This series of posts contain an amazing amount of pure speculation.

I assume that you haven't chipped your PCM since the first thing most people do when they go down that foolish road is remove or bump up the governor or rev limiter.

A few facts from a Powertrain engineer:

1) The PCM will NEVER intentionally command the engine to stop. This would not be safe under most circumstances, even to protect the vehicle from damage by abusive driving (it is in Ford's interests to allow the vehicle to be damgaged in preference to the driver since the vehicle damage results in lower liability). The PCM may prevent the engine from starting due to the anti-theft strategy, but it will not intentionally cause the engine to stop. It is possible that the PCM reset under these driving conditions. Generally, the engine has enough inertia to continue running through a reset sequence, but if the reset was caused by a KAM corruption, the engine may stall before the it has a chance to adapt to the unusual driving conditions.

2) The circuit that drives the low oil pressure light is NOT a PCM input. The PCM in a Contour does not know the oil pressure or even the status of this light.

3) The various lights came on because the engine stalled. The CEL/MIL only reports emissions concerns, not driveability concerns (e.g. engine stalls, which actually reduce emissions). The PCM may log some driveability DTCs, but they will not light the CEL/MIL by themselves. Also, it is unlikely that your PCM is designed to detect any driveability concerns during abusive driving conditions. The PCM strategists and calibrators have better things to do with their time.

4) Assuming that you are driving a manual transmission vehicle and left it in gear, a briefly intermittent battery connection will not cause an engine stall, especially at those speeds. The inertia of the engine is enough to make such a concern, if present, appear as a misfire or hessitation. The same is probably true of an automatic, but the transmission might briefly downshift to second and I'm not sure what would happen then.

5) Power brakes rely on manifold vaccuum to power the brake booster. If the engine stalls, you will only have power brakes for a fairly brief period, especially if you are speeding. After that, you will still have brakes, but without the boost, so you'll have to stand on the pedal and hope you have a long straightaway for stopping the vehicle.


1999 Contour SE Sport MTX75 T-Red/Grey Audio: Pioneer DEH-7400MP (MP3 CD), Pioneer TS-A6857 front & rear, PPI PCX-250, Infinity Perfect 10.1 Other: cup holders, cargo net, Blizzaks, Potenza RE950s