Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Get the Bazooka ready

1996 Contour GL 2.0, Car is right there to be driven. Still occasional stall problem, especially in gear turning the wheel. Runs good, when driving, has its power back, still a slight rough idle. Seems to be alittle to low of a idle. Tested MAF by disconnecting it, idle felt worse, but no CEL what so ever. Until we removed the housing off throttle body then it thru a CEL. Bad ground?? There is no vacuum leaks anywhere to be found on the motor. IAC seems to be doing its job. Bad coolant temp?? making the car think its warm? Car runs better when warmed. If you go to the car to start it when cold, turns over starts then stalls, then if you do it again, it runs and idles. Any suggestions? IAC not closing properly? MAF bad? Don't say clean MAF or change tps, TPS we put new one on, didn't change anything, MAF is clean and seems to be working. What else is there to look for??

How old is your timing belt?

Take the uppper cover off & inspect it if you haven't checked it recently.

Brand new timing belt, timing is dead on, brand new head gasket, new plugs, wires, pcv, Fuel Pump, air filter, fuel filter, breather, IAC looks original, (we cleaned it out)(we havent fully ruled out the IAC), MAF unsure about, if you unplug it car seems to idle worse. NO CEL when unplugged, which it should kick on when unplugged. Vacuum problem, highly doubtful, we triple checked all lines and all are in good shape, even the T that is under the Coil Pack. If vehicle runs (which seems worse) with MAF unplugged is it bad? or is it ok. We been bangin our head with this motor past few months.

I've got a 95 contour 2.0 L and was experiencing the same trouble as you, car would stall when first started, when turning the steering wheel while stopped and in gear or when shifting from drive to reverse. Made it real tricky to park at the local mall, had to two foot the gas and throttle. I ended up finding a major vacuum leak on the brake booster line way down by the suspension, couldn't hear it or see it, it was rubbing on the suspension so when I turned the steering wheel I think it got worse. I also replaced the maf ( there is a procedure on autozone.com for how to test them when there in the car). However I am still having other problems but the stalling is gone.

Well my brother unplugged the Coolant temp sensor today and the car ran smooth, no stalling, no problems what so ever. Go figure....

The CEL should be on and the fan should be running nonstop. It runs rich, excess gas, instead of lean.