97 Mercury Cougar hard starting in cold weather

i would put a little starter fluid in tb..ie;;;breather tube see if it hits or starts..if it dont its not fuel..eleminate..if it starts bad or weak new fuel pump is likely..

Can be many things. Should have generated a "check engine" light. Which it may have but dies too soon for you to notice.

Check your fuelpump pressure at the fuelrail test tap. Gauges may be available at Autozones' tool loaner program. If you have residual pressure, then an electrical problem exists. For starters, the fuelpump relay may be bad.

Ford uses a 2 computer system in some models. A starting circuit gets the engine going and then after 10-15 seconds the main computer takes over. The second computer could be bad and fails everytime the transfer of operation takes place.

Sometimes the O2 sensors do not provide the feedback the engine controls need to adjust the engine for running. The parts work for the cold start, but when warm, they fail to provide the info the components need to adjust everything and the engine just dies.

The fuelpump could be failing once the initial start is over or the relay is kicking out. That is why measuring residual pressure is important.

You will need to have the Ford dealer run an active engine running test with a scan tool to see what fault shows up.

Im assuming that it threw codes and youve had it scanned...
Have you checked for vaccum leaks and cleaned your MAF sensor????

Try checking your battery with ammeter. in times of cold weather, battery has less charge to start!. better go for a newer one thanks

check your speedometer cable, unplug it from the transmission and replace it, that should take care of it.

put a blow dryer on the distributaor cap and spark plug wires. somehow moisture is getting under your cap. it should start almost immediatly after you start drying it with your blow dryer

you need to change the coolant temp. switch on the intake this tells the computer the fuel/air ratio
to start the car with hot or cold

try changing your egr valve first

Same car, same problem. Finally fixed by changing out PCM (computer module behind passenger side kick panel). Car runs much better too.