What the crap?

Ok, 96 2.0 dohc. The engine idles ridiculously rough when at a stop and now has even begun to stall. My acceleration is getting weaker and weaker by the day. My newest problem is that occasionally on cold starts I have to give it gas or it won't start up.

I can hear a slight hiss down in the area by the battery but neither I nor my mechanic can seem to pinpoint where it's coming from. He used starter fluid to check but couldn't find anything. He checked what who could as far as vacuum lines go and said everything was fine. He also said he cleaned the mass airflow sensor and that all fuel injectors seemed to be giving sufficient fuel delivery.

It also doesn't throw out any codes.

I've heard from people to change things from IAC valve to engine temp sensor (or an equivilant) to the TPS. But I can't afford to pump money into what essentially isn't the problem. Does anyone have any ideas? Thank you very much in advance.

Hi, spades, Keep looking for that HISS, It's a vac, leak for sure, I can't be there to help but you do have classic vac, leak symptoms...GOOD LUCK..Clay..

check the hose on the rear side of the air intake box, also check and see if all the clamps are holding the intake box on are latched.

Yesterday I fixed a 96 countour with a hiss near the airbox too.
It was the power brake booster vacuum line. It had a made a small hole in itself by rubbing through the plastic tubing, just before the check valve ... its a short 3" piece of tubing going to the intake. I could hear the hiss, but it wasn't something one could see easily.

Hope that helps.

Wow, deja vu. I just found the exact same vacuum leak yesterday on my 95 Contour.

We were troubleshooting the infamous bucking/surging driveability problem and found the leak by chance, when we reached down by the brake booster line to see if any hoses were loose. The brake booster line had a hole rubbed in it where it bends to fit through that spaghetti mess of lines behind the airbox.

Well, fixing the leak didn't help my problem, but it at least eliminated one more variable.

Not to hijack the thread, but I'm getting pretty frustrated with this Contour. Tons of posts all over the net about the rough running/bucking/surging, but no one seems to have any clear cut answers. Seems like a common problem without a common solution.

All the standard fixes didn't do a thing.:banghead:

The one thing I still need to do is check to see if the timing belt might have jumped a notch or two. Trouble is, it's intermittent enough to make me question whether that's the problem. The scantool does show an unstable ignition timing at certain rpms. It jumps around a bit when it shouldn't, but the signals from cam and crank sensor look good.

its the vacuum i have the same problem...your mechanic is incompitent find a new mechanic

o3 cav if you have been watching the forum you should also know that the contour has a very funny transmission that most mechanics and tranny shops won't touch... this is a common cause of rough running and bucking in the contour. you just need to maintaine your vehicle after you get it fixed... proper tranny flushes, oil changes, and over all tune ups will prevent these things from happening...blame not the car blame its keeper. without care all vehicles will inevitably fail in all areas.

its the vacuum i have the same problem...your mechanic is incompitent find a new mechanic
That's a pretty harsh thing to say, especially since the guy finds things no one else seems to be able to fix.

We've narrowed it down to ignition, but I still need to take a look at the timing belt, just to rule out a cam timing problem.

We've checked every sensor on the car and they all check out OK. Fuel pump is good, vacuum is good. Runs fine in open loop, but runs intermittently in closed loop.

I just bought the car a few weeks ago and it ran fine. Out of the blue, it started doing this. All of the obvious stuff *including tranny* has been checked and rechecked.

Thanks for your time.