• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

P0171, P0174, P1131, P1151 Lean codes, sputtering, bogging, bucking, no power, PROBLEM SOLVED!!

SVThoarder

New CEG'er
Joined
Dec 9, 2013
Messages
18
I have been battling this problem with my CSVT that I recently purchased for almost a month now. I bought the car knowing it had issues and I honestly thought it would be an easy fix and I would be on my way with a cheap fun car for almost no money invested. Boy was I wrong, this thing kicked my ass!

First thing I figured seeing that both banks were lean was that I had a bad fuel pump, clogged filter, or bad regulator. I drove the car around for a few days with a fuel pressure gauge sticking out of the hood and I had solid fuel pressure all the time. The car was intermittently bucking and real doggish and even while that was happening my fuel pressure always remained solid. Just for ••••s I replaced the filter. No dice.

Next thing I figured would be the infamous intake gaskets. With the help of this forum I learned that these cars were prone to gasket failure causing vacuum leaks almost impossible to trace. $40 and a few hours later my car is still a gutless sputtering POS!

At this point im getting pissed. I physically removed every single vacuum line and inspected them for hidden cracks or something and came up with nothing. I also went to the extent of removing every plug wire and spark plug and fully inspecting them thinking maybe I had multiple issues on my hands. Still no luck. Against everything I believe in, I start to throw parts at it. I bought a fuel pump thinking maybe it wasn't putting out the volume it needed but had just enough pressure to check out ok. That was a waste of $100.

In my head I know there is something going on between the MAF and the O2s that is affecting the entire engine (not just one bank) that is causing a lean condition. The last thing I could think of was to try another MAF. Sure as ••••, I cleared the codes with my scanner, disconnected the battery and threw a junkyard MAF on it and as soon as I laid my foot on the throttle I knew I had fixed the problem.

This car is a beast! Never in a million years did I think 200HP could feel this fast. I am amazed at how quick this car is and how well it runs! Ive owned countless foxbody 5.0s and I would go as far to say that this thing would give a stock mustang a run for its money. I don't know if I have ever driven a front wheel drive car that could literally boil tire powershifting third gear. And to feel the secondaries come on is comparable to that of a boosted car. So fun! :laugh:

I rarely post on any forums, just mainly lurk and take in all the info. Being that this site is packed full of good info and a group of people so dedicated to a car that is less than desirable, I felt the obligation to say thank you. I hope my experience can help others with a problem that seems all too common and often goes unsolved. THANKS CONTOUR.ORG!
 
Just to add. We found that disconnecting the MAF is a good way to check. If it runs better ( except the idle ) then the MAF, or wiring to it, is suspect.

Good to hear some success stories like this. I feel like many of the posts with problems never have a resolution posted so its good to see this one.
 
Good to hear some success stories like this. I feel like many of the posts with problems never have a resolution posted so its good to see this one.
That is exactly why I posted my experience. Most threads just seem to die off with no real answers for the problem. I just wanted to share what worked for me so maybe someone else can avoid replacing unnecessary parts.
 
I
This car is a beast! Never in a million years did I think 200HP could feel this fast. I am amazed at how quick this car is and how well it runs! Ive owned countless foxbody 5.0s and I would go as far to say that this thing would give a stock mustang a run for its money. I don't know if I have ever driven a front wheel drive car that could literally boil tire powershifting third gear. And to feel the secondaries come on is comparable to that of a boosted car. So fun! :laugh:
Glad you fixed it. FWIW, and I don't know if your car is modified in any way, but enough third gear power shifts (or power shifts in any gear for that matter) and you might trade your lean codes for broken diff, shift cables or shift tower bolt. Having written that, yes, they are fun cars to drive.
Karl
 
lean codes are back and car is back to bucking. this thing has a mind of its own.

FWIW if the car is so fragile that it cant handle a couple friendly power shifts here or there, SVT should have not put their badge on it. in all honesty i think they should be ashamed of doing so in the first place. although a fun car to drive when it runs right, its an engineering disaster and an all around cheaply made POS. normally i would have long scrapped something giving me such grief but the ford blue blood that runs through me wont let me give up on it.
 
previous owner blew the engine with 70,000 miles and replaced it with a cougar motor. when i got the car i installed an SVT LIM, UIM, injectors, throttle body, MAF, and filter housing. everything else on the car remains bone stock including the ecu and it now has 87,000 original miles on the car.
 
