My 1996 Ford Contour is dying when at idle. Runs fine otherwise.?

Question

Just bought this car, 120,000 miles. Has been nothing but a pain. Now the car check engine light is on, got it checked at Autozone, came back with 02 sensor, ignition, and or fuel injector problems. Recently car started jerking front to back when moving from a stop. Only happens at or near idle. Not it is stalling at stop lights. Starts right back on, but can't stop more thatn 3-4 times wihout dying. Suggestions??? I figured the fuel injectors are dirty, probably going to check fuel filter. It acts like its not getting enough fuel when it dies.

Old Man Dirt · Accepted Answer

Try replacing the idle air control valve, give it a tune up and some injector cleaner. While you have the hood up look for broken vacuum lines. Try to find out if there is an exhaust leak. An exhaust leak is the most commonly overlooked source of problems of this nature. If you can hear a real sharp tick like sound that could be it.
Also some of the Fords had problems with the intake manifolds cracking, so check the recall list and make sure yours is not one of them.
Fuel injectors don't often fail, they do fail too seat, but a good systems cleaner often clears this up. I have cars much older then this and they still are using the original injectors. So don't rush out for new ones.

Ivan · Answer

Its not the injector or filter because if it was it would turn off all the time. Try checking the butterfly valves there maybe carbon build up and that suffocates the enging. The easiest way to fix it is to get under the hood and slightly tighten the the throttle so that its open more than usual its not permanent but it should hold up for a while

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My 1996 Ford Contour is dying when at idle. Runs fine otherwise.?

2 Answers