True mileage question for our Misty

[ottoschutze]

Hi all , can anyone suggest some ways...
when we bought this '99 V6 2.5l car used , from a local body shop in Cleveland ,OH in 2001 all seemed fine,miles shown about 28k . We found out later that the car came from Melbourne ,FL
Car fax came out clean ,yet now I have some doubts about the actual mileage on our car. Is there a way to find out more about miles driven
from inspecting items on our car .I would just like to know for maintaining the vehicle , nothing we could do anyway to the dealer ship/business... after
5 years . All the struts went bad at about 45000 miles, alignment was a bit off, , Co2 sensor bad at 50k
A/c at 32k. On the other hand we are quite happy so far with the way it drives now.

 

[Harrry]

Hi all , can anyone suggest some ways...
when we bought this '99 V6 2.5l car used , from a local body shop in Cleveland ,OH in 2001 all seemed fine,miles shown about 28k . We found out later that the car came from Melbourne ,FL
Car fax came out clean ,yet now I have some doubts about the actual mileage on our car. Is there a way to find out more about miles driven
from inspecting items on our car .I would just like to know for maintaining the vehicle , nothing we could do anyway to the dealer ship/business... after
5 years . All the struts went bad at about 45000 miles, alignment was a bit off, , Co2 sensor bad at 50k
A/c at 32k. On the other hand we are quite happy so far with the way it drives now.

You might be suprised at the amount of work that you did to the contour. I hate to bring this to your attention and all. The contour is kinda a money pit. Something always goes wrong and there are many known problems with these cars.

 

[SpinningMarkVIII]

True for any ford it seems made before 2000-2002.

 

[98SVTC]

You might be suprised at the amount of work that you did to the contour. I hate to bring this to your attention and all. The contour is kinda a money pit. Something always goes wrong and there are many known problems with these cars.

This can be said about any car! Name any car you think is better and if it wasn't well maintained, it's going to require additional money spent to keep it going or at least get it back to normal. The Contique isn't unique in this area. This is how rumors begin.
Karl

 

[loggerbomb]

This can be said about any car! Name any car you think is better and if it wasn't well maintained, it's going to require additional money spent to keep it going or at least get it back to normal. The Contique isn't unique in this area. This is how rumors begin.
Karl

I agree. My Mystique has been pretty good to me. Far from a "money" pit. 90% of what has "broke" is regular maintenance.

 

[Harrry]

This can be said about any car! Name any car you think is better and if it wasn't well maintained, it's going to require additional money spent to keep it going or at least get it back to normal. The Contique isn't unique in this area. This is how rumors begin.
Karl

Don't get me wrong but i love my svt contour!!! But what i won't do, is be naive on how much faults it has over the next car. It is just known for having more problems then a few of the next cars. Of course there are cars just as bad or good. You can't say that all cars overall have identical statistics of long term failures. Its impossible, some have to be worse or better than others.

 

[Nezerconezer]

I definatly thought my 99 Stique was a money pit. I gave up on it at 54k and sold it for a cheap price. Stupid POS. I took care of it too, it was a lemon all the way.

 

[98SVTC]

Don't get me wrong but i love my svt contour!!!

Could have fooled me.

But what i won't do, is be naive on how much faults it has over the next car.

It is just known for having more problems then a few of the next cars.

This is a very vague statement. However, you can't know this unless you've owned every other car. You can't go by what people say is their experience because they may not treat their car the same way you do. This is also why I get on people for saying that any particular product, say oil, is better than all the rest. If they haven't tried all the rest, they don't have the knowledge needed to make a comparison.

Of course there are cars just as bad or good.

:crazy:

You can't say that all cars overall have identical statistics of long term failures.

Nor would I. And that's why I protest when people make blanket statements.

Its impossible, some have to be worse or better than others.

But worse or better in who's opinion? I might be able to live with a multitude of so called "problems" that you couldn't or wouldn't want to. Personally, I don't like rattles. When I worked for Ford, the Granada/Monarch was debuted. Ford compared it to a Mercedes Benz and practically every customer the dealer had tried to hold Ford to their claim. And I was the new car prep guy at the time and also got the warranty work, including squeak and rattle repairs. I was not happy. But if my SVT has a squeak, am I going to compare it with a new car and complain? Or any other car of the same vintage? That would be nuts. Use any other situation, it's still the same and it's no proof, one way or the other.

