Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Secondaries opening within 20 seconds of startup

Recently I installed an LED to tell me when the imrc was operating the secondaries. In the past week I have noticed the LED coming on withing 20 seconds of the car being started. The car also sounds more throaty all the way through the rev band, and is slightly sluggish up to 3200 rpm, after which it pulls as it should.
I had a look in the engine bay, and the secondary linkage is in the open position when the LED comes on, but they DO close when the engine is stopped.
What could cause the IMRC to open constantly? It's a bit of a change from my previous problem of intermittent operation, but it's hitting my fuel consumption.

More importantly, where are the instructions for ME to put one of those LEDs in?!

The Secondary valve actuator is known to go bad after 50,000miles because of heat being trapped underneath the vanity cover. I am having the same problem that you were having in the past. I was instructed to take the cover off to reduce heat and it didnt change the way it operated. No one i have talked to has had any other suggestions. Best thing to do is go and buy a new one the part number is written on the bottom IMRC box. THey cost about $150.00 online, or if you are lucky you can find a adjustable actuator for about $300.00 That will allow you to set what Rpm you want to ingage it at.

I'm going to buy a new one, and install it away from the engine. Maybe below the battery area, similar to the '01> V6 Mondeo. It will require some rewiring, but that won't be a problem.

More importantly, where are the instructions for ME to put one of those LEDs in?!

There's a whole thread about how to add one in the General Mods section. Click on the link below:

LED for Secondaries

Bit of an update on this. After speaking to others about this, it has come to light that I might not have to replace the complete IMRC.
There's a transistor on the pcb which has been known to fail through overheating and I reckon that as the said transistor uses the IMRC body as a heat sink, it won't get sufficient cooling whilst the IMRC is bolted metal to metal to a hot engine!(dumb Ford!! )
So I figured as it costs next to nothing to replace the transistor if you are good at soldering, I'm going to have a pop at this, and relocate the imrc to a nice cool part of the engine bay whilst i'm at it. This should cure it for good I hope.
I'll report back with my findings.

Please do, and post pics. Its broken on mine too, and the last owner did something so the secondaries stay open all the time.