CD4E Vehicle Speed Sensor?

Hey I'm back after a long absence!
I got a problem.
Was driving the old war horse to work until a few months ago. It is a 1996 2.5L SE. Occasionally, the OD light would come on (blink) and the tranny would shift rough and usually no 4th gear.
A few months ago, it did the same thing on the interstate (shifted very badly), so I got off at the next exit. Then the speedometer went out and the tranny would not shift out of 1st. Limped back home.
I parked it for about two weeks and drove it down the block. It shifted, but still no speedo.
I think the VSS is out, maybe even bad wires ( aproblem on this model).
Where is this bugger loacated? Chilton's (worthless) didn't say where.

PS - I changed the TSS last, year and it did not fix the OD problem.

This should help.

Some instructions on removing the VSS
VSS change by unisys.

"VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor)

I had to change my VSS late this afternoon, so I thought I would walk you guys through the process on my Duratec/CD4E. It's really not all that bad, except unplugging the connector. My symptoms were pretty simple... Bouncing/in-accurate seedo and once that was bad enough, the tranny would not shift properly.

- Secure the vehicle, in the air, safely.

- Remove your air cleaner & tubing.

- Reach down, under the brake booster, and locate the VSS connector. You can actually see it better from the bottom, just no way to actually reach it from there. It will take some serious single handed twisting to disconnect this connection, but don't give up!

- From under the car, use a 5/16" wrench to remove the single bolt from the VSS retainer. * Note that this retainer looks like it is upside down, with a tab resting on the case of the tranny. Don't fret! This is normal, but be sure to replace the retainer in the same way that it was removed.

- Grasp the sensor body and lightly wiggle it out of it's location. Use gently force when wiggling, but apply steady pressure upwards. The sensor body should slide right out. Do not jerk upwards on the sensor, when removing it, or you will run the risk of gear coming off the end of the sensor. This is not a real big deal, since the gear itself is about an inch tall. Along with the added shaft that is part of the gear, the gear assy is probably around 4 inches long. You should be able to grasp it with a pair of crooked needle nose pliers, but it would be one hella tight fit!!

- Once the sensor is out of the case and you have removed the gear assy from the sensor body, use a rag to wrap around the body of the sensor base. This part of the sensor is metal, so we don't want to damage it. Use a pair of pliers and grasp the metal part of the sensor. LIGHTLY! Do Not Squeeze Hard!! Just apply a small amount of pressure here. And use a 1" wrench on the plastic part of the body and seperate the two halfs.

- At this point, you get simply reverse. But something that I should note here... There is a seal on the metal half of the sensor base. Be sure to inspect this seal closely or better yet, just replace it. Also, be sure to clean everything really good and lube everything down with CLEAN ATF before putting it all back together.

Part number of the sensor - F-F5RZ-9E371-BC (correct part number is F5RZ-9E731-AC)

Cost of part - 44.67 + tax = 47.80

Part was purchused from local Ford Dealer

Reason for sensor replacement - Notice about a week ago that when traveling over bumpy roads, that my speedometer would fluctuate +/- 5mph. Monday, of this week, it progressivly got worse (of course) and the speedo would actually stay at 0 when taking off from a stand still, as well as droping to 0 when I let off the gas. In only 60 miles of driving, on that day, it managed to toast the ATF I had in there, which only had about 5K on it. Yes, I have also changed my ATF as well."

From Autozone for VSS change
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiB..._us/0900823d/80/1b/cb/ad/0900823d801bcbad.jsp

You can also purchase the VSS from www.teamfordparts.com

F5RZ9E731AC CEG Price $28.85
Electrical - Powertrain control - Vehicle speed sensor
VEHICLE SPEED SENSOR, Contour, Mystique, 2.0L, 2.5 L, Automatic Trans., From 2/1/95 1995 - 2000

Edit. Last post on this thread for VSS wiring issue.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/s...ld=1year&Main=1165885&Search=true#Post1165885

Thanks Tony!

I will give it a go this week when I get a chance.
Do you know if the 1998 and later VSS will fit the 96. It seems they are about half of the cost – about $28 versus $14 on the net.
Also, is the method given on the AutoZone website for measuring the VSS resistance a valid way of checking the sensor?
I certainly hope it isn’t the wiring, but I will look into that too. The Ford dealer where I bought the car in Florida supposedly checked the wiring a few years back per the TSB and said the wires looked OK! I bet!

Ok, I took a look at the VSS last night from beneath the car.
Its a very tight fit in there with some tubing and a bracket very close to the sensor.

Question – I could not budge the connector. Is the entire black plastic piece the connector or does the top half separate from the bottom half? Does it twist off or pull straight off?

My sensor does not look exactly like the diagram from the AutoZone website.

