Cougar Cold Start Hesitation

[Harrison]

I am trying to solve a problem that has bothered me for over a year and a half now. Basically what happens is that every morning, after the car has sat all night, when I put the car in drive it begins to buck, hesitate, and the car barely moves, then the rpms will surge up to what it would normally be when it accelerates. Once I get down the block it does not do this anymore and runs perfectly fine. It will sometimes do this very same thing when I get in it to head home from work. Basically it has the chance at doing it whenever it has sat for a number of hours. After the initial problem that car has when taking off right after turning on, it has plenty of power and the imrc seems to be working fine.

I have taken the car to two different places, one a dealer the other Ken Towery’s ,the dealership for some reason has never been able to recreate the problem, thus they do not trouble shoot it and try to fix it. Ken Towery’s was able to recreate it once and they went ahead and cleaned the throttle body in hopes that it would fix the problem, it did not though it did make it not as bad. Both places had to have the car for about a week.

The car has 60,000 miles on it so I was thinking it might be spark plug and wire related but I replaced them 2 weeks ago and the problem persist. I am open to any suggestions on what the problem might be. I currently have a warranty on the car that I would love to use if I can somehow point a place in the right direction of the problem.

Thank you for any help you can give me.

[Honzo]

hmm, well if cleaning the throttle body helped, possibly pull the uim and clean that as well and maybe the injectors while your at it?
those are my only ideas, but i'm sure there are more people on these boards with more insight to the problem.
good luck!

[skater]

I'm thinking transmission problem. First, what do you have, ATX or MTX?

If you rev it in park or neutral while cold, does it run normally? The problem begins when you put it in drive (or 1st gear), right?

For the ATX, how is the transmission fluid? Drive around a bit to get the engine/transaxle warm, then check the fluid with the engine running and the car parked on a level surface. The fluid should be nice and red and up to the full mark. It should not smell burned I'm betting you're low on transmission fluid. The next question of course would be "Why is it low?"

If it's an MTX, then nothing is hitting me at the moment.

[B3NN3TT]

My car exhibited this behavior when the linkage on the secondaries came off. The rear bank of secondaries was working correctly, since it is directly attached to the IMRC cable. But the front bank was stuck open because the little linkage had fallen off. I still felt the secondaries kick at 3500, because I had a half-working system. But down low, it was getting too much air and choking, especially when cold.

[Vix]

I have the same problem, but have not been able to point out the problem. Mine rarely does it though... i have an ATX, when i turn on the car on a cold start, the car will hesitate and shake a little and acts as if it wants to turn off... I have an idea of what it may be but i will find out for sure in a week maybe. Keep us posted, as i will do the same.

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by skater

I'm thinking transmission problem. First, what do you have, ATX or MTX?

If you rev it in park or neutral while cold, does it run normally? The problem begins when you put it in drive (or 1st gear), right?

For the ATX, how is the transmission fluid? Drive around a bit to get the engine/transaxle warm, then check the fluid with the engine running and the car parked on a level surface. The fluid should be nice and red and up to the full mark. It should not smell burned I'm betting you're low on transmission fluid. The next question of course would be "Why is it low?"

If it's an MTX, then nothing is hitting me at the moment.

It is an ATX. Last time I got the oil changed, about a month ago, the place suggested that I should change out the transmission fluid but that I still had some time on it. That was about a month ago. But since then I had the dealership test drive and look at the transmission fluid and they never mentioned anything about needing it changed or being low. I will take a look at it tomorrow though after I head home from work. I will also test it in the morning to see if it does it when I am in neutral.

I did forget to mention that the car is slow to stop when it is having this hesitation problem. The brakes work fine but for some reason it seems like the car is still trying to push against them like I am barely hitting the gas.

My car exhibited this behavior when the linkage on the secondaries came off. The rear bank of secondaries was working correctly, since it is directly attached to the IMRC cable. But the front bank was stuck open because the little linkage had fallen off. I still felt the secondaries kick at 3500, because I had a half-working system. But down low, it was getting too much air and choking, especially when cold.

Where do I look to check this linkage?

[B3NN3TT]

Originally Posted by Harrison

Where do I look to check this linkage?

There is the IMRC box under the plastic DURATEC engine cover, on the front. A cable comes out of the side of it, and snakes around to the back of the engine bay, and finally attaches to the Lower Intake Manifold, between the heads, under the throttle body. The LIM is in 2 halves - front and rear. The cable actuates the rear half, and the little linkage connects the rear half to the front half. The little clips that hold the linkage in place often get brittle and break, and fall out.

Worth looking...

[Harrison]

This morning I put the car in neutral and proceeded to rev the engine slowly. The engine did not seem to hesitate or buck at all. I then put the car in reverse and it began to hesitate and buck and then went down the driveway. I then put it in drive to go down the road and it did the bucking and hesitating. I am going to check the transmission fluid tonight after the drive back from work, so everything will be warmed up.

[Harrison]

I just got home and tested the transmission fluid. It is filled exactly to where it should be is a bright pink color. It did not have any burnt smell to it, it just smelled like hot oil lol.

[skater]

Okay, so my theory about the transmission is probably not correct.