Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Stalling when put in drive

For the past few days, my Contour's almost stalling when I put her into drive for the first time in the day. She starts up fine and I let her warm up for 2-3 minutes. The tach settles to around 1200 rpms.

The problems starts when I put her into drive. I hear and feel the engine stalling; the tach dives to around 300 rpm even when my foot is still only on the breaks. I have have to step on the gas firmly to get her running normally; she hasn't actually stalled, yet. For the rest of the day she runs fine, even after a few hours. Any ideas what could be wrong?

She's a '96 V6 with over 81K miles. Gas tank has been no less than 2/5th filled. A few months back I had a wire short out on the headlight on/off switch but it's temporarily welded back.

My vote goes for replacing spark plug wires if they are the originals which came with the car. Also, have fuel pressure measured to see if it is up to specs and replace fuel pump if not(replace fuel filter for new pump).

Check for a vacuum leak.

Which hose would you say to check?

If it was a vaccum leak, why would my stalling not be consistent throughout the day? My car knowledge is quite limited, hence the questions.

Mine does the same, stalls when put in drive when not warmed up. But 1200 is a bit high... I usually wait until it slides down below a 1000. After it's warmed up it idles around 600... yours?

My tach settles around 900-1000 RPM if I let it warm and idle a bit. I don't recall seeing it drop much further below.

My brother (who drives it rarely) notices that there's not much go to my Tour lately even after stomping the gas pedel down. He said it use to have lots of go with less gas.

I'm beginning to suspect the fuel pump may be going from what others on this board has mentioned.

I have that same problem. Sometimes it will almost stall the first time starting it too. I had a hell of a time in the winter keeping my car started, but people have already answered my questions for that post. Still havent got the money to try and fix that problem. I have two codes being put out, EGR valve and Catytic Converter. I still have to clean out the passages and check the vacum for the EGR. Do you have a CEL being thrown? If so, go to autozone and have them check the codes for free. Post the codes here.

Yeah, I got the free code reading from Autozone earlier this year. My code was P0420 (catalytic converter). If I clear the memory, it would come back in a few days. But the weird thing is sometimes the CEL would go away after a oil change (no clearing done) or when I fill up with gas.

So does anybody here have the knowledge to maybe figure out if it is the catytic converter that would do it? I dont see anyway that it could, maybe some insane back pressure from clogging? Hah, I have no clue.