Partner 1.4 petrol - issues with engine

[tim_m]

I bought a 1998 1.4 petrol partner a few weeks ago. Ever since I got it, its had a problem with running. To start with, it ran badly whilst cold, running fine when up to temperature. Now the problem seems to happen whenever; yesterday I broke down about half an hour of running on the motorway.

The engine stutters, and looses power. Sometimes it can last a second or two, then will run fine (normally after some frantic gas peddle action from me), other times it will loose power, stutter a bit, then stall all together. This can last as long as 20 seconds or so before actually stalling. Most of the time it will fire up again straight away, but often died again shortly after, or sometimes wont start for maybe a minute of me turning it over.

It all points, (in my limited experience) to a fuel issues. I have tried to locate a fuel filter under the bonnet, but can't find one. I've put 20 liters of premium fuel in thinking that might help it, but it didn't. I considered the possibility that maybe someone accidentally put some diesel in at some point, and didn't manage to get all of it out of the tank, then sold it to me. Could this explain the problem? If not, does anyone have any other suggestions?

All help gratefully received! I really want to get it sorted as it's a right pain driving along stalling and loosing power at random moments.