Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Misfire Problem Solved

I'd been struggling for seven months since doing a tune up on my 95 V6 ATX with 200,000 km. No matter what I did the misfire came back. (Solution is at the end of this post)

- Replaced plugs (twice with platinum Autolites and then Motorcrafts)
- Replaced wires (Motorcraft 8 mm)

- found broken wire connector on EGR regulator valve (fixed with JB Weld)
- checked EGR valve (clean as a whistle)
- cleaned my throttle plate
- ran Techron through the system (but I run Chevron gas all the time, so this did nothing)

- then my water pump went and I replaced that plus thermostat
- then my ABS quit working

- Replaced coil pack (NAPA)
- verified spark plug gaps, swapped Autolites back in
- replaced Oxygen sensors (NAPA, they were white, I guess from the water pump breaking and the engine running so hot)
- replaced Throttle Position Sensor (Motorcraft)

NOTHING WORKED

So I put in Copper Plus Champion plugs. They come gapped perfectly from the factory. The car now runs like it did when new.

I am getting fantastic gas mileage -- am guessing the new O2 sensors. It has great power.

And the transmission shifts very smoothly -- this may be partially due to replacing the TPS. My old one was double the resistance to the new one at closed throttle.

And in the meantime, my ABS started working again. I guess some coolant must have gotten into the wiring when the heater hose came loose when the water pump broke.

I am very, very happy to have my beloved red Contour back.

- Randall

Excellent! Thanx for the follow up.

Originally posted by rvoth:

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So I put in Copper Plus Champion plugs. They come gapped perfectly from the factory. The car now runs like it did when new.

I am getting fantastic gas mileage -- am guessing the new O2 sensors. It has great power.

And the transmission shifts very smoothly -- this may be partially due to replacing the TPS. My old one was double the resistance to the new one at closed throttle.

And in the meantime, my ABS started working again. I guess some coolant must have gotten into the wiring when the heater hose came loose when the water pump broke.

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Unfortunately your solution will probably be short-lived. Copper plugs will burn up in no time in our engines. Since copper plugs fixed your problem (and they are more conductive compared to platinum), it indicates that either your coil pack is not putting out enough power, your plugs are bad, or your plugs are bad/improperly gapped. Is that NAPA coil pack OEM? Maybe there was water in the connector somewhere?

The coil pack from NAPA appears identical to the original right down to the rubber gasket for the ECM connector. I've had great success with NAPA. I got the Oxygen Sensors from them and they are also identical to the originals.

I'll monitor the plugs, but I don't mind replacing them regularly since it only takes me an hour. They are cheap and I didn't even need to adjust the gap.

This begs a question: What plugs are good other than Autolite and Motorcraft? Does Iridium fire well and last a long time?

Experimenting with fancy plugs will get costly. What I need is feedback on plugs with high mileage engines that have had driveability problems.

- Randall