Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Car Hesitates

Hello everyone. I own a 98 Contour V6 and have a little problem. I don't dare to race other people on the road anymore because I don't know when the car is going to start behaving badly. Every day, at least 3-4 times when I gun it, car hesitates. Sometimes, it shakes until it reaches 3-4K RPM but once I shift to next gear, it starts again until it reaches that RPM. Sometimes, it will not do that, but it will accelerate like a yugo. It would take forever to get RPM going and gain speed. It takes sometimes 15sec to get to 60 because of how slow its accelerating and RPM going up. Sometimes of course, car will drive just as it should and it will fly right of. I raced a friend at work who has a 05 spec v with headers, exhaust and nismo cold air intake. His hp should be around 200. First time we raced, car was going the way it should, I had him in 1st easy and once I got to 2nd, car started acting stupid. We tried at the next light, but car was stupid even in 1st. Then from the 35MPH roll, same problem. But I just don't know when it will happen. This might help. If I disconnect air box and rev engine by hand under the hood couple of times, the engine will of course make load and beautiful noise because air box is off and its sucking direct air from outside. If I do that, the car will fly once I start driving it right after that. So, I'm thinking its something with the air supply but I'm just not sure. I was thinking about installing cold air intake kit. Please help.

Thanks

Read the rules. No racing stories allowed.

It sounds like the car might be misfiring. How old are the plugs, plug wires, and coil pack?

I'm sorry. I didn't think of that as a racing story, just tryng to paint a better picture about car's behavior.

I bought a car 5 weeks ago. I replaced a clutch and air filter. Putting a new air filter didn't do anything to improve performance.

I do not know about the age of any of car's components. Mechanic that put clutch in said engine was in a very good shape.

Thanks for your help

Welcome . Your Intake Manifold Runner Control (IMRC) may be stuck on open. Is the Check Engine Light on? Get it scanned (free service at Autozone or Advance) and post the codes.

Light is not on but the guy I bought it from said it might need new OXY sensor but he wasn't sure. Also, engine temperature needle is always on normal. Car can sit all night here in still cold chicago nights and it will still show like its warm but its not, I can tell by cold air when I try to use heat. So maybe dashborad is malfunctioning a little, who knows. The guy installed white guages on the car, so he might have messed something up and it doesn't show the light on. I'll check at autozone and will codes if any.

Should I move ahead with cold air intake?

I had a low rpm hesitation that was caused by bad sparkplug wires. A couple of times it was so bad the car felt like it might stall when leaving a light or stop sign. Autolite Pros were in stock for $52 at Advance Auto Parts and they solved the problem. Might as well replace the plugs too, make sure you get the proper double platinum plug. Search here for the part number, I don't know it off the top of my head.

As Jim said you should do all the preventative stuff now if you don't know when it was last done.

My tech school instructor (who used to work for Ford) told us to make sure the ignition system is sound before messing with the fuel system. Put a scope on the ignition or replace the wires and plugs if they are the originals. I had problems with wires on both my tours. My most recent problem turned out to be a dead injector.