Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Maintenance off-idle miss

Hot or cold, the engine stutters really bad when I hold it just higher than idle, mabye 1/8" of pedal travel. Problem is, thats all I need to keep the car going at speed, so its getting really annoying. Any throttle position above that the engine runs fine. Throttle response in nuetral is great, unless I try to rev it slowly from idle, then it bogs pretty bad. In gear, once I get the pedal past that point, the car accelerates smoothly.

In the last few weeks, I have installed new Autolite platinum plugs (proper gap), new wires, and replaced the timing belt. The miss was there before any of this was done, but was barely noticable and has gotten worse since. Reset PCM with no change. No CEL.

What do you think? TPS? Coil?

On an unrelated note, my timing belt shredded while on the highway last week. One of the tensioners froze up, and the result was an engine covered in black dust that used to be the timing belt. Got it changed in a bank parking lot in under 3 hours. I used my spark plug cover for a cam timing tool. Thank God for non-interference engines

TIA for any help.

Funny thing you said this.....my Tour did it's whole life. I just gave up....the car ran fine. I thought it was odd, glad I know I wasn't going nuts.

Interesting. I wonder if this is a common problem.

ya its common, my bottom idler froze up and literally exploded in the timing belt chamber.

I collected all the balls, replaced all of the parts and now my belt is running offcenter.

Mine had a rough idle with the idler all out of place since the tensioner was being stressed. The idle was rough everything else ran just bcs it would surpass that initial stress from the parts in there.

It seems to be common for the idler to go, good idea to replace them all.

Any idea why the belt would be running offcenter towards the outer rim? please let me know, im trying to fix mine up.

YES thank GOD for non interference engines.

you can change it, just make sure its done properly, all new idlers and tensioner.

Non interference engines are great bcs theres no valve damage, so guys like us can actually play around with them. OTherwise you would see many scrap ford engines around LOL.

TPS comes in tomorrow. We will see if it helps. For only $25 its not a huge loss if it doesnt.

If not, Im probably gonna look into a new stock or MSD coil. Since both pieces are factory, it wont hurt to replace them anyway.

whats a TPS????

T position sensor?
If its the cam position sensor its a waste, i did the same thing and it was a mulched up idler (the bottom one)

If the car runs perfectly above idle, its something in ur timing, either a broken tensioner or idler that mulching up the belt. Remove the timing belt cover and just take a look, if the belt is cut, scratched or u see excess rubber in there. Get the timing belt / tensioner/ idlers replaced.

Trust me, its worth it in the long run. Just as long as a mechanic does the tensioning LOL.. I still need to get that done.

My mom's tour done the same thing and it turned out that it was the PCV valve. After the guy done that it ran fine.