I have a 1988 Taurus 4 cylinder fuel injected. The engine check light would sometimes come on - and stay on - when I started the car. When this happened it idled fast (fast enough to pull the car around at 15-20 miles per hr) and when I stepped on the gas it stalled. When I restarted the car it would start normally and the check engine light would not remain on. This happened once or twice a week. I took it to a mechanic to get this resolved and had a major tuneup including new plugs and wires, three step fuel injector cleaning, and all filters replaced. After the tuneup the car started stalling at idle. At first it would start right up but it progressively got worse and would sometimes take several minutes to restart. I just replaced the ignition module and for a couple of days it didn’t stall. Then it stalled at red lights a couple of times - but started right up. This morning it quit while I was making a turn and would not restart for several minutes (cranked fine). Sometimes at speed it feels like it isn’t getting gas. I had hoped the new ignition module would do the trick but it didn’t. Any ideas? I’m not up for new car payments at the moment and would really like to get this resolved. BTW the tuneup did not fix the check engine light weirdness but it hasn’t happened for several weeks.
That CEL (check engine light) is just a kid in class waving her hand trying to get you attention because she has the answer. You need to have the codes read. Some places will read them for FREE. Try Autozone or Advanced Auto Parts. Get the exact code not just their translation into English and post it back here. It likely will have a format like P1234.