Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting shaking at idle??? Anyone know why?

Sorry folks, I need a little enlightenment with all of these ford abbreviations. MAF what is that?
as well as IAF?
Thanks for all the feed back so far

IAC- idle air control
MAF- mass air flow sensor.

you know what? all these guys are giving you good recommendations, but ive ridden in four zetec powered automatic trannied cars. AND THEY ALL SHAKE LIKE THE DICKENS!

my sister just bought a '99 zetec zx2, and for some reason it had to have a new engine put in it. well, this is a brand new engine and i wanted to compare it to my 102,000 miled '97 zetec mystique. come to find out, my mystique doesn't shake AS BAD as her brand new zetec. these engines just idle very low, and therefore shake and vibrate. shift into neutral if you don't like it. it gets better in neutral. but i just think it's a characteristic. maybe im wrong, but from four cars and one with a brand new engine in it, its hard to believe that i am.

oh, i just put new motorcraft plugs and wires in mine after 100K. i used oem platinums and oem wires. dont worry about your coil, they rarely fail and more than likely yours is okay. you could check it though with a meter. lots of people like to brag about their resistance, or lack of, since they've put on expensive wires.

I seem to remember Car & Driver doing a review on the Contour back when it first came out and they said that the 2.0 Zetec was "unruly at stop lights" which leads me to believe that it's "normal" for Zetecs to vibrate a bit. Mine also vibrates at stop lights and I would love to find out how I could fix that. My wife's 98 SE V6 purrs like a kitten at lights and I'm soooo envious!

I'd trade her cars... unless she has the pink Contour. Well, mines shakes like mad too, and changing the sparks and wires didn't help one bit. I've ridden in 3 ATX Zetecs, and they all shake a bit at stop lights. Also, I noticed that they had an agressive shifting at 2nd and 3rd gear. I dunno, if it were the ignition coil, you'd KNOW for a fact that it was it, misfires and all could occur... kinda like when one of my spark plugs weren't in all the way.