• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

New car, new problems. Yay!

D

diviniti

CEG'er
Joined
Jun 2, 2007
Messages
264
Location
SE, MI.
Well, I took the weekend to figure out some problems from this car I just got.
(2000 csvt)

It had 16.. Yes, 16 codes on it. I cleared it, it went down to 15. :laugh:
I almost wet my pants laughing so hard.

Anyway, I figured out most of the codes but there are some that I cant find an explanation for even in a google search?

Here are the codes I found:

P0155 Upstream Heated Oxygen Sensor circuit fault - Bank No. 2.

P0161 Downstream Heated Oxygen Sensor Heater circuit fault - Bank No. 2.

P0141 Downstream Heated Oxygen Sensor Heater circuit fault - Bank No. 1.

P0420 Catalyst System Efficiency below Limit - Bank No 1.

P0429 Catalyst Heater Control Circuit (Bank 1)

B2535 Right Rear Turn Lamp Circuit Failure

P0654 Engine RPM Output Malfunction

The first 5 I think are pretty self explanatory. But, the B2535? wtf is that about? My blinkers works just peachy. The only thing wrong with any of my lights is a dead reverse bulb.

As for the P0654, got me on that one too. What would cause this issue?

Here is a list of codes I couldn't find anything on, a couple are body codes and chassis codes.

P1188
P282A < wtf?
B1C8A < wtfx2?
C1061
P0429
B2030
C0440
P3080

Thats it for codes.

NOW. Other problems...

Medium braking, to hard braking.. The car pulls HARD to the right. I am thinking a dead caliper maybe? But, the other odd part to this, is under ANY noticeable acceleration, the car pulls hard to the right. I mean even only 20-30% throttle. Very odd, I am going to crawl under it tomorrow to change the oil, and take a look at things. But I wanted to throw it out there in case someone knew what it may be or if it was a common problem.

I am sure there are a couple other things I am forgetting, so I will update my new car, new problems thread when I run across them.

To give people an idea of what I am dealing with here, with past owners....

1. "Someone" took 8gauge power wire for a system, and ran it through the drivers door jam into the trunk...
^ yes, the wire has arched and been burnt. No its not connected anymore. And No, the kid I bought it from wouldn't
own up to being the one that install it.

2. Whoever put the factory radio into the car, didn't bother or didnt know how to hook up the power antenna. So radio stations sometimes come in.

3. The kid I bought it from replaced the tps sensor. On my scan gauge it reads 17% throttle when the car isn't even running or pedal pushed. (This was one of the codes that was on the car when I bought it, and the one that went away after clearing the codes)

Other various things on the car, such as white paint? that looks to be splattered under the engine bay. The skirt caps being completely off the car when I bought it and missing 1 completely. The overhead console missing a bolt. The kid taking the drivers side and pass side front windows tint off, and not removing all of the tint residue. The front bumper was re-painted before, and they didnt bother to tape off the fog lights. Which the kid I purchased it from just said screw it and ripped the fog lights off. There are some other little things too that kinda miff me off.

It just blows my mind how ignorant and lazy people are with their cars. This is a great little car, but people just didn't take the time to take care of it. I mean if its broke, fix it.. If it was installed wrong, go back and fix it.. :censored: I got it for a decent price though. So I am going to go through and fix and or repair all the hack job's, and never even attempted to fix jobs..
 
Last edited:
Sounds like it is time to start turning the wrench(alot). and try searching the forums with the codes you have.


P1188 Fuel Control (Bank 1 Sensor 1)
P282APressure Control Solenoid K Stuck On

i found a website listing c codes
http://www.ford-trucks.com/article/...BDII_Diagnostic_Trouble_Codes__Chassis__.html

i was talking to someone who knows quite a bit and they suggested maybe your pcm is fried. possibly from the the 8 gauge wire shorting
 
Last edited:
The power antenna is known to fail, but the motor usually runs and the mast doesn't extend fully. Did you replace the blown fuse for the heated O2 sensors? It is under the hood in the power distribution box. That white stuff under the hood could just be wax spatter, or battery residue if it boiled (shorting the positive to ground could heat it up..) A lot of people get mad in seconds when they try to work on their car, now it's time for the patient tinkerer to take over!
 
98svtc, there are 100k on the car.

Map, I doubt thats it, cause it sounds to easy. haha. I'll check it anyway.

Fav, for the antenna, I assumed that it wasn't hooked up. Judging by the other 'wiring' in the car, I think it is safe to assume whoever installed the radio had no clue. no, I didnt change the fuse under the hood. I will check that tonight.

As for the white stuff, its definitely paint. Its on the opposite side of the battery also.

And as for getting mad in a matter of seconds, I come from a long history of owning DSM's..... Sooo yeah. If that doesn't teach patience I dunno what does.

Big Ben, lol. Like I said, I just cracked up when I seen all those codes.
Its just like MAN! Fix it when it breaks yanno.

