Hello all,
I've got a Contour SE V6 1998. I wanted to do the right thing and asked my local garage to change the Transmission FLUID (it's an automatic). I was told they needed to buy a 45$ kit from the dealer and that they could do the job for 85$ plus taxes and FLUID.
I left the car and returned a few hours later. The manager told me that after taking a few things apart they noticed it was a non-servicable transmission and put it all back together and off I was (no charge).
About an hour later, I was driving down the highway and needed to take a sharp exit, I slowed down and the turned the O/D off as I always do. The O/D light on the dash flashed, I got a bunch of transmission "hits" as the car slowed and then the check engine light appeared. I shut the car off and restarted. Tested the O/D a few times and everything seemed fine (i wasn't surprise the CheckEngine light stayed on after reading an article on here a while ago).
Anyway, I though it was fine and just becuase of the work, one higckup was ok and not to worry. This morning (2days later), I drove the car to work (60k one way), half way there, at 120Km/H on the cruise control, the O/D light started flashing again, and I'm getting worried something is terribly wrong.
I called 3 dealers this morning. 2 told me that it would cost 100$ to change the transmission fluid and one told me its a synthetic transmission oil in there and nothing needs to be done on that front at all, ever ! I describe this situation to him and he said to bring it back to the garage and have them check the oil level and also look up the CHeckEngine Code. He said, if I'm lucky, it should be a quick adjustment.
I know very little about cars, what do you all think. I called the garage and have an appointment for tomorrow AM with them to look it over.
Thank you for any and all information
Philippe Warda
(pwarda@cs.mcgill.ca)