Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting A weird surge/miss-type something ??

OK, so I've had to re-join since I've been away for so long I couldn't remember my old sign in, no big, I'm back. So here's the trip; 99 SE Tour, Zetec 2.0 ATX, 85K. In the past couple weeks this car has developed a very strange trait. At idle, or while driving, I get a surge, or a miss sorta. But it's not a miss or a surge. It's almost like if you turned the key off for a half second, or if it was a manual tranny it'd be like pushing in the clutch very quickly. It's a strange thing. No CEL, it's never killed the motor. Sometimes it's one time in a mile and sometimes 2 or 3 in a row. The only thing different I've done is 4 weeks ago I installed 4 new Bosch platinum plugs, and all the old plugs looked good. Nice and brown with no deposits of any kind. So anyone have a clue where to look first ? The Ford dealer drove it, put it on the computer and of course the car wouldn't do it's trick so I paid the $100 to hear; "it all checked out on the diagnostic". Figures, please holler if ya have a clue. Ken

The plugs. Many people have had problems with Bosch plugs, although I must admit the problems seem to be with the Duratec. I don't have any experience with the Zetec.

I'd replace the plugs with the Motorcraft or Autolite recommended plug, especially since that's going to be the cheapest fix (as opposed to wires, coil, etc.). I had Splitfires in my Sport before I had a clue and the same kind of "miss" would happen at higher speeds. I'm sure if I had left the plugs in for longer I'd start seeing the miss at lower speeds, too.

Anyone with a Zetec that can correct me, please do.

OK yea I'll try that, thanks. I had a suspicion that only after the R&R of the plugs I developed a miss but I had never had a problem before in any other car with new plugs. I thought of replacing the wires but I think I'll try the plugs first. Just an FYI, many years ago I crewed on a Nascar Winston West team. We dyno'ed our motor then tried the Splitfire plugs, we lost 7 horsepower ! But we still put the continengency sticker on the car. It seems possible my plugs are bad, I only get the miss under part throttle and under. Never at WOT and the Bosch plugs definitely brought the pep back into the Zetec engine. Very strange feeling, oh yeah, and when the engine is cold, only after it warms up. Thanks for your help, Ken

Well hey man thanks for the heads up. When I did a little research I found that Bosch doesn't make a specific plug for the Zetec, so I'm not sure what I got. But regardless it was a bad plug, which maybe can happen to any plug manufacturer, maybe not. But once I put Autolite double platinums back in she ran like a top. In fact we fell in with a 5 or 6 car group running back from Seattle last night and were running consistently @95 with a few sprints to 100-110 and slow speeds down to 75 or 80 when traffic got in our way. It was pretty fun. There was an Integra, a 300 ZX twin turbo, a Saturn(-something I don't know which one it was they're all ugly), a newer body style Mustang and some bozo in a 70's Oldsmoble steamship. But it was cool smoking by right lane cars at 40 mph faster than their 'mere' 70 mph. But thanks bro, thanks for your help and taking the time to write. It was definitely the plugs, Ken