As regards cutting out, they put the 'tester' on it several times over the last 12 months, and it hasn't thrown up any errors at all. HOWEVER, the auto mech drew on his experience, and correctly diagnosed a burnt out fuel heater plug and socket on top of the fuel filter. the heater gets too hot for the plastic housing and it eventually cracks allowing air to be sucked into the top of the housing. It also causes difficulty starting sometimes, we had the ‘glo-plugs changed last winter thinking it was that. Anyway, costings, they also replaced the actual filter, (i think it's a redesigned housing but they replaced with a new filter anyway) £84, analysing £79, new plug and loom £15 with £120 labour. £220 and change ex vat, of course we don’t pay VAT. the mech said that what also happens is that when they replace the filter, (annual service etc) the 'o' ring is not immediately apparent, so it often gets left in the housing. the 'inexperienced' mechanic comes along and puts a new 'o' ring in there so now there's 2 ‘o’ rings. of course this doesn't seat properly which also allows air into the filter and fuel system. so if the cutting out has occurred since a service... go for the 2 'o' rings, if it's a random thing pre-service then i would plump for the fuel heater housing.
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