Breambasher

Hello, my car is... 1994 Automatic Mondeo 2.0 Ghia genuine 63k miles petrol.

My problem... Firstly i had this problem (although not this bad) back in January/February this year. The car starts fine, ticks over fine and initially pulls away fine but as i give it more gas to get upto road speeds (about 30mph for example) the car starts to stutter, or hang back, like its stuggling for petrol... soft lunges if you know what i mean, and this carries on for about 500 yards or so... then slowly all is well as the temp gauge starts to move.

All thru the summer months (April - mid September) i did not have this problem once, but it has returned again, seemingly now the weather is turning slightly cooler, its not cold (im in the UK) but its cooler.

I took the car to a local garage, i left it there overnight so they could see the problem when it was cold... the mechanic told me it was stuttering for him (just like it does for me) and he seemed to think it was the auto gearbox, he gave me a phone number of a local auto box place and i went there... i explained the problem to them, and straight away they said it most likely is NOT the gearbox, i explained it only does it when the engine is stone cold...

So now ive been to 2 garages and i am none the wiser to what the problem might be. Can anyone please suggest anything to me that it might be?...if more info is needed i will post it, i will check back every few hours or so to check replies. I am at my wits end, i dont know what the problem is and if its serious or not...

tabetha

Firstly it does NOT sound serious, secondly I would be astounded if it were the gearbox, you make no mention of the gear changes being erratic, there are various problems these suffer from but none that would do what is happening, there is a gearbox fault that will cause it to instantly change down gears violently and cause a massive braking effect as it does so, then ease off just as quick as it changes back up.
The early zetecs can be majorly fussy over the plugs, are you using BOSCH, seen this more than once bosch plugs leaking when cold, and causing stutters misfires, this is due in part to people not using silicone grease on the inside of the HT lead boot that goes over the plug, even a slight tear in the surface of the boot can cause trouble, this is due to the area of the plugs not being very well vented.
Take the plugs out and look at the area of the porcelain part just above the metal body see if there is any lightning like streaky marks here, this would indicate leakage, of electricity between the insulator(porcelain part) and the metal body which will give you precisely what you have.
Don't worry at all if there is a brownish or orangey ring around the base of the porcelain just above the metal body of the plug this is normal, and nothing to worry about.
They also suffer from coil pack breakdown, new ones are around £40 for genuine ford, which tend to be better than pattern these will also give stuttery problems but tend to do it all the time, also look at the leads if original 15 year old leads I'd replace them anything that opposes the easy flow of electric from the coil to the plug will make misses more likely.
tabetha