I have a 96 Contour GL, 78000 miles.
Everything worked great (except the standard problems with the fuel door, sensitive alignment, etc.) until last April, when the engine misfired and the check engine light first came on.
The CEL went off, as it should in a misfire, but then came on and stayed on six weeks later. The car was rough at idle at stoplights (flat - flat - SURGE - flat - flat - SURGE) and it stalled once. Gas mileage fell by 50%.
In July, I had the dealer check it, and they cleaned the MAF. This solved the problem for a couple weeks, when the CEL came back on and the idle problem returned. That time, they replace the mass-air-flow sensor.
Two months later, same problem. Rough idle, getting worse. The engine misfired while driving, so the CEL came back on.
Any thoughts? I'm hoping for a defective MAF sensor, which the dealer will replace for free.
