1.4 hdi engins cuts out only in first gear

I have Citroen c3 1.4 HDI 2004. Engine starts immediatelly, but occasionally (it happens every day but sometimes engine moves in first gear without any problems) when I try to move in first gear engine cuts off. When this happen I try to start engine again and engine starts but with trying about 1-2 second. When I try to move again engine again cuts off. This is happening when engine is warm or cold doesn't matter. When I try to move but using 2nd gear engine doesn't cut and car moves. In every other gear (except first) engine is working completelly normally. Fuel consumption is normall. I replaced fuel filter, cleaned fuel tank and checked EGR (dismantled) valve and everything is ok. I went to diagnostics and there is no errors. I tried to go to highway to drive with high RPM in order to clean catalizer, but again the same problem. Car starts to move but when I press gas pedal more its cuts. What this can be?

Do you get any smoke from the exhaust?

Maybe get someone to watch for you, especially when starting from cold.

If you get white smoke at startup it indicates injector problems.

Thank you for your comment. I have tried that. There is no smoke when engine is normaly working. But if someone revs more than 3000 RPM there appears briefly black smoke. I have done diagnostic in PSA service and they coudn't find anything else than to drive with high RPM in order to clean catalyzer. They were looking at preasure at injectors and they said that preasure iz normal. But issue is very strange, someties during the day everything is ok, and sometimes I can not go more than 1m in first gear. It very annoying.

Have you tried to pull away in first while slipping the clutch so the acceleration is slow? Does this make any difference?

Do you also have the same problem with reverse gear?

There is no problem in reverse. I am telling it is very strange. Yes I tried to release clutch slowly, but doesn't help. As I said, car always starts to move very slowly (I am releasing clutch pedal slowly) and I press the gas pedal little (but really little) more and it cuts out. The engine can not reach even 1500 RPM when this happens. If I tried to press pedal much more it also cuts out. But this happen only in first gear. After that I tried to move the car from standstill in second gear and its works. I stop the car and try again first gear and again cuts out. Its like engine is going to some special mode in first gear (maybe it is by default set in EMU-maybe it need more oxygen or fuel or exhaust output). I am now get used to move car from second gear. I do not know what to do.

On a manual gearbox there is no way for the car or any of the ECUs to know what gear you're in.

As the problem occurs in the lowest gear with the most torque, how about looking at the movement of the engine?

I'm thinking maybe excessive movement on the engine mounts causing wiring to fail or even just bad wiring or a loose connector on the engine wiring harness.

Have you tried a downhill start, let the car roll forward and gently let in the clutch in 1st gear?

I have shooted a short movie, you can look it at link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXaQ-dSRuV0

I think that engine doesn't have enough power because, today I have succeded to cut off engine after lot of trying in third gear.

Today I was at the mechanic. He was examinig contacts at engine. He was cleaning electrical jacks buy putting them in and out and with contact spray. Jacks were two at fuel pump and three big jacks at ECU. For now car is running without cutting out or any error. I am very happy. But I am not completely sure it was it. I have to drive car for couple of days. I will report after.

tihpetrovic wrote:Today I was at the mechanic. He was examinig contacts at engine. He was cleaning electrical jacks buy putting them in and out and with contact spray. Jacks were two at fuel pump and three big jacks at ECU. For now car is running without cutting out or any error. I am very happy. But I am not completely sure it was it. I have to drive car for couple of days. I will report after.

Thank you for letting us know what work has been done. I hope he has fixed the strange problem for you.

I would expect any of those connectors you mentioned to leave faults logged in the ECU and readable by Lexia system (here) if they were the problem.

tihpetrovic wrote:I have done diagnostic in PSA service

I assume this was a full lexia read for codes and i Am surprised there were none, even a car that runs well picks up codes from time to time.