I can help you with that. In April 2013 I bought a 2007 Kalos 1.4 with less than 12,000 on the clock. It had previously belonged to an elderly gentleman who only ever did short journeys, hence the low mileage. After a while I found that after a cold start, about a mile up the road, it would lose power and the MIL would flash. Fault code P0300 (Random misfire) would be stored. After a bit of a struggle the engine would recover and run fine again, and continue running fine for the rest of the journey. Sound familiar?

I've worked in the motor repair trade all my life, but what baffled as to what the cause was. Car forums often suggested that the fault was sticking exhaust valves, but I was not convinced. I changed the spark plugs, leads, engine oil and filter, fuel filter, air filter and used Wynns Valve Treatment but the problem still persisted. I discovered that if I drove the car until it was warm and then on an open road and hold it in 3rd gear at 70mph the fault would not occur for about a month afterwards. After that period it would be back, again a couple of minutes after a cold start.

In January 2015 I sold the car with 20,000 miles on it to a friend, also a motor technician for use by his wife who drives a lot for her work. He was aware of the problem, and wasn't concerned by it. He did a routine cambelt and water pump change, and added a couple of bottles of injector cleaner.

Two years later the car has now done over 60,000 miles, three times the number it had done since I sold it. He told me that the problem has not occurred since, so my advice is use an injector cleaner available from any motor store, and use the car for longer runs. Short cold journeys are most likely to be adding to the cause. If the actual cause is sticking valves this would be an expensive repair, and I would not accept that diagnosis from anyone unless they knew it for fact.

Good luck, and don't pay a garage for any repairs until you have tried what I suggested. It worked for my old car.

I had the same problem with one of these. Chevrolet head office admitted that the 1400 engine had a known fault with sticking exhaust valves and said the only cure was to replace them with a modified valve. As they quoted about £600 I declined. The fault manifests itself when the engine is warming up. The random misfire code is logged. After a few starts without the misfire the MIL light resets and goes out again.

I gave mine a serious Italian tune up and that solved the problem for about 12 months.