I've just had very similar symptoms. For a month or so my Freelander 2 TD would occasionally "hickup". It was never long enough a "hick" to bring up a warning message but it certainly made me loose confidence in taking the car far from home.

I did searches on the internet using keywords like "hick-up" and "diesel" but sadly didn't find this thread which could have saved me a lot of inconvenience. I thought the problem might have been poor fuel that I put in when we were last heading off-road in the country. But after several new tankfuls of "genuine" diesel the problem kept coming back.

On Sunday I had a start/stop jerky trip home - but then when I went out later in the evening to park the car outside the house the car wouldn't start. Then engine cranked - but wouldn't fire. And somewhat unnecessarily it displayed a "reduced Engine Performance" message.

Things were as bad on Monday morning - so I called out Land Rover road service. They tried a battery reset and an EMS reset - got no messages on their terminal - so arranged for it to be flat-topped to the dealer (who luckily is close by).

As you will all have guessed by now - the problem was the crankshaft position sensor which according to the technicians log had an erratic signal. They got a new sensor shipped up from Melbourne overnight - fitted it - tested out all the wiring harnesses and the car was back on the road.

With hindsight - the problems did originate after the last session of off-roading - which included a couple of fairly deep river crossings. So I'll be checking the sealing on the new sensor before I take the car through water again.

philsh, going back to your original post, I had exactly those symptoms very recently. Engine going into Reduced Engine Performance, I would stop, switch off, restart and all would be well until the next time. This happened 5 times in one journey. No fault codes recorded at any time. The problem was a blocked fuel filter. I had changed it only 6months previously but in desperation, tried again. It was immediately obvious why it was blocked, my fuel was filthy. Somewhere I had picked up a lot of dirt. In a jam jar, the fuel from the filter looked like a 'snowman snowstorm'. I have not seen anything like it before. Since changing the filter, many more miles done and no more problems. I hope your problem is a simple!