Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting 95 Contour SE - New to me - air/fuel flow issues?

I already posted most of this, but, basically, I have a 95 Mercury Mystique with the wiring harness issue. To fix it, I bought a 95 Ford Countour SE (both V6), with less than a 100,000 miles. I bought the Ford about two moths ago. From the moment I got it, it would hesitate when pressing the gas from a stop. I had several different opinions, but my cousin is a Ford Certified mechanic and he told me it was, without a doubt, the mass airflow sensor. I finally got around to replacing the MAF with the one from the Mercury (which had no problems, other than the wiring), and it now accelerates like a champ, except when cold starting. It has only stalled once, and started up right away after that, but it always makes this terrible choking/popping sound. After warming up for about two minutes, it will run fine for the rest of the day (as long as it does not go for more than three or four hours without being driven). After reviewing the common issues, I thought it could be the catalytic converter recall issue . I called Ford and, of course, they told me they did not think so, they actually think it is the wiring harness! LOL. Anyhow, this particular issue did not happen before replacing the MAF. I was planning on buying a new MAF, but so many people here recommend cleaning them, I think I will try that first. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
PeruvianHighlander

PS - I love this web site. I only wish I would have found it a year ago. I would have saved more time, money, and aggrevation than I can imagine.

What should one use to clean a MAF sensor? This isn't necessarily a question for the original poster, but an additional question posed to anyone who can answer... Thanks...

Thanks, NightHawk,
I am going to clean the MAF, see if there is any difference. A though occrued to me, what if one vehicle is set for CA emmissions and the other is not? What kind of problems would that cause? How can you tell if a vehicel is set up for CA emmissions? Sorry, this just occured to me, I will check old posts.

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There is a safety recall on the wiring harness so it would not hurt to have that checked on your Mystique to see if it is covered.

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The Mystique has 134K miles on it. The wiring harness was already replaced once under the warranty and they will only cover the replacement for six months, or something along those lines, so, they will not do anything for me. Unfortunately, I had to spend a lot of time and several hundred dollars to find that out.
Thanks, though.

OK, with this week alternating warm and cool temperatures I have more information to share. When the outdoor temperature is warm (55+) in the morning, I have no problems from the moment I start it up. When it is cool, I am still having the struggling issues. Any help at all would be greatly apprecaited, as I am new to this. I am planning to clean and replace the original MAF and the spark plugs and wires this weekend. Hopefully this will help. Thanks in advance.

Try some good fuel injector cleaner.

I have a 95 Ford Contour and had a hestition problem when the car is cold. The dealership replaced the MAF and told me it ran good but the next morning it still hesitated when i would press the gas peddle. They finally figured out the problem which was the intake manifold running control(IMRC) and now it runs great.

When my 95 se had hesitation problems it was the o2 sensors. No codes were coming up though.