New Owner

Hi guys, i'm sure being female i'm probably way outta place here :) but as my husband calls me, i'm a gear head.... I've worked on cars for as long as i've been driving so i know a few things.....

This past weekend I bought a 1988 Mercury Cougar... it's in nice shape I would actually say excellent.. I paid $1500 for it. The "kitty" as i call it, has almost 46,000 miles on it. I plan on keeping this car for many years to come. My car working history is mainly late 60's early 70's cars when things were easier. The only problem with the car is it's running rough... Yesterday I changed the fuel filter put fuel injector cleaner into the gas tank. And still running rough. It idles fine but when under a load it chokes. It hasn't been driven in a while. I filled the tank with 92 octane gas. My husband says once i run this tank of gas through it, then it will clear out, when i disconnected the gas line at the fuel filter black junk dumped out of the gas line running to the engine, the filter and hose behind the filter, ran clear. Do you experts thing he is correct in this fixing the problem? Also the service light comes on, however it goes out after i get down the road a little bit. OH this morning I opened the throtle body and sprayed cleaner into it. Didn't seem to help. Wondering if changing the fuel line woudl help.

Any help you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated. :)

Hey, welcome to the board, females are always welcome. There needs to be more woman who can get dirty with the guys!

Running rough could be multiple things. I would suggest doing a full tune up on the car. Plugs, wires, cap/rotor, air filter etc. I would also check the timing, cause if it is off it could cause a rough idle too.

I use to have an 88 Cougar a while back, I really miss that car!

good luck!