My rough running returned with a vengeance (popping & spluttering) about 2 weeks ago, so having exhausted all my ideas I decided to go back & go through everything again.
I apologise in advance for the lack of photos, this is due to the fact that after about 3 minutes my mood changed from a bit iritated to murderous!
I decided to start by checking my fuel filter (bear in mind that the car was serviced recently & I'd specifically asked them to change the fuel & oil filters), so I jacked her up & had a nosey; the filter looked like the original (covered in corrosion)! Luckily my local motorsave store opens on Sundays so I nipped round & grabbed a replacement thinking this would be a 10 minute job, how wrong I was!
I quickly whipped out the fuel pump fuse & depressurised the fuel system. Undid the engine side connection & the petrol the dribbled out was black. When I finished swearing & cursing, I proceeded to try to remove the tank side clip.... That was seized. After about 20 minutes it finally came off. Unfortunately it actually sheared off, leaving the end of the filter tube in the clip (cue more swearing). The fuel that came out of the filter was worse than black, it could only be described as sludge.
After (a lot) more swearing I gave up on trying to get the tube out of the clip & just clamped the hose directly on to the new filter (temporary fix till I can get to the stealers tomorrow), checked for leaks & went for a quick run. The difference was instantly apparent. Still not perfect, but with the amount of crap that was clearly getting through the filter it's not surprising. I think she's going to be running with redex in for the next couple of refills.