I'm not picking on you but since your post exemplifies so many others, it was easier to reply to your one post than half a dozen separate ones.

Karl

 

[99Mystique ATX]

Biggest PITA my Mystique has had is neededing new fuel pumps from time to time. Its on its 3rd one right now. Which is the FSVT pump dropped in the stock housing. The car has a bout 115k and has had regular maintenance and whatnont.

 

[ZeroHour]

The Contour is only a money bit if you have let it go to crap, just like any other car.

The largest fault on a Contour is the Waterpump on the V6 and Personal User Error. :shrug:


The problems I've had on mine was the EGR was clogged @ 72K and needed an O2 sensor @ 76K. And the EGR was probably related to the O2...Beyond that the stocker radio was kinda worn out, but you could tell from the wear on the buttons it was used heavily by the previous owner. All other maintenance and mods are either general wear and upgrades.

In other words, quite your *****in'.

 

[98SVTC]

Biggest PITA my Mystique has had is neededing new fuel pumps from time to time. Its on its 3rd one right now. Which is the FSVT pump dropped in the stock housing. The car has a bout 115k and has had regular maintenance and whatnont.

Are you one of those folks that likes to run the tank down to almost empty? Come on, be honest! :laugh: No really...I'm convinced that most of the time, owners bring problems on themselves. If you really had fuel pump problems not brought on by running the tank nearly empty, then that is a real problem. Personally I think I have my original pump. Nothing on Carfax or Oasis to indicate it was changed out. My girlfriend has a Honda Passport. When her car's sending unit went out, it tripped a CEL which meant she couldn't get the thing smogged. $450 later, she was back on the road. Kind of puts things in perspective I'd say.

Regarding the old style water pumps, I believe that Ford was really trying to extract every last horsepower out of the 2.5 and whatever they made the water pump impellers out of in those early motors I think was done in order to lighten the load. I can't prove this theory but maybe there is an engineer somewhere willing to spill the beans on this.
Karl

 

[loggerbomb]

Are you one of those folks that likes to run the tank down to almost empty? Come on, be honest! :laugh: No really...I'm convinced that most of the time, owners bring problems on themselves.

I dunno about this "tank always E = broke fuel pump". I regularly let my tank get down to below E and have had ZERO problems. There has to be something more to it than that.

 

[ubnpast]

its a ford what do you expect .

 

[Nezerconezer]

Thats becouse you have a pre 99 fuel pump. 99 and 2000 have the bad returnless fuel pumps.

 

[Harrry]

Thats becouse you have a pre 99 fuel pump. 99 and 2000 have the bad returnless fuel pumps.

Ah another known issue with out cars....

add that to

1. Hazed headlights
2. Bad 3rd gear synchro
3. Oil starvation due to bad head design causing rod knock 6 cyl.
4. Alternator failure very common.
5. Water pump failure (at 60k miles)
6. Moosing, nothing real harmful but is a problem
7. Dash warp- horrible common problem
8. Not to mention that our diffs break just from driving it normal its like glass.
9. Rear sub frame tabs poorly designed and break just from daily driving.


All these problem are well known all over ceg. Even if you do your maintenance these problems will occur. Sorry but that is a huge list of most common problems for our cars :blackeye: . That is enough for me to label these cars as a possible money pit. Just think of the cost of replacing these items.

 

[loggerbomb]

Ah another known issue with out cars....

add that to

1. Hazed headlights
2. Bad 3rd gear synchro
3. Oil starvation due to bad head design causing rod knock 6 cyl.
4. Alternator failure very common.
5. Water pump failure (at 60k miles)
6. Moosing, nothing real harmful but is a problem
7. Dash warp- horrible common problem
8. Not to mention that our diffs break just from driving it normal its like glass.
9. Rear sub frame tabs poorly designed and break just from daily driving.


All these problem are well known all over ceg. Even if you do your maintenance they problems will occur. Sorry but that is a huge list of most common problems for our cars :blackeye: . That is enough for me to label these cars as a possible money pit. Just think of the cost of replacing these items.

lol well I guess its a good thing some of us have pre 98's.