Yipee! The Fiesta is now working fine. Nothing to do with Marks modification. (Thanks anyway Mark.

) I decided to go through my checklist again. I had bought new spark plugs a few months earlier. Prior to fitting the new plugs I had not checked the electode gap. I decided to check the electode gaps and found that they were all near 0.7mm. On the 1.3 engine the gap is supposed to be around 1.1mm. I made the adjustments and the car has not misfired or cut out once. The fuel economy has also improved dramatically.
