1999 Ford Contour 1999 Contour 2.5 Jerking

Tiny
LILMSBAX
  • MEMBER
  • 1999 FORD CONTOUR
Shakes or Wobbles problem
1999 Ford Contour 6 cyl Automatic 150000 miles

I recently had work done to the catlytic converters. The car drove fine but the check engine light was on so it wouldn't pass inspection. After having the work done, the car jerks and whistles under the bottom. It does not cut off. The shop did not replace the converters. Instead, they removed the two top 02 sensors, plugged where they were, and put two new ones further down. The mechanic told me that the sensors are feeding off information from the back converter. The car drove fine for two weeks after the work was done. Now it constantly jerks even while coasting.

When I took it back to the shop, they suggested it may be the transmission but inorder to tell, they needed to drop it and take it apart. I declined because there was no problem until they did the work mentioned above. The CEL comes on but the code is for the EGR(?). This code was present before but it was not active.
Thursday, April 1st, 2010 AT 10:06 AM

3 Replies

Tiny
MERLIN2021
  • MECHANIC
  • 17,250 POSTS
The O2 sensors are feeding off the downstream sensors? Not sure what that means, did they wire the new sensors into the downstream circuit? If so, this will never run right until that's fixed. Also EGR can cause this, what is the codes? P0401?
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Sunday, April 4th, 2010 AT 8:51 AM
Tiny
LILMSBAX
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To my knowledge front conveters are not even setup to send out a reading anymore. From what I understood from the mechanic, the emissions system is only reading from the back converter (if that makes sense). If this is the problem then the best thing to do would to be to have whatever they did undone and replace the front two converters?

The EGR code is P0401. The Ford dealership gave me an estimate for the DPFE sensor. Another mechanic (not the shop that did the converter work) gave me an estimate for the DPFE switch. Are they the same thing? Ford wants $164 and the other shop wants $234.

Yesterday the car was slightly jerking while I was stopped at a light. After the light changed, it would hardly move when I applied pressure to the gas pedal.
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Sunday, April 4th, 2010 AT 11:10 AM
Tiny
MERLIN2021
  • MECHANIC
  • 17,250 POSTS
Yep! Pull the egr off, clean the port under it all the way to the throttle plate, I use a length of steel coathanger. Put it all back together, reset the codes, if light comes on again, replace the EGR position sensor, thats the one the two small hoses from the exhaust plug into! Also make sure the EGR hold vacuum, and the pintle moves when vac is applied. Whistle? Maybe there is a small pinhole in the exhuast where they removed an O2 sensor and sealed it up? In your case where the converters are suspect, it is also possible that one of them os clogged, causing too much backpressure, and setting the P0401 code.
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Monday, April 5th, 2010 AT 2:58 PM

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