Engine Judders And Cuts Out Intermittently - Any Idea Why?

[Guest HelenaHandbasket]

My 2002 Berlingo has been misbehaving on and off for a couple of years, but no-one seems to be able to get to the root of the problem. She'll drive perfectly well for months on end, then all of a sudden the engine will start juddering and occasionally cutting out altogether.

 

Recently, the "engine diagnosis warning lamp" has come on, again intermittently. Our local Citroen garage reset it, but wasn't able to shed much light on the problem. They've suggested that it could be an "engine manifold pressure sensor fault".

 

Neither my husband nor I know much about cars, unfortunately, and we can't afford to keep sending the Berlingo back to the garage for costly investigations. Can anyone suggest a possible cause for the problem and a way to remedy it? My husband thinks that it must be a computer glitch, rather than a mechanical issue, because the car drives perfectly normally in between "attacks".

 

Thanks so much,

HelenaHandbasket