Thanks to Arno for his suggestions. I have acted on them, but unfortunately the fault is still there.

I have checked the error codes and there are none stored.

I have had a careful look at the inlet/exhaust manifold gasket and checked the tightness of the nuts holding it on (well those I could get to!) - it seems OK, but replacing this gasket would be beyond me.

I did replace the gasket where the two halves of the inlet manifold join together, and I also checked the tightness of all the pipes leading to and from the manifold. None of this has improved things so I guess they were alright before, but it was good to rule them out.

Another, possibly unconnected, fault with this car is the idle is slow 500 - 700 rpm and irregular. This is worse when the engine is cold, as might be expected, but is still wrong even at full temperature. The engine also causes the car to vibrate significantly when idling, especially when it is in gear (it is an automatic so the gearbox loads the engine). Also when in gear the idle revs drop even lower. This fault is always present unlike the hessitation and misfiring that occurs once, after a journey is first started, but only once per engine run.

Any further suggestions would be much appreciated.

regards,

Philip.