First off, this problem is with my mom's car, a 99 Cougar. I'm not too familiar with it because the only car i've ever owned is a honda. Hopefully someone here is willing to help.

The car started acting up a few days ago on her way home from work. The car would die if she wasn't on the gas. She kept driving it since it's her only car. Now the problem is worse. The car dies the second I start it. When I give it gas the throttle response is very late & the idle surges. It almost sounds like it's misfiring. I did some searching on here & it seems that a lot of these problems are the result of a vaccum leak. I looked everything over as well as I can, but there's very little engine room so I might have missed something. I was also wondering if it could be the spark plugs. She's put about 30,000 on the car since she's had it and the plugs have never been changed.

I'll change the plugs tomorrow since it needs to be done anyways. Is there anything else I should check? I can't think of what else would be causing this. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

It could very well be the fuel filter. Have you replaced that recently?

 

Nope, haven't changed the fuel filter. The car only has 60k on it, so I didn't think that would be it. I'll check it though. Thanks!

 

Hah, I just checked the manual & it says the fuel filter should be replaced at 30,000 miles. Hopefully that's the problem.

 

Well I just found out that the egr valve has been bad for like 2 years now. She's never gotten it fixed because the guy at autozone told her "it just affects performance." This is more than likely the problem...


Modified by schuetts at 9:05 AM 12/12/2006