308 Keeps 'Coughing' and Cutting Out

[Matty_Ratchet]

Hello Lads, I have an issue that's stumping me at the moment. Any thoughts would be very much appreciated!

Vehicle:
I have the 1.6HDi 308, 2007.

Symptoms:
Recently it's started 'coughing' or 'choking' while I drive. It used to be sporadic but recently it's been happening very frequently. The power momentarily dips and the car jolts.
A few times it has also cut out on me. The car will start jolting, the 'abs/esp/asr' warning light will come on and say 'esp has been disabled'. The car goes into limp mode at the same time. Then about 3 seconds later the oil level light comes on and the car completely cuts out. Then I normally have to wait about 45 mins to an hour until it will start again. This has started happening much too frequently for my liking!

Conclusions thus far:
Because of the esp/abs light, I wondered if it was a bad wheel sensor and the jolting was abs randomly kicking in. However the sensors didn't seem lose and I have run the car in neutral for a while and it has 'jolted' then too.
So it's definitely a case of power being cut.

The oil level is good, so don't know why that sensor is showing when it cuts out.

I wondered if the esp was maybe getting a strange reading and telling the engine to cut power. So I would press the 'esp off' button (which only turns esp off for about 30 seconds) but it still jolted while the esp was switched off.

I also wondered if it's maybe dirty injectors but don't know how I would test that or how it would explain the warning lights.

Help Please!
From everything I've read it seems to point to an electrical issue. Just a bad sensor somewhere perhaps but I really don't know where to go next.
Has anyone had this before? Any suggestions would be very welcome!
Thank you!

Matt

[wheeler]

The oil level is good, so don't know why that sensor is showing when it cuts out.

Do you mean the oil pressure light (red oil can)?
If so this is completely normal to come on when an engine cuts out for any reason, even if you stall it. Engine not running = no oil pressure.

The first step here is to get a proper diagnostic check done on the engine management system & the ESP systems. Without this first it will just be total guess work. Again it can be normal for the ESP light to come on when there are running issues, your problem may actually have nothing to do with the ESP system at all.

[Matty_Ratchet]

Yeah, that's it. The dash says that the oil pressure is low.
Your explanation makes total sense! Thank you.

I have actually had it in for a diagnostics after it first started cutting out and nothing showed up. I definitely want to get it plugged in again though and see if I can catch any codes if they show next time it has an episode. I'm thinking of grabbing a somewhat decent OBDII.



A small update on the fix!

After a suggestion I got elsewhere, I changed the fuel filter. It ran a little rough at the start (I'm assuming just 'till any air was out the system) but it's not been jolting since when I drive. It definitely feels like it's running smoother.

This could just be pure coincidence. I have had some spells where the problem has gone into remission for up to a few weeks.

I'll let you know either way whether it comes back or not soon.

Thanks again for your help! Much appreciated.

[Matty_Ratchet]

Hello! Just coming back on this issue.

So changing the fuel filter seems to have done the trick. It's run peachy since I did the job about 3 weeks ago. I also ran a bottle of 'eco motive clean drive' through it to clean any dirt that may have been left in the system. No big plumes of black smoke but I have seen a perk in my mpg which I will take!

I was told by the garage that I bought the car from (only bought about 2000 miles ago) they had done the fuel filter in the service, but obviously not!

Thanks again for your suggestion Wheeler and I hope the fix is this easy for anyone else in the future too!