Originally posted by terrapin:
The wife started the Contour the other day and it got a strange rattle on startup and idle. She turned it off and pulled the key but the engine kept rattling and almost sounded like it was still running for about another 5-10 secs. I tried about 5 mins after her with the same results. But the third time it started up and idled like normal. Any ideas??
Funny thing is that while I was walking back to my office from having had lunch, I was thinking about a phenonemon called ??dieselling?, and wondering if it was possible for it to occur on a modern car like a Contour. I would think that it would not be possible, but what you are describing sounds almost exactly like it. Dieselling happens on older cars when conditions are such that the fuel-air mixture can ignite in the cylinders without the spark plugs firing ?? basically, the same conditions which cause knocking/pinging. On an older-style car, when you turn off the ignition, that is really all you are turning off. No power to the spark plugs, so the engine should stop running. But the carburetor is not electrically-controlled, and as long as the engien is turning, and sucking air into the intake, the carburetor will continue to feed fuel into it. If the fuel still ignites in the cylinders, the motor may continue running, albiet very badly, after it has been turned off.
I think all Contours have electronically-controlled fuel injection. When you turn off the ??ignition?, I should think that you're also turning off the fuel injection system, so there should be no fuel going into the motor.
I wonder if it's possible that there's a relay or something that is sticking, causing the fuel system to be powered on when it should not be.
