Hi. Well, Ferret II, my '95 Contour SE MTX, has been running great! Until a week or so ago I started wondering if maybe I was losing a little power in third and fourth. Then this morning something really weird happened. The fuel gauge went from a quarter of a tank full to nearly empty, stayed there for about five minutes (while driving on the freeway), then went back up to a quarter tank for a bit, then did the whole thing again. I've never seen it vary so much so quickly, though of course have seen the normal variation of fuel level guage on hills and corners.
So, I filled up the tank, and, another weird thing, it filled smoothly and completely up (took 11 gallons so the quarter level on the guage was correct) without clicking off several times, which it normally does and is a pain. It's never filled smoothly!
Then on the way home I had more obvious power loss in fourth, under normal load, though no jerking or surging; it felt like pushing the accelerator and getting little
(had to push it all the way down and got little back), just like when my catalytic converter went, but there has been no CEL coming on for this at all and the converter went much more slowly. At some point, on a hill, I shifted to third to get more power, but then really began having obvious lack of power, to the point it slowed way down and I began wondering if I would make it home.
The car starts fine, and is okay in first and second, but under load in third and fourth is very sluggish. Idle's okay, if a tad rough. We popped the lid at home and found
there's an obvious wheeze every time we throttled up, audible by the throttle and also back by the driver's (or passenger's) doors.
We couldn't see anything wrong, but suspect maybe fuel pump or filter (thought vacuum leak at first but now my husband is doubting this). Filter was supposed to have been changed about 10K ago, but Janos (husband) looked at it and
said it looks like maybe it wasn't.
The weirdest thing was that fuel guage fluctuation. I've never seen anything like it!
If you have any ideas I'd love to hear them. I think this is my first driveability issue with Ferret II! We've done a lot based on the CEL coming on, but it's always run like a champ.
Thank you!! Lynn
Ferret II: electric red '95 Contour SE, V-6, MTX-75, 65K
