Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Cooler weather problems

I need some help diagnosing a problem I am having. The cooler weather has moved in and every morning my car starts perfectly; however, once i get it down my driveway and to the stop sign ~300 feet away, the car will just about die. The majority of the time it will catch itself, but more often then not it has completely died.

Where should I begin looking to troublshoot this?

'97 5speed

It nearly dies when your stopping ?

Mine does the same, but only in 2nd. If I come to a stop in 3rd, she's much healthier. I read somewhere about it being a problem in 2nd, can't remember where though,.

It doesn't matter what gear I am in...first, second, third, neutral. If I am not pumping the gas a little the thing pretty much tries to quit on me.

My 98 does the same thing. Only in cold weather, but it never dies it always catches itself. I wonder if its typical of that engine. My buddy has a newer X-type 2.5 that does the same thing.

I must admit that I just drive very carefullly for the period that it does that. It usually does it at the third stop that I make, and I'm so used to it now, I' just tease her gently into the stop.
IMO this doesn't warrant a repair, or even investigation, I'm happy to live with it. If it gets to the point where it nearly always dies, then I'll turn my attention on it.

Well I am starting to think my problem runs deeper. This morning on my drive to work, I was going ~65mph and I slowed down a little bit due to traffic in front of me. The engine died! I was in the very left lane, so it was pretty dangerous for me to say the least, as I had to get all the way over to the right and off the highway....

I was pretty lucky because that could have been bad...so I need to figure out what the causes might be.

Idling problem maybe?