Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Secondaries? Car is slowwwwwww!

Well, I was planning on racing this weekend until I got in my car today and accelerated onto the highway... no punch whatsoever above 3K rpms, and at 5K the tach just sorta stopped and the car felt as if it's fuel delivery was completely cut off. The typical Duratec "scream" was replaced with a "growl", as if it was really trying too hard.

The car has 72K on it, and it's been sitting for a while (ATX broke), so I'll replace the plugs and fuel filter in hopes that this will solve my problem. I also thought maybe the secondaires weren't opening? IMRC maybe? Would the manifold cleaning help? Suggestions are appreciated!

BTW, how hard is it to replace our fuel filters? Where are they located?

I had the exzact same problem on my car. I took it in and they said the IMRC was siezed. They replaced it and it was fixed. However the grumble studder shut off at 4k was still there. Im running a manual though btw. I pretty much believe it is the fuel filter or the fuel pump. It goes in hopefully tomorrow to get looked at for that. I find it fishy that both could go bad at the same time, specially since its happening to other cars. Well see what they say and Ill get back to you.

Thanks for the input, keep me posted! By the way, what did it cost you to replace the IMRC?

I have no clue, it was under warranty. Sorry.

The fuel filter is on the passenger side of the fuel tank just inboard & in front of the rear tire. Loosen the hose clamp around the filter body and pop the little clips on the hoses and it pulls right out. Open the gas cap and have some rags handy to catch spillled gas when the hoses some loose. BTW: you can test your IMRC while parked in the driveway by operating the throttle by hand and watching the IMRC linkage when the RPMs climb above 3.7K or so.

I thought I fixed mine with a new coil pack a couple of months ago, but I've been fighting the exact same problem for almost a year. It's never gotten bad enough to really shut me down, but I've gotten the "strangled growl and no accleration above 4k" mentioned by Shifty once recently, and have been living with the surge intermittent loss of power above 4k pretty regularly. I've pinned my secondaries and verified that the power let up / flutter is still there, so I too am considering fuel pump blockage. (~67k on the car now).

Easier way to do this is to pull the fuel pump fuse (Check your owners manual as it may vary from different model years), and then crank the engine for about 5 seconds (You'll notice it won't start :p ). This way the fuel pressure is dropped and you won't have gas spraying all over. THEN take off/replace the fuel filter.

Gasoline + Eyeballs = Sunglasses & Cane :p

This morning I didn't have a problem, I don't understand. I'll check the IMRC here in a little bit. I'm thinking it's probably the fuel filter but the fact that other guys are having this same problem with the same mileage tells me this could be something in our car's genes. I also remember seeing a post a few months back on this lack of top end power. Has anyone solved it yet?