I'm thinking you have a dodgy sensor myself now, most likely a cam or crank one, these totally shut down an engine when they go, or it could also be the lambda one in the exhaust or perhaps the coil pack and plugs, this would be my chief suspect tbh, if it's got wet or simply breaking down you will lose the spark and hence the engine will cut out, plus the 1.8 engines had coil issue's, as said earlier you really need a reading or it's simply guess work.