I have a 2000 Mercury Mystique that I changed the fuel filter on. This in itself was a relatively easy procedure. Unfortunately, when I went to start the car up, it didn't want to stay running and idled only when my foot was on the pedal and then stalled out and made a noise in the engine area that sounded like a backfire.

Anyone have any ideas on what the problem is?

 

the first thing that popped into my head is that when you installed the fuel filter you may have put it in backwords they do have to flow a certin way or they get clogged and dont allow enough gas to pass through there for rough idle and stalls out or it may be the wrong fuel filter but most of the timmes it is put in the wrong way

 

daveman,

Thanks for the reply. That was my original suspicion but it ended up NOT being the problem. I found the problem to be a vacuum leak and as soon as I found it and rectified the problem by reconnecting the hose, the car started up immediately.

 

well that's good to here you were able to resolve the problem