Originally posted by Ferret II:
... maybe I was losing a little power in third and fourth. ... 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. .....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
......no CEL coming on .... 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.
....Filter was supposed to have been changed about 10K ago, .....The weirdest thing was that fuel guage fluctuation. ...... electric red '95 Contour SE, V-6, MTX-75, 65K




Check battery and check wiring from fuel gauge (fluctuating guage), change fuel filter and clean IAC(hesitation with no CEL). Good luck.

"Always do the cheap and easy ones first." 1996 V6 ATX 96K miles