Car hesitating

Ebe_Scrooge

I've got a Peugeot 307 HDi, 1.6 diesel. Just lately it's started to hesitate sometimes.

What I mean is, cruising along at say 50mph, nice and gently on a dual carriageway. When I put my foot down a little bit (e.g. to pull out past a lorry, so slight acceleration rather than aggressive as you might do to overtake on a single carriageway ), it seems to lose power, just for a fraction of a second, before picking up again. This only seems to happen when doing the "gentle acceleration" thing; in the "single carriageway overtaking, drop a gear and foot the floor" scenario it's fine and there's bags of power.

I'll probably have to take it in to be run through a diagnostic, but I just wondered if anyone has any ideas of simple things to check first ? It's a bit of annoyance, rather than a problem as such, so I don't really want to go spending loads on endless diagnostics and replacing this that and the other. But equally, if it's a sign of something more serious about to happen, then a stitch in time and all that !

Thanks in advance.

WTFH

Has someone accidentally put petrol in it?

Ebe_Scrooge

No. At least, not in the 2 years that I've owned it, no idea about what may have gone on in the past ! If it had had petrol in at some point could this be the problem ? Injector pump on it's way out ?

WTFH

I was thinking more about the last 2-3 fills.

Next: have you driven through any puddles/floods recently?

Ebe_Scrooge

Yes, but nothing too drastic, just the normal large-ish puddles that are around pretty much everywhere at the moment. I didn't think diesels were too bad at the wet anyway, since there's no HT circuit ?

WTFH

They are not bad in the wet, but if water has got into the air filter or into the fuel, then you might get problems.

Ebe_Scrooge

Good point. I'll be servicing it soon anyhow, so I'll pop a new air filter in at the weekend, nothing lost by doing that. Thanks.

Slowly_does_it..

How many tanks of diesel has it been doing it for? - as in if only this tank have you put in a tank full of rubbish grade fuel?

How about a tank full of diesel V-Power or equivalent, if it helps, good, if it makes no difference, you have "wasted" £5er or so.

Ebe_Scrooge

It's being doing it for about the last 5 tanks or so. A tankful of premium juice may be worth a go, as you suggest ( without wishing to open up the whole debate about supermarket fuels and premium grades and such-like; there are already one or two threads on that subject !! )

bob_bobson

Could be the fuel filter. Had something similar (though worse than a slight hesitation) an a filter change seems to have cured it.