Another thing I gotta fix is the E-brake. The kid's exact words were "I disconnected the E-brake cable from the handle because it would get stuck." Again.... Fix it?
 
I come from a long history of owning DSM's..... Sooo yeah. If that doesn't teach patience I dunno what does.
Click to expand...

You have been trained well. Have fun, hope the seller can afford a new car where all maintenance is covered:rolleyes:
 
Well, I cleaned the fog lights. Here is a picture of before and after.

fogs.jpg


It took a whole 2 minutes to clean 1. It seems to me, it would have been easier to just clean them on the car then taking the time and effort to pull them off? I used a Mr Bald Guy Magic Eraser. There are a couple spots on them that are chipped or have tiny divets from rocks, that I cant clean out. But I would say its a huge improvement.
 
You could now buff them with Fine polishing compound or try Meguairs PlastX. Might have to polish them when you wash the car, as I do with my old headlights.
 
diviniti said:
And as for getting mad in a matter of seconds, I come from a long history of owning DSM's..... Sooo yeah. If that doesn't teach patience I dunno what does.

QUOTE]

Hello my fellow previous DSM owner. Yeah, if there was one thing those taught us, was to be patient. At least they were fairly easy to work on. LOL. I have a feeling no matter how neglected the SVT was, it will not give you as many headaches as that thing.
Click to expand...
 
Ok, I checked the fuse under the hood and it was blown.
I put a new one in, and started the car, let it run for about 1 minute, and checked the fuse, it was blown again.

Any ideas on why it keeps blowing the fuse? Fuse: F13 / 20a / HEGO sensor

I also yanked the cd player out of the dash to fix the antenna problem. And as I thought, the antenna wire wasn't hooked up. Along with that, I was wondering why the speakers sounding like crap @ higher volumes. So I dropped the glove box to see if the factory amp was still in the loop, sure enough it was. I didn't have a "jumper" harness, to bypass it, so I just cut the speaker wires from the exit harness and hard wired them to the radio. Eventually they will be ran into the trunk for the amp.

See! More ghetto-fab-ness with this car. After I'm done fixing all the stupid crap that should have been done right, I won't want to start installing the fun stuff. :crazy:
 
elraido said:
Hello my fellow previous DSM owner. Yeah, if there was one thing those taught us, was to be patient. At least they were fairly easy to work on. LOL. I have a feeling no matter how neglected the SVT was, it will not give you as many headaches as that thing.
Click to expand...

Thats the truth. I've owned roughly 16 DSM's in my lifetime. I just sold my 2g 2 months ago, and my last dsm, a 1g 2 weeks ago. So HOPEFULLY, I wont buy another.. DSM's are like crack though. It doesn't help that I own/run Michigan club dsm site. (midsm.com) They are all dealing with me buying a csvt, very well. :laugh:
 
98SVTC said:
Okay, well the pre-cats usually take a dump at around 80K miles (mine did) so unless they've been replaced, that would be one of the first things to check out.
Karl
Click to expand...

So, there are (2) pre-cat's and 1 Cat which the o2 for the cat is (before) correct? I was thinking of just popping in a test pipe in place of the cat.
 
diviniti said:
So, there are (2) pre-cat's and 1 Cat which the o2 for the cat is (before) correct? I was thinking of just popping in a test pipe in place of the cat.
Click to expand...
The pre-cats are in the exhaust manifolds so the manifolds would have to be replaced. If you don't have smog checks you could replace them with headers. I guess you could get rid of the main cat as well. However doing so won't get rid of the CEL unless you use MIL eliminators.
Karl
 
Sounds like the car was heavily abused and not taken care of as well. Sounds like some things are hacked. Have fun putting back to spec. You're in the right state though. A lot of ppl in SE MI area that know how to work on Contours. Might want to drop into the regional forum to say hi. I disagree on the cats crapping at 80k. I have 137k on my 98 SVT with original cats.

From an old Tony post.

Yes, those codes do relate to the O2 sensors. You probably have a short on the O2 sensor circuit. Check the fuse holder for the O2 sensor Fuse 13 and wiring (Violet/Yellow) to it.
 
Last edited:
todras said:
I disagree on the cats crapping at 80k. I have 137k on my 98 SVT with original cats.
Click to expand...
Now that you mention it, mine didn't crap out at 80K either. They went at 69K! The CEL was on when I bought the car. FWIW, I didn't make up the 80K number. It's on this site somewhere.
Karl
 
todras, thanks for the info. I will look over the wiring. Obviously is shorting out somewhere, just a matter of where.

I wouldn't say it was 'abused', but rather it was owned by un-knowledgeable people. Which I guess in some ways you could almost call it abused. But as far as normal upkeep, it was handled well. I have records/receipts showing all of the cars maintenance over its entire life time. Under warranty a lot was taken care of, and the fluids were kept up its entire life.
The kid I bought it from, I think just has no clue really. He replaced what he was told to replace. But going to wal-mart to have a car looked at.... Not the best idea.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top