[Allen13]

Keeping my fingers crossed that someone can provide some advice for a problem with my 99 Cougar...

One day in June my car wouldn't start. Garage said it was the timing belt. Replaced the belt and car ran fine. Two weeks later it died again. This time the mechanic put on a full "kit" and timing belt. Car ran fine again until early August when it started having the problems that are still plaguing it.

I had trouble getting the car started one morning. Drove it around the block and it stalled three times. I was out of town so took it to a different garage. The car ran fine the entire time it was there, not stalling once. Mechanic guessed that it was the fuel pump, as it was measuring quite low. With a five hour drive home and an unreliable car I had it repaired. Car then ran fine for three weeks.

Then it started stalling soon after starting. At first it stalled between when I shifted from reverse to drive. Didn't seem too big a problem at the time, as it was infrequent and only after the car had been unused for some time.

Early September the problems worsened. It was hard to start the car and sometimes it would die right after turning over. Garage had trouble diagnosing the issue. They kept it for a few days to start it up in the morning and taking it out on the road. Ran a lot of tests and their best guess is that it has "cold starting" problems. They don't seem to have a fairly certain answer, just guesses, and at this point I don't want to continue to pour money into my "red lemon".

Rarely use the car now, and when I do it takes up to ten minutes of idling and pumping the gas pedal just to get the engine to warm up. Usually when I get it running it will run until I turn it off, but from time to time it will stall on the road, usually when I decelerate for a light or when I'm making a slow turn. As you can imagine I don't feel particularly safe driving it so I've been hesitant to use it.

Can anyone help?