After I had the flashing glowplug light and engine shut-down, my independent garage diagnosed 3 failed injectors and 1 in poor condition (this was after checking camshaft and crankshaft position sensors) so they replaced all 4. Car then had to be put on a recovery vehicle to go to a Ford dealer for the new injectors to be coded to the ECU as this can only be done with Ford software. Total cost £1440. Result: engine running perfect. Next day drove 30 miles on M25, glowplug light flashed and engine stopped. Recovered it back to the garage who did all the same tests but couldn't find the reason. They then took it to the Ford dealer that did the coding. Thet said that one of the new injectors had failed and replaced it, but not under warranty as they suspected that the cause was contaminated fuel. It went back to my garage who drained the fuel tank and found particles of what they thought was copper. At this stage they felt that they were getting out if their depth so they took it to a diesel injection specialist. The specialist stripped the whole fuel system, rebuilt the fuel pump, replaced the common rail and replaced the fuel tank. Interestingly, the new tank, as supplied by Ford against the chassis number, is made of plastic. The old tank was steel but copper plated inside. It is reasonable to surmise that the copper particles came from the tank. It is also reasonable to surmise that Ford have changed to plastic fuel tanks because of a copper contamination problem. In the meantime, I had a sample of the fuel analysed by an indepenent laboratory. They confirmed the particles to be copper but they also found that the diesel contained about 5% petrol. The day before all this problem started, I filled the tank from empty, so I contacted trading standards to ask them to visit the petrol station and check the delivery records to see if petrol had been accidentally put in the diesel tank. Sadly, trading standards couldn't be bothered and did nothing about it. I have spoken to a "boffin" who knows all about fuel injectors. He tells me that the presence of petrol in the diesel could easily cause the seals in the injectors to break down, resulting in too much fuel entering the cylinder (the same problem experienced by jsr1st). Thankfully, my independent garage are decent people and they were extremely embarrassed that the car was off the road for almost 3 weeks, so they didn't charge me for anything after the initial £1440. There seems to be an inherent weakness in Ford injectors and Ford themselves seem to like playing their cards close to their chests. My advice to anyone with the flashing glowplug is to go straight to a diesel injection specialist. If they don't have the software for coding the injectors to the ECU, there are mobile guys around who will do it for about £90 (which still seems extortionate, but better than £140 at a Ford dealer). If an injector needs replacing, have the fuel tank drained and the system flushed.

I have a 2004 2.0L Ford Transit TDCi - doing 70mph on the motorway, got the flashing glow plug light and engine died. Garage couldn't get a fault code but said that 3 injectors were bad and 1 was poor. They replaced all 4, recoded them and gave me a bill for £1440. Drove it for 35 miles and the same thing happened. They found that one of the new injectors had failed and are charging me for a replacement. They think the fuel was contaminated - particles of copper in the fuel tank. They've flushed the fuel system, fitted a new tank (plastic not metal), put in fresh diesel but they can't get it to fire. It's been to 3 garages, has been off the road for 2 weeks and I'm losing a fortune.