Well, I have tried all I can think of here, and I am still at a loss. I will give all of the symptoms and see if anyone can help me out here. I have done a search here and seem to see a lot of people who have had a similar problem being solved by cleaning the MAF, but I have cleaned the MAF and I get no faulty reading from it.
SO here goes.
A few weeks ago, I started feeling like my car was getting a bit sluggish. It seemed to have a bit of a knock at acceleration as well. My car has 70k miles on it. So I replace the spark plugs, they are a bit gunked up to say the least. So after I do this and run a fuel system cleaner through it, it drives great has restored pep, etc. For about 25 miles. Then I get a CEL. After this it seems like it is idling a little rough. I put in premium gas, and drive about 100 miles and this rough, stumbling idle becomes more like a barely stays running. It is going down hill fast here. It also hesitates off of idle at stops. Sometimes bucks a little, or needs to think about if it really wants to go or not. After I get past initial start off of idle, it runs great, has power etc. It sounds like it may be having a little back fire or something off of idle too when I floor it to accelerate. Though it is not as LOUD as a backfire, more like a pop or a crack, loud enough to hear, not loud enough to get people hitting the deck thinking I am firing at them.
So I get my trusty OBD2 scanner and see an error 171. Check into it more and my O2 sensor #2 is not responding. I buy both before store closes and replace the one not responding. The other one seems ok, so I want to return the one I don?t need, they are costly. I have cleaned the MAF and replaced the fuel filter, and cleaned the entire air intake system, though it looked clean enough to eat off of. I have driven it and idled it about 10 miles. And it is STILL behaving badly though my CEL has not come back on yet. It has died at idle a couple times now as well. All of my hoses are in good shape too. Checked for vacuum leaks and I do not believe I have any. When it is in park it idles fine too, it only behaves badly when in drive with the brake on.
Now I have no codes aside from what I am told is a normal reading of .95V on my throttle position sensor. It says it is always at 18%. Then when I step on it, seems to jump up to 50% before going up and down smoothly. I had 2 mechanics tell me this is normal. I am a little baffled since I plugged the OBD2 scanner into my boyfriend?s and my brother?s girlfriend?s cars and their TPS?s read at 0% at idle and rise smoothly, they however have ?96 import cars (VW and Nissan) with standard transmissions and my ?97 Contour is an automatic. It has a Zetec engine. I called Ford and a dealer about the MAF sensor recall problem and they tell me based on my VIN, my car has no problems I have had all recalls and Service bul?s fixed. We?ll see IF I can ever log into their site, I?ll like to check this myself.
Does anyone have any insight on this problem, besides telling me to clean the MAF?
Thank you so much.