Here was my solution to my 99 mercury cougar. It started stalling and quitting at slow and go traffic. the rpms would go way low and then kick up, then low again and die. I took it to the shop and they cleaned out the egr valve for around $400. I drove it home from the shop and it was still dying. I then took it to another shop and they fixed it. the SOLUTION was to just take the mass airflow sensor off (easy) and spray it with carb cleaner and let it air dry. The shop cost for that was only $37.

The car runs rough especially when accelerating mildly. does a jerky jerky thing if i let off it runs smooth. stomp on it goes or really complains! i find changing the number three spark plug every time it gets bad usually 4000-8000 kms with a hotter plug and tighter gap helps! and changing all plugs sooner than usual keeps this car happy! It seems it does not have enough electrical power for the third plug so it fowls sooner! i have tried changing everything else does nothing! wires, electronic ignition the works! the platinum tip plugs last the longest to! carbon cannot stick to the little hot tip as easy as fat copper tips!

Hi, I hope someone has experienced this and has a solution. If the weather is warm or my car is warmed up it does this thing that I have named the iggy jiggy, it wants to go but it almost feels like the transmission is going out but it's not, or I don't think it is. the RPM's raise up and then it goes and when it does it feels like you could get whip lash and it doesn't want to go over 40 mph, but then today I was driving and I hear the belt squeal and when it did that it shot me like a rocket. I have replaced the belt, and had to replace the adjuster pulley somehow that bolt on it got stripped. I have been told it could be the torque converter, the heat sensor, the transmission, or the spark plugs so basically no one knows, I need to find a suggestion or if someone has experienced this please give me some advice. thank you.

I have a 1999 Mercury Cougar.

I bought it 6 months ago. I use it a lot. When I bought it, it had about 80,000, and I now have about 100,000 km on it. It is standard transmission.

For about two months I have been experiencing jolting when I try to accelerate. It has gotten so bad that the car has occasionally shuts off completely. Sometimes when I put the car in 1st and try to switch into 2nd it jumps so much that it makes my head fly forward. When it shuts off, it's like it's in neutral and will not take the gas. I have been in to the dealership now 5 times within 6 weeks. The first time they changed the catalytic converters, the second time they changed the fuel pressure sensors, the third time they said I needed an alternator, the fourth time they said I needed a new filter, a flush, and a computer upgrade, and while driving up the street after that time I had to turn around and leave it there again because it jolted severely again (that was today). My car is presently at the dealership and I don't know what to do. I am a student and can not afford to pay over $300 bi-weekly in repairs.

Please help me

I am located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and even if you can not provide legal information about my situation, I would much appreciate it if you could suggest who I could speak to that is higher than the service manager, and how I could go about contacting them.