Do me a small favor.. if you are close to the vehicle, go outside and snap a picture of the coolant temp sensor to the guage which is under the tb on the alumin passage tube and the sensor faces the driver fender of the vehicle.



now you say he put in a cougar motor. I wonder if he also put in the white/cream 17# injectors. make sure they need to be orange in color. Did the previous owner complain of this bucking as soon as the replacement engine went in?

EDIT just read you put in the LIM and inejctors.
 
Do me a small favor.. if you are close to the vehicle, go outside and snap a picture of the coolant temp sensor to the guage which is under the tb on the alumin passage tube and the sensor faces the driver fender of the vehicle.



now you say he put in a cougar motor. I wonder if he also put in the white/cream 17# injectors. make sure they need to be orange in color. Did the previous owner complain of this bucking as soon as the replacement engine went in?

EDIT just read you put in the LIM and inejctors.

were u checking to see if it has the E0 harness?

IMG_20140128_153416&.jpg
 
Yeah, the Cougar engine is short 30 horsepower from the stock SVT Contour engine. Sounds like kind of a hack job maybe...
 
Yeah, the Cougar engine is short 30 horsepower from the stock SVT Contour engine. Sounds like kind of a hack job maybe...

the shop he took it to quoted him a price on an engine replacement having no knowledge of an SVT being a hard to find engine. therefore the shop thought he could sneak by slipping a cougar motor in its place. the previous owner had no idea he got a cougar motor. i let him know when i went to look at the car. the shop has since went out of business. imagine that.
 
Yeah, the Cougar engine is short 30 horsepower from the stock SVT Contour engine. Sounds like kind of a hack job maybe...


Not necessarily a hack job. As the SVT engine has hight compression etc etc a standard engine in its place might make the car slower or have less hp but it wouldnt cause issues that Hoarder is having. He is using the correct ecu, injectors, maf and intakes as the ECU needs in order to operate correctly.


the shop he took it to quoted him a price on an engine replacement having no knowledge of an SVT being a hard to find engine. therefore the shop thought he could sneak by slipping a cougar motor in its place. the previous owner had no idea he got a cougar motor. i let him know when i went to look at the car. the shop has since went out of business. imagine that.

I can put and svt engine and a cougar or regular se engine side by side without intakes valve covers or cams and you wouldnt be able to tell the difference by looking at them. on the blocks its the itnernals that help it. the Cam stripes are an aobvious tell to which engine it may be.
 
all your codes indicate faulty o2 sensors and or current getting to them.. your bucking should be throwing a MAF code, and you loss of power should be a p1519 IMRC stuck closed.

I suspect you either find an SFG0 ecu with keys to borrow or buy to see if this fixes your issues.

You said you swapped the fuel pump and the flow is reading constant... I beleive it should be steady at 50psi when running but my brain is a little rusty at the moment. did you use a no name brand fuel pump or a ford oem pump?
 
svttour said:
I can put and svt engine and a cougar or regular se engine side by side without intakes valve covers or cams and you wouldnt be able to tell the difference by looking at them. on the blocks its the itnernals that help it. the Cam stripes are an aobvious tell to which engine it may be.
it was a dead giveaway with the aluminum colored intake under the hood. i then took a pic of the sticker on the cylinder head and confirmed that it was from a cougar with a simple call to my local ford dealers service department.
 
all your codes indicate faulty o2 sensors and or current getting to them.. your bucking should be throwing a MAF code, and you loss of power should be a p1519 IMRC stuck closed.

I suspect you either find an SFG0 ecu with keys to borrow or buy to see if this fixes your issues.

You said you swapped the fuel pump and the flow is reading constant... I beleive it should be steady at 50psi when running but my brain is a little rusty at the moment. did you use a no name brand fuel pump or a ford oem pump?
the IMRC is indeed working. my next step once it warms up (-10 here currently) is to throw two new O2 sensors in it. i have no other codes except the ones in the title.

the entire sending unit was swapped TWICE. ive also put THREE MAFs in it.

I found an SFG0 at a local yard but the keys were no where to be found :(
 
Back
Top