need help with a 95 Mercury Tracer
 

my fiance has a 95 tracer with 140 thousand miles on it. It has recently started acting up. When going down the road at a constant speed the engine will stumble for a few seconds and then resume normal operation. The car also seems excessivley sluggish even for a 4 cyl. Other than this the car runs and idles fine and gets good gas milage. I ran a bottle of fuel injector cleaner through it but that seemed to make it worse. The only thing that I can think of that could cause the problem is one of the spark plugs. The car has three new plugs and wires but one plug has not been changed in at least 5 years and still has an orginal plug wire on it. Does anyone know if the plug/wire could cause this problem, or have any other ideas as to what might be wrong? I am willing to do almost anything to fix the car and any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Justin

Almost forgot!
 

The car has the 1.9 litre engine in it.

Thanks again

Get a new full set of Autolite copper plugs some wires. There is no cap or rotor on that motor, if its the 1.9 sohc.

The next step is checking your MAF sensor. Does the check engine light come on? Call around and you can get a rebuilt unit for about $100. Drop it in, and see if it helps. If it doesn't, just take it back. Shady, I know, but I'm not sure how to bench test the one you have.

That car shouldn't be real sluggish, just slow.

The only reason I havent tried changing the other plug is because it is a real pain, it is hid behind the alternator. I think I will try it tomorrow though. She said the check engine light came on so she puled over and called me but when we restarted the car it never came back on. I will also look into a MAF sensor and try and pick one up next time I come up with an extra hundred dollars. Thanks for your help, anyone elses ideas are still welcome though.

Thanks again, Justin

A 6" extension with a u-joint will get to that plug. I know what a pain it is to get to, just wait until the car has cooled off.

What she said is consistent with the MAF. That car has OBD-I which will not store a code, so anytime you turn the car off it has to find the problem again. Call around the junkyards and shops to see if anyone has a used MAF for that car lying around.

Or a shop should be able to come up with one to test in the car. I know what a huge pain the arse that is, my 93 Escort did that for about two years, and no one could diagnose it. It was the MAF, so I'm fairly certain that's your problem. Get it fixed before is screws with something more major.