2000 Contour Idles up and down and dies at idle. 56,000 Miles

[chadman577]

I having some problems with my contour and I am hoping so one will be able to point me the right direction.
Some times it will idle up and down and die at stop lights. Happens more when its warm.
I changed the filter this weekend and the old one looked pretty clean ( no oil) but it didn't fix the problem.
Runs fine on Regular Gas. Has good power on both Gas and CNG.
When its not reving up or down it idles smooth.

Any help would be great.

Thanks.

[chadman577]

Re: 2000 Contour Idles up and down and dies at idle. 56,000 Miles

Any Ideas ? I did a tune up last night and it made no change. It's getting worse by the day. Still drives like new but no idle.

[larrycng]

Re: 2000 Contour Idles up and down and dies at idle. 56,000 Miles

2 things that I can think of; one is to clean the throttle body and Idle air control; two is to disconnect the battery for about 15 minutes to reset the PCM's

Before you start and if you have access to a scantool check the IAC counts, should be under about 15% if I remember right.


On the throttle body use some carb and choke cleaner (the cheap stuff is at WalMart), don't soak it and use an old tooth brush to scrub the throttle blade and bore. KEEP THE TPS (THROTTLE POSITION SENSOR ) at the 12 o'clock position (throttle shaft vertical) to keep from soaking the TPS. (shoot a little carb cleaner in the bore, use the tooth brush to break the stuff loose, shoot it again to flush], and repeat as necessary. On the idle air control (IAC) keep the solenoid at the 12 O'clock position and shoot some carb cleaner from top to bottom and from biottom to top to clean it out. Replace all gaskets with new ones, reinstall components and plug them in (I forgot that once), hook up battery and start vehicle.

The vehicle will run a little funny until it relearns the vehicle's driving habits. Go drive the car for 15 to 20 minutes and should run almost normal Within and day or so it will back to "normal" and the problem will be gone

You might want to check the TPS adjustment procedure. Don't put 12 volts to the IAC, it is duty cycle solenoid.

The explaination is a little detailed, but I don't know you mechinal backtround and experience, so please don't be offended.

Larrycng

[chadman577]

Re: 2000 Contour Idles up and down and dies at idle. 56,000 Miles

Thanks for the help ! I'll try it tomorrow. It gotten so bad that some times it won't even idle any more. Today I checked for Vacuum Leaks and replaced the coil. No luck yet. I like to think I am pretty good with cars so the details make sense.
I thought about the TPS and IAC But it runs fine on regular gas. Is it possible for it to run fine on gas but not on CNG with a bad TPS or IAC?

I really appriate the help.

[chadman577]

Re: 2000 Contour Idles up and down and dies at idle. 56,000 Miles

Thanks for your help. I decided I was beat and took it to Natural Solutions and they rebuilt/Cleaned the Compuvalve and it apears its fixed ! Only time will tell.

[locosmotion]

Re: 2000 Contour Idles up and down and dies at idle. 56,000 Miles

The vacuum line going to the compuvalve if damaged or unplugged will cause idle surge and stall.