Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting need help...95 tour is idling & running with a miss?

Hello folks,

I need some help with this one. My wife's '95 Contour SE ATX with 58,000 miles is not running right. This morning on the way to work I was behind her in my company vehicle. About 15-20 minutes into the drive on the highway, I began to smell sulfur or that rotten egg smell coming from in front of me. I thought it was probably coming from another car. Soon after I smell it, my wife calls me on the cell phone to tell me that the car doesn't feel right..."the engine is shaking" were her words. She said it did not start right away when we left home this morning. So, we pull over and I check into the problem. Here is what I observed:

At idle, the engine sounds like it has a miss in it and the exhaust sounds that way too. The exhaust is also still exhibiting that smell I described earlier. If I rev the engine, it will continue to "miss" as I rev it. No check engine light and engine temp is normal. I shut off the engine a few times and restarted fine but it still had the "miss"...slight miss.

She was able to get to work which was another 10 or 15 minutes away. I asked her to go out to the car at lunch time and start it up. She did and it was still doing the same thing. She also said that she thought she smelled gas this time.

Any ideas? I would really appreciate any input. I am going to go meet my wife at her job and see if I can see anything else and follow her home just in case the Contour breaks down.

Thanks in advance.

I am not a mechanic... but I would shoot for the cat converter and maybe some vaccum leaks...

Do you have the Ford CD Manual ??? They have some flowcharts and they do have this problem and a flowchart for it..

The sulfer smell is sometimes from raw gas getting to the cats. Might want to check the plug wires and spark to all cylinders. Look for vacuum leaks as mentioned.

Thanks for your responses.

Okay, here is some more info:

When I first started the car today where my wife works, there was a strong raw fuel odor coming from the exhaust! It stays pretty strong for a minute or two then turns into the sulfur smell. The engine is definitely running with a miss. I would guess that a plug is fouled up by the excessive fuel.

After thinking about this for a little while, I figure I have a rich condition somehow. Could it be the fuel pressure regulator? Bad injector(s) sticking open? I also located the FPR and it seems I have to take the upper intake off to replace it? Or, is it a spark problem? Bad wires, ignition pack, or plugs(Bosch+4's)? I hate to bring my car to the dealer or to a mechanic so I am going to give a shot myself first. Any other suggestions? Am I on the right track?

Thanks again.

Sounds like a bad plug or wire to me, I have the same problem at the moment. Diagnosed by Autozone's OBDII scanner as cylinder 5 misfire.

I checked the computer for codes...no codes.

I am still up for more suggestions as I am going to try & fix it tomorrow.

Thanks for all the replies so far!

Yeah, I think MarkO guy is on the right track. Mine popped a plug wire at around the same mileage as yours. Maybe like 65,000. I think it was cylinder 6 bad. So I did a full tune with plug, wires, fuel filter, air cleaner while I was there and it runs soo goood now

UPDATE:

Found cylinder #2 spark plug wet with fuel after pulling all plugs out. Replaced plugs & plug wires. Symptom still there.

I took the car to my uncle's repair shop and had him look at it. He checked for spark for the #2 cylinder at the ignition coil pack and found no spark. I got a new ignition coil pack & problem solved.

Thanks for all the inputs!!!

I knew I should have said something. The same thing happened to my car. We then replaced the spark plugs and wires, and still same symptoms. Then coil pack. Bingo, the coil pack was the suspect. :rolleyes:

how much and where for the coil pack??