driving a diesel). However, when accelerating on part throttle it hesitates and judders quite badly, usually around 1500rpm or so and continues til i'm up to over 2 - 2.5k rpm. If floor it or if i drop a gear so the revs are higher, it's fine! Any ideas on what it could be?

Also, on a couple of occasions the temp gauge fluctuates from top to bottom violently and the coolant temp light flashes. After about a minute it goes back to normal and is fine. Coolant level is fine and it doesn't appear to be overheating. Sounds like a dodgy temp sensor to me - sound right?

Probably going to change temp sensor anyway but happy for any thoughts/ideas from you guys as ford want £60 to do a diagnostics check and it never threw up anything last time...

Thanks in advance.

 

[chill14]

We had 4 of these cars but on 56 and 07 plates at work (hired), and we've got rid of all of them all with less than 10k on the clock. They just had no power when you pulled away, and two of them had the jerky acceleration problem you mentioned. I think it just must be something with that engine. We've replaced them with 1.3 Diesel Corsa's. Not much quicker but they do at least accelerate.

 

[NoggyDS3]

Thanks for the reply mate, at least i know its not just a problem with our particular car... although a bit annoying that it's obv a common issue and they still hadn;t sorted it by 07!!! It'll probably be getting changed next year anyway and i dont have to use it that often!