Hello to the Contour people, I have an '01 Cougar, ATX, 68K, original owner, was my sister's at first, just recently i've taken over. Oh, and I'm 17. I was wondering if you can help me out with some info and advice on the tranny. I know the Coug and Countour use the same ATX tranny, and thought i'd try here instead of the Cougar forum, because you guys just seem more knowledgeable :-D.
So.. for some history. First trans failure on this car, happened right out of warranty, 38K I believe. Ford dealer was too expensive, Aamco wasn't too bad, but we just went to our local mechanic who offered to do the rebuild. We payed $1500. It started acting up again, at about maybe 45K, so we asked our mechanic to install a tranny cooler. It cleared some CEL codes at least, not sure why. Worked fine until about, I'd say 63K, when the tranny I guess, failed, since the power wasn't going to the wheels. Rebuilt again by our mechanic, under warranty.
Now, at 68K, I'm feeling some oddities while driving. Just today, I noticed, that after coming to a stop, the car seems to lag from my accelerator input. It revs for a second, and then it seems as if it will engage and the car will move. Is it slipping or something? I tried it a few times, and the same thing happened. I tried it in gear selector 1, 2, and D, and the same thing happened. I remember, as I pulled into my driveway, the cooling fan started up at its highest speed (there are two speeds for this fan, I believe), and maybe it was heating up? Also, in second gear, around 3000 RPM or so, the power seems to lessen or weaken for a few seconds until it passes 4000 RPM and then it feels as if it is delivering power again. I should note, that this feeling that I've felt in 2nd gear also happened before the 2nd rebuild. It just bothers me when it does this. Shifts can be jerky at times. Occasionally, it'll have smooth shifts. We really need this car to last, or else, sadly, we are going to have to sell it. I don't want to sell, but I don't want to spend a ton of money on it again if we need to rebuild the tranny. Please, any info, advice, etc. on what you think the problem could be and how we could improve the situation will be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be as detailed as possible. Thank you in advance.
P.S. I'm in So. Cali, in a suburb of Los Angeles. Maybe if there is some guy on this forum that lives close to me, and knows a lot about these trannys, and how to improve 'em, I would be willing to meet up with him somewhere. Thanks again.
