I finally got around to fixing my problem as suggested in your replies.Many thanks.The problem lay in the air flow meter. I tried to clean the meter but dislodged one of the spade type terminals and on starting the engine up it ran worse than ever. This confirmed that the meter was faulty so i got a new bosch unit from eurocar parts for £132 and after fitting this part the car still ran bad. I checked the plug gap ,all normal but after doing 15-20 mls it seemed to settle down,but still didn,t seem 100%. It was suggested that the car might be stuck in limp home mode,can anyone help on this? . Also would these problems be registered in the cars brain ? Any help gratefully appreciated