112K miles, new timing belt at 70K, recently: new plugs, plug wires, fuel filter & exhaust. The car has a really rough idle when in gear. In P or N it idles smooth with a few rumbles here and there. Runs great until you reach about 55 and try to drive at a steady speed. Then it starts to miss, sometimes pretty violently. It doesn't do this until you have been driving for 15 minutes or so. No problems showed up on an analysis machine. We have also ran fuel injection cleaner and dry gas through it. I just bought this car a few weeks ago for $100.00! It's in perfect shape other than this problem. Any suggestions on what might be the problem? Thanks!


Update: Ran analysis again and found a bad transmission sensor. Runs great now although the idle is still rough.

 

Having the same trouble with my 96 contour as you described. Were you able to remedy the problem?

 

I had a similar issue on my 96 and finally took it to Ford. The engine idle was really bad in gear at a light or stop sign but it ran rough through all speeds. Replaced everything I could including the fuel pump. Ford found out it was a dirty Mass air flow sensor. They used Mass air flow sensor cleaner on it and it worked great after that. Don't know much about fixing these except for this and the timing belt/pulleys breaking. Good luck!