Just bought daughter No 2 a 2000 x reg fiesta turbo diesel. Seems a great little drive and pretty nippy.
Problem is the engine judders at low revs on light throttle so 25 mph in traffic on light throttle and the engine judders and you have to change down to third to get it smooth. There's no smoke, good performance when accelerating and good for 100 mph+. Starts easily hot or cold.
It has the 1.8 Endura diesel engine with a mechanically driven 'distributor' for the injection. Are these fly by wire with a throttlepot on the accelerator pedal? I was thinking maybe a worn pot or just some adjustment to the fueling needed.
Also has something I think is called throttle hang where it feels like you still have a bit of throttle on when taking a slow corner with your foot off the throttle. This can be easily gotten used to but would be nice to resolve (I believe it's an emissions reducing trick by Ford) but I would like to sort the judder.

[Edited on 13/5/11 by Dusty]

I wonder if it could be the early signs of the EGR valve gunging up.

This is my first diesel. Do diesels have an EGR valve. I guess so. Will have a look and clean it.

Are you saying you have to change down to 3rd from 4th at 25mph as otherwise it judders implying trying to do 25 in 4th gear? That seems too slow for 4th