Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Rough Running

Tonight when I was driving my car, I put the window defog on and as soon as I did my car would start to buck no matter what RPM I was at. While driving down the road at lets say 60km/h I could feel the car start bucking/surging. The more gas I gave it would get a bit smoother but even at WOT the car was bucking/surging. As I was gearing down the revs just stayed up (think of throttle hang but about 10seconds longer). Then once I was at a stop the car would rev by itself I'm talking up to 2000rpm and occationionally it would hang at that rpm. As soon as I tunred off the window defog the car ran fine. Has anyone experienced this?

Aaron
Sorry if my terminology is off I'm extremly tired right now.

I'm not trying to be a smart a**, but just don't use the window defog.

My car runs like yours, all the time, once it warms up. I'd love to be able to pin it down, but so far, no luck.

Every forum I've read has threads about the bucking and surging, and no one has any solutions. I would suspect you have an electrical short somewhere that kicks in when you energize the window defog.

Certain model years of the Contique have been involved in an extended recall for wiring harness degradation. Do a search and find out if you're covered.

If your car is covered, take it to the dealer and make them replace the harness. My car is just past the time limit, so I can't take advantage of that recall.

I say anybody else that can take advantage of that recall should do it. Why wait until problems crop up? Make Ford fix their miserable electrical system.

Doh! I was thinking rear defogger. Yeah, I can see where you may need the front defog feature now that winter is on the way.

Does it do it w/ AC as well, or just defog?

I'm still thinking it's a short somewhere.

It just does it with the defog. With the AC it will idle a bit higher then usual but that is it. With the rear defog turned on the car runs fine.

Aaron

Check your a/c compressor and pulley. It could be binding.

Interesting, I will have to look into that. Now I jsut gotta figure out when.

Aaron

Does it happen with the defog only, or anytime the a/c is on?

This really sounds like the problem I had and it was because the A/C system pressure was low. To check it out, look at the compressor clutch while the car is playing up. You should see it start and stop each time the engine revs up. Not sure why it would do it for the demister only and not the a/c too but worth a look.