I suspect the Autozone picture is a 1995 sensor.

Unscrew the top part (sensor) and leave the bottom part alone.

As for the wiring and Ford's check a few years ago, well, you answered that yourself.

I got the connector off by first taking the sensor out of the transmission case. I used two pliers to twist the SOB off - what a pain!
Bad news - The insulation has become very brittle and has broken off the wires which have probably been exposed for some time.
I am not sure what step I should take next. I am thinking about putting some silicone around the wire strands and then putting the ols sensor back in. There is really nothing to the sensor itself - it is only a rotating magnet with probably some sort of pick-up within the connector head.
BTW, the MAF sensor on the air cleaner have exposed wires also. The damn wires are shot!

My advice.

1) Splice the wires for both the VSS and MAF sensors.
2) Put a new VSS sensor in.

DanB said:

Bad news - The insulation has become very brittle and has broken off the wires which have probably been exposed for some time. ..... BTW, the MAF sensor on the air cleaner have exposed wires also. The damn wires are shot!

Click to expand...

Sounds like you haven't had the wiring harness recall done.

This recall was a few years ago and may have expired by now.

Check with your dealer if the parts are still available, or check with a wrecker.
They may have a vehicle on the lot, that you can salvage the harnes(es) from.
The salvage yard will most definitely be the cheaper of the two.

Unfortunately, the wire insulation has cracked off at the connector itself, so splicing is not an option. I will trace the VSS back towards the harness to see if there is another inline connector. If so, maybe Ford sells that piece, otherwise junkyard it is.

Equally as unfortunate, a few years ago I did take the car in to the dealer where I bought it from. Of course, they said the wires were OK. It was the same place that said they replaced the splash shields by the belt pulleys, but they didn’t. That was a real easy job, especially when compared to changing the wires. Crooks!

PS – We are looking to buy a new car soon. Based on my poor experience with the Contour, it won’t be a Ford.

Success!
This past weekend I taped and silicone sealed the bare wires on the VSS connector and let it cure for a few days. Last night I re-attached the connector and then drove my Contour.
Viola! I have a speedo reading now!
Apparently the exposed wires were shorting eachother, hence no speedo indication.
It is really unfortunate for me that the entire wiring harness appears to be in bad shape with many areas having the cracked insulation. The SOB crooks at the Ford dealer probably never even looked at the thing; they didn't see any money in it for them.
Little wonder why the car dealers are hated as much as lawyers!

Speedometer works now.

Speedometer works now.

DanB said:

Success!
This past weekend I taped and silicone sealed the bare wires on the VSS connector and let it cure for a few days. Last night I re-attached the connector and then drove my Contour.
Viola! I have a speedo reading now!
Apparently the exposed wires were shorting eachother, hence no speedo indication....!

Click to expand...

Glad it worked out fine.

Tony2005 said:

- Grasp the sensor body and lightly wiggle it out of it's location. Use gently force when wiggling, but apply steady pressure upwards. The sensor body should slide right out. Do not jerk upwards on the sensor, when removing it, or you will run the risk of gear coming off the end of the sensor. This is not a real big deal, since the gear itself is about an inch tall. Along with the added shaft that is part of the gear, the gear assy is probably around 4 inches long. You should be able to grasp it with a pair of crooked needle nose pliers, but it would be one hella tight fit!!

- Once the sensor is out of the case and you have removed the gear assy from the sensor body, use a rag to wrap around the body of the sensor base. This part of the sensor is metal, so we don't want to damage it. Use a pair of pliers and grasp the metal part of the sensor. LIGHTLY! Do Not Squeeze Hard!! Just apply a small amount of pressure here. And use a 1" wrench on the plastic part of the body and seperate the two halfs.

- At this point, you get simply reverse.

Click to expand...

While under the car looking at the VSS, doesn't look like there's room to even grasp the VSS. Seems like it's blocked by a lot of other things preventing its removal from the bottom of the vehicle. Can the VSS be removed from the top thru the engine compartment?

Also, from the Autozone description of the VSS, it looks like there is a helical gear at the bottom of the sensor that you refer to in your procedures. When installing the VSS, how do you insure that this helical gear is properly engaged in the transaxel gearing? Is this a problem?

Thanks,
richie

richie65 said:

While under the car looking at the VSS, doesn't look like there's room to even grasp the VSS. Seems like it's blocked by a lot of other things preventing its removal from the bottom of the vehicle. Can the VSS be removed from the top thru the engine compartment?
...

Click to expand...

It has to be. Note bolded paragraphs in instructions below. As for your other questions, someone else would have to answer that.

Tony2005 said:

This should help.

Some instructions on removing the VSS
VSS change by unisys12.

"VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor)

I had to change my VSS late this afternoon, so I thought I would walk you guys through the process on my Duratec/CD4E. It's really not all that bad, except unplugging the connector. My symptoms were pretty simple... Bouncing/in-accurate seedo and once that was bad enough, the tranny would not shift properly.

- Secure the vehicle, in the air, safely.

- Remove your air cleaner & tubing.

- Reach down, under the brake booster, and locate the VSS connector. You can actually see it better from the bottom, just no way to actually reach it from there. It will take some serious single handed twisting to disconnect this connection, but don't give up!

- From under the car, use a 5/16" wrench to remove the single bolt from the VSS retainer. * Note that this retainer looks like it is upside down, with a tab resting on the case of the tranny. Don't fret! This is normal, but be sure to replace the retainer in the same way that it was removed.

- Grasp the sensor body and lightly wiggle it out of it's location. Use gently force when wiggling, but apply steady pressure upwards. The sensor body should slide right out. Do not jerk upwards on the sensor, when removing it, or you will run the risk of gear coming off the end of the sensor. This is not a real big deal, since the gear itself is about an inch tall. Along with the added shaft that is part of the gear, the gear assy is probably around 4 inches long. You should be able to grasp it with a pair of crooked needle nose pliers, but it would be one hella tight fit!!

- Once the sensor is out of the case and you have removed the gear assy from the sensor body, use a rag to wrap around the body of the sensor base. This part of the sensor is metal, so we don't want to damage it. Use a pair of pliers and grasp the metal part of the sensor. LIGHTLY! Do Not Squeeze Hard!! Just apply a small amount of pressure here. And use a 1" wrench on the plastic part of the body and seperate the two halfs.

- At this point, you get simply reverse. But something that I should note here... There is a seal on the metal half of the sensor base. Be sure to inspect this seal closely or better yet, just replace it. Also, be sure to clean everything really good and lube everything down with CLEAN ATF before putting it all back together.

Part number of the sensor - F-F5RZ-9E371-BC (correct part number is F5RZ-9E731-AC)

Cost of part - 44.67 + tax = 47.80

Part was purchused from local Ford Dealer

Reason for sensor replacement - Notice about a week ago that when traveling over bumpy roads, that my speedometer would fluctuate +/- 5mph. Monday, of this week, it progressivly got worse (of course) and the speedo would actually stay at 0 when taking off from a stand still, as well as droping to 0 when I let off the gas. In only 60 miles of driving, on that day, it managed to toast the ATF I had in there, which only had about 5K on it. Yes, I have also changed my ATF as well."

From Autozone for VSS change
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiB..._us/0900823d/80/1b/cb/ad/0900823d801bcbad.jsp

You can also purchase the VSS from www.teamfordparts.com

F5RZ9E731AC CEG Price $28.85
Electrical - Powertrain control - Vehicle speed sensor
VEHICLE SPEED SENSOR, Contour, Mystique, 2.0L, 2.5 L, Automatic Trans., From 2/1/95 1995 - 2000

Edit. Last post on this thread for VSS wiring issue.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=trouble&Number=1165885&Forum=trouble&Words=mechanic%20vss&Match=And&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=1year&Main=1165885&Search=true#Post1165885

Click to expand...

Hello Tony,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I wasn't clear in my question about removal from the top thru the engine compartment. After looking up Ford VSS on the internet, I could find pictures of VSS that were made for Ford vehicles. Since I couldn't find any for the early 95 contour, I'm assuming that the 95 Contour VSS is similar to the others that I did find. If so, I didn't initially understand your description about disconnecting the electrical connector by reaching down thru the engine compartment, and I assumed that the VSS electrical connector was at the end of the wire leads from the VSS and connected to the harness about 4 inches above the VSS(as implied by the Autozone image). However, after seeing the pictures that I found on the internet, it appears that the electrical connector may actually be disconnected from the top/side of the VSS body. I have included two images, one of a VSS for a 95 Taurus found on the internet, and the image used on the Autozone webpage. As you can see, these images imply two different kinds of electrical connections for the VSS. And since the VSS on my 95 Contour doesn't look like the one from the Autozone webpage, because there is no indication of any threads on top of the Autozone VSS image to accept the speedometer cable, does the electrical lead go from the main harness and actually connect at the side of the VSS as implied by the Taurus VSS image that I've included here?



Further, I was puzzled about actually removing the VSS itself after disconnecting the electrical connector. Last Saturday, after reading about how you describe the removal of the VSS, I got under the car, and it doesn't appear that I can remove the VSS from underneath the car very easily. Am I misreading your description? Altho I don't understand how to do the following yet, after removing the "VSS retainer", is the VSS then removed from the top through the engine compartment? As you can see, I'm confused about this. Could you please clarify for me?

