1994 Cougar Running Poorly

Inherited a 1994 Cougar XR7, V6 92,000 last year. It spent the majority of that time siting unused in my driveway, with a drive around the neighborhood once a month or so.

Ever since I got the car, it runs very rough when first started, moving from 300 to 1K RPM. When gas id pressed, car is very slow to react, often dropping RPM instead of increasing. Once car is warm, runs at idle smoothly.

A friend of mine suggested that the fuel pump is the issue as they tend to be problematic in these cars.

After my regular vehicle was destroyed by a falling utility pole last weekend (what a nightmare), I reverted to the Cougar as the main transportation.

The car, after warm up, has trouble gettting over 30 MPH, lurches and coughs. The gas tank was very low so I filled it to 1/4 (low on cash) which seemed to help. Still, while it got to 50, it was coughing and lurching occasionally. This is not good on the Interstate.

Can the problem be the fuel pump? I'm sure it needs a tune up and the dreaded "check engine" light is on. Any ideas would be most helpful.

Thanks,

Allen

 

I would start with three things:

1. Replace fuel filter.
2. Put some gas drier ["Heet"] in the tank.
3. Get a free code read at AutoZone or other parts store.

Post the codes back here so we can have a look.

May in fact be a pump problem, so next step would be hooking up a gauge to check.