Sudden Cut-Out

[hvanman]

Hi There, my normally well behaved 17 turbo suffered a strange occurrence this week and I wonder if anyone has any ideas????

I had been driving about an hour and was in the outside lane of the M3 and had to change down from 5th to 4th, as I dipped the clutch, all the warning lights came on and I felt the engine die, as I let the clutch back up into 4th it re-started and carried on as normal and has shown no signs of anything being wrong since... (it has only done something like this before, first thing in the morning when still very cold)

The engine stalling in the fast lane was a bit scary, so would love to have any suggestions on what might have caused it??

Many thanks, Simon

[rabbercelt]

I have had this happen on two occasions-the first was when my cam belt was wearing and after a couple of months with a few more instances of stalling it failed completely resulting in the cam shaft being broken of course it may have been the cam shaft wearing that caused the fault in the first place.
the other occasions were simply a blocked diesel filter.

[mat_fenwick]

With it coinciding with dipping the clutch I'd check the 7 way connection above the gearbox. Some of the wires in that can get a bit frail, and if routed incorrectly the clutch arm moving could just have temporarily broken a poor connection - specifically the one for the diesel stop solenoid. Worth checking the connection to the solenoid itself too.

[Defender110]

Driver error; stalled the car whilst labouring in 5th before dipping the clutch too late to get into 4th withthe engine still running? I take it you can dipp your clutch all the way down with the engine on tick over without it stalling?

[KevR]

Mine cut out last week without warning - fuel was low and initially I thought I'd actually run out. Restarted after a minute or so and kangarooed to the fuel station and after a couple of miles hiccuping it's been ok since. Suspect it may have ingested some water or gunge from the low tank maybe? I'll check/drain the filter this week too.

[hvanman]

Thanks for everyone's replies so far. To cover a few things raised, it was not laboring in 5th, probably about 3000 rpm at the time of going to change down. Ticks over fine with clutch depressed. Nothing can be permanently broken, as working fine now. Full tank of fuel. Cam belt not due yet, although will change as soon as possible.

I guess it could be a dirty connection to the stop pump somewhere, or a tiny blockage in the fuel filter, although the engine picked up again instantly and showed no other signs of a problem, so I tend towards a temporary electrical gremlin of some sort... (ignition barrel?? Stop switch wiring??)

Any other suggestions welcome, sadly it was on the way down to work at Southampton, so I have no tools with me to check much...