Car intermittently losing power, cutting out, sometimes refusing to turn over

Hi thanks for replying!

It is the Ford Focus flight 1.6 2004.

I’ve read the link and it does sound familiar although it has happened when it hasn’t been hot.

The first time it happened was the day of its mot. It passed in the morning then when I took it out in the afternoon it broke down on the way home. My partner came to get me and he drove the car back home. It broke down two more times on the way back home. His first thought was it was starved of fuel.

The second time was when I was going home from work (it’s a five minute drive) I could feel the car starting to struggle again so I pulled over switched it off sat for a minute then tried again, he turned over fine but then started to struggle and cut out. I kept turning him over and eventually got him to stay running, it really started to struggle and felt like it was going to cut out again but I managed to keep it going at a snail pace then all of a sudden he started running perfect and I managed to get the car home. I dropped the car round at the garage and asked if they could look it over. The mechanic said he thought my cat was broke because he could hear stuff rattling around in there so he would assume that perhaps the monolith had been moving and temporarily blocked the exhaust. (Didn’t get the cat fixed there stupidly thought well it’s running so I got a bit of time) cel did say cat when checked with diagnostic.

The third time was on my way to a new job interview (timing sucks) I felt the car struggle to get over 40mph, he didn’t actually break down that time but I pulled over as I was in heavy traffic and really didn’t fancy a lorry in my boot. Anyway by luck my partner was on his way to work so he pulled over to help. He pulled my fuel lines off the fuel rail then fiddled about a bit got me to prime it a few times. Then when he reconnected everything he got me to rev the engine and he checked the exhaust we managed to get the car nearly stalling out again, not 100% sure what he did but rocked the life out of the car and then some bits of rust (really small bits) came out and the car run fine all the way home.

Now the 4th time; only started the car drive two streets and yep same thing again. Managed to limp it off the road. Tried to get it to turn over would sometimes but then would just stall out again the. It just refused point blank to turn over. Abandoned car went home and called the mechanic to tow it home. This is what he told me:
Tried to start car, non start. Tried to tow start, still not starting, tow car to house as requested. Push car up the drive using starter motor to assist in getting up the drive. Try car again and started, drive up the rest of the drive. Tried 2 or 3 times to start and started every time. May have been flooded of petrol.

Two days later new cat came, I checked the car every day to see if it would turn over and yes it did. But when we went to put it on the ramps it started misbehaving again. Long story short jacked it shooved bricks under (only had baby jack which has bounced my car out before with me) took off the cat - figured no cat car will drive at least enough to get on the ramps. Well he did a bit but then started the cutting out again. Anyway new cat on. It started and we let it sit running while checking diagnostic. Cleared the code (cel has not came back on so new cat must be doing it’s job). There were no other codes either. While he was idling my other half was checking the engine over when it started to sound like it would do it again. Anyway big argument him saying car was out of fuel etc, I said no fuel light wasn’t on and it was just above the line (I was on my way to petrol station before he broke down) so he goes gets fuel, put it in and lo and behold stupid thing started fine and ran no bother. So researched a bit and found some info on dodgy fuel pumps which were put into the first set of focuses the 98 to 04 so we drop the tank and put new fuel pump in. Cleaned tank as there was some wee bits of whatever in there, anyway all that done and it ran fine for a week and a half. Now it hasn’t broke down since. But; the other morning when I went to turn it over it stuttered and made the same noises etc as it would when doing the breakdown thing. I let it sit for a minute primed it then turned it over started and drove fine.

So now I’m sitting thinking the stupid thing is going to do it again, I’ve no idea where else to look and check since diagnostic isn’t throwing up any codes and cel isn’t on.

Sorry for the story but I just thought I’d try and give as much info as possible. I will look into the crankshaft sensor though as it does sound very similar to what has been happening

This has been a lengthy process (since April) so a few things have been done to eliminate some possibilities, air filter and fuel filter changed, all four spark plugs changed, fuel pump changed (have noticed a big difference in the car since putting the new fuel pump in), new cat, replaced manifold and flexi pipe (there was a small tear on the outer part of the flexi pipe) back box of the exhaust was welded.