Hi,

I'm new to the forum but have been trying to get an answer on a couple of issues I've been experiencing with my Tribute. First, when I stop at traffic lights or stop signs the engine starts to convuls or shake, once I drive off the problem goes away but will come back when I stop again. Second problem, I use to drive my Tribute to the mountains but over the last year I've been reluctant due to what seems to be a real lack of power when going up a hill, the vehicle is a V6 and this didn't use to happen before, I have the OD off, so its not that but cars and other SUV's seem to fly by me. The first problem with the engine will definetly happen once I stop after driving in the mountains for a while, otherwise the engine shaking only happens very spoadically.
Full disclosure, the Tribute has 160k and on its second transmission, other than that I haven't really had any other problems.
I work in the auto industry and most people I've talked to seem to think its the air intake and i have a friend coming over to run a diagnosis tomorrow, I was just curious to see if anyone else had experienced the same problems.

 

With 160K and an age of 10 years you may look at all rubber parts, not just the air intake. I replaced all my vacuum hoses on a '98 protege because it was cheap enough. The air intake hose was about to tear all the way through and I used duct tape to seal the potential leaks.
Sputtering could also be caused by bad plugs and coil packs.
A cleaning of the the MAF sensor, throttle body and possibly the EGR valve could help as well.