Thread: 1996 ford contour

Tweet

a clogged egr passage will cause a running condition. as will a stuck egr valve. heck, with any car, put vacume on the egr valve and see what happens as its idling. it will stall, or come darn close to it.
most common on fords is P0401, insufficient egr flow. test the egr by putting 15in/hg to the egr valve and notice for a change in idle. if there is no change, pull the egr, clear the passage in the intake. reinstall the egr valve and retest. if there is a change in idle test the dpfe sensor. you will need a scan tool to do this. at least ive never tried any other way. if the dpfe is out of voltage, replace it. if i remember right, it should be at around .9v at an idle.
ive only seen a hand full of P0402 which is exesive egr flow. most likely in this case its the egr valve sticking opened. pull the egr and inspect it for high carbon build up. if theres a lot, clean it out and bench test it to see if the diaphram is working. reinstall and test with vacume. listen for an idle change. the dpfe could also cause the excesive egr flow so it should be tested.
annother VERY common problem with the 2.5 v6 motors is the butterflys in the secondary intake runners sticking open. normally this causes surging on the freeway and lack of low end power. but id imagine it could cause an idle concern.
as stated above, check the codes and work off of those.

bob

The problem might be a idle air compensator. A little valve on top of the throttle body that sticks or just fails with age. I had the same problem with my 96 contour, it's common with age. about $ 70. Don't forget to reset the ECM.

My bad I see you replaced the IAC, but did you reset the ECM Disconnect the battery works best for me.

I just thought of another stalling issue that cropped up about five years ago.
The O-Rings on the lower intake started leaking. First I got an engine light, Code rear bank too lean. Then it would not idle right and it started surging.
The dealer wanted $700 to change them, but I did it myself. Got to www.contour .org. They have photos.

Sorry..couldn't resist