Thanks,

richie

- From under the car, use a 5/16" wrench to remove the single bolt from the VSS retainer. * Note that this retainer looks like it is upside down, with a tab resting on the case of the tranny. Don't fret! This is normal, but be sure to replace the retainer in the same way that it was removed.

- Grasp the sensor body and lightly wiggle it out of it's location. Use gently force when wiggling, but apply steady pressure upwards. The sensor body should slide right out. Do not jerk upwards on the sensor, when removing it, or you will run the risk of gear coming off the end of the sensor. This is not a real big deal, since the gear itself is about an inch tall. Along with the added shaft that is part of the gear, the gear assy is probably around 4 inches long. You should be able to grasp it with a pair of crooked needle nose pliers, but it would be one hella tight fit!!

Click to expand...

Vehicle Speed Sensor Removal

Vehicle Speed Sensor Removal

DanB said:

I got the connector off by first taking the sensor out of the transmission case. I used two pliers to twist the SOB off - what a pain!
Bad news - The insulation has become very brittle and has broken off the wires which have probably been exposed for some time.
I am not sure what step I should take next. I am thinking about putting some silicone around the wire strands and then putting the ols sensor back in. ...

There is really nothing to the sensor itself - it is only a rotating magnet with probably some sort of pick-up within the connector head.

Click to expand...

Hello Dan,

I've been trying to remove my VSS from my 95 Contour. It's an early model with a speedometer cable. I've been under the car and cannot see how I can remove the VSS from underneath the car because of everything that's in the way. Saw that you recently removed your VSS successfully, and hope that you can give me some guidance on how you did it, and what difficulty you had in removing and reinstalling the VSS assembly.

You indicated that you had to twist the electrical(?) connector off. What kind of connector is this? Doesn't it just push on and pull off like other electrical connectors?

I am hoping that the 95 and 96 Contours are very similar so that I will be able to remove mine that same way you removed yours.

Thanks,

richie

I apologize. I did not realize you had a 1995. In late 1994s (which were 1995 models) and early 1995 production models, the VSS is cable driven. I suspect your 1995 is cable driven. And hence, there is a cable which goes from the VSS to the speedometer. That is the cable you need to disconnect. The late 1995 and later models have electrical connections. I have posted some instructions from Haynes manual previously for the cable driven VSS and will link them when I find them later today. In addition, someone previously had posted about a frayed cable for the 1995 model.

Edit. This thread has some good hints.
http://www.contour.org/ceg-vb/showthread.php?t=2438&highlight=vehicle+speed+sensor

Tony2005 said:

I apologize. I did not realize you had a 1995. In late 1994s (which were 1995 models) and early 1995 production models, the VSS is cable driven. I suspect your 1995 is cable driven. And hence, there is a cable which goes from the VSS to the speedometer. That is the cable you need to disconnect. The late 1995 and later models have electrical connections. I have posted some instructions from Haynes manual previously for the cable driven VSS and will link them when I find them later today. In addition, someone previously had posted about a frayed cable for the 1995 model.

Edit. This thread has some good hints.
http://www.contour.org/ceg-vb/showthread.php?t=2438&highlight=vehicle+speed+sensor

Click to expand...

Hello Tony,

Yes, it's a 95 4cyl automatic. Date of production 12/94, and has a speedometer cable that connects to the top of the VSS.
The VSS part number is 94BB-9E731AA, and I found it on the internet. Here's
a photo of the VSS.


After reading your messages again, I recognized the webpage about the broken speedometer cable that you included.
Yep. That's what my car look's like under the hood. Only difference is that my speedometer cable didn't
break entirely, only the white 3" connector broke off like I showed in one of my earlier messages above. That caused the internal wire cable to bunch up.

I got under my car again this afternoon with a flash light to check out what was actually there at the VSS.
As shown in the photo, the VSS has an electrical 3-wire lead coming from its top side. This lead is about 8 inches long with a
plug-in connector, and goes up to another connector that is strapped tied to one of the harnesses above it. And the speedometer cable connects to the threaded top of the VSS. The impression that I get from the photo is interesting in that it implies that only the plastic top half of the VSS assemply is to be replaced. Guess I'll find out when I finally get to working on it.

I'm thinking about trying to remove the VSS from the transaxel while leaving the speedometer cable and this
electrical lead still connected. If I can do that, then I should be able to remove the speedometer cable
from the VSS, leaving the VSS electrical lead still connected to the harness above it. Then I can move the VSS body aside to give me
more room to reach up and try to disconnect the electrical lead. Or at least I hope so.

Thanks for your assistance and info. I'll let you know how it goes.

richie