Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Stalling after start up

96 GL Zetec. My car will die right after I start it up of a morning.Or if it sets for a while.Someone told me it was because I use 10W30 oil and should use 5W30 and that would fix it.I was also told there was a TSB on it anyone know anything about it.Also when I start it up of mornings it has a tick sounds like maybe a lifter but I dont hear it at the top it sounds closer to the bottom.It is a fast tick it ticks about the same speed a idle if I rev it ticks faster with it.It then goes away after the car gets warm about 10 minutes or less.Could it be the main bearings.My car only has 92000 miles on it.It runs fine I dont think the bearings would be wore yet.My dad says it just normal engine noise that they all do it some more than others he said as long as it goes away when the engine gets warm it normal.He says no engine is perfect they all will have some kind of metal tick to them.

I just turned 80,000 yesterday on mine. The ticking noise you describe I usually got
last winter when I started the engine. After 5 mins or so it went away.

The stalling problem is one I'm sharing with you at the moment. I've read that it might
be the IAC (idle air controller) -- could be dirty. Some guys here are cleaning theirs
with various chemicals. The service manual says to replace not clean. I might try
cleaning first just to save some $$$.

I've always used 5w-30 in the engine so I don't think that's the problem.

10W30 is thinker than 5W30, so that could be why it is taking longer to warm up... But it is not that much thicker... Now if it was 20W50, I could see it taking 10 mins to warm up, but not with 10W30... Have you checked your oil level lately? You may be low, that could cause a ticking...

Yes of course I check the oil level in all me vehicles every morning before I go anywhere.And my oil level is fine Sunday I am going to change oil and put 5W30 and see if the helps the tick.It takes my car about 7 min. to get the normal range on the Temp gauge.That seems pretty average