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

    You can register to join the community.

Most common problems?

S

SpinningMarkVIII

CEG'er
Joined
Mar 25, 2007
Messages
96
I am wondering what the most common problems on thisese cars were. On my Mark VIII I underestimated them and am kicking myself for it. They were leaking air bags (have that) electrical problems form a short in the door (have it.) and blwing up transmissions (Guess what?!). I want a reliable fun car even if it is slower and wrong wheel drive. I will be buying or building a 3L SVT. If I build it wt will of course be an MTX with an LSD. What are the most common problems people have with thier cars? How frequent are they? What do they cost in parts to replace?
 
Long sweeping right hand turn @ high RPM's = Bad. Oil starvation from that will blow the motor. Just put in an extra 1/2 quart of oil and that should take care of it....or get an auxilary oil pump.

Wheel hop. Lauching at higher rpm's and causeing the wheels to hop can destroy your tranny as well. Week internals are to blame, but you would be looking at an LSD so you would be fine after puting that in.
 
elraido said:
Long sweeping right hand turn @ high RPM's = Bad. Oil starvation from that will blow the motor. Just put in an extra 1/2 quart of oil and that should take care of it....or get an auxilary oil pump.
Click to expand...

His plans are 3L, so the oil starvation issue will not be a great concern. The 3.0 and a Quaif or sup'm similar will net you a very nice car. Upgrade the shift forks, and make sure the lower control arms are in good shape & you'll be fine. Most cars will have over 100k miles on them so expect to make repairs on wear items such as struts, wheel bearings, brake pads if they haven't been replaced on the car you buy.
 
Most of the common problems I am aware of go away when you change out the engine to a 3.0L, add a LSD and rebuild the transmission. There are a number of body and electrical issues that seem to be a frequent problem that are not major cost items. Some of them are:

Drive gear on Sunroof motor
Noisy rear suspension
Power antenna
Fuel pump

As long as you don't abuse the car, Contours are fairly reliable.

Eric
 
Awesome. All of the aformentioned thigns are fairly cheap or planned mods. I am looking at a contour with a 3L but it has 2.5 heads so I may have to do something about the oil issue. Power Antenna is easy, Alternator is easy, fuel pump is just a hole in the floor I am guessing, and hazed headlamps I have fixed many times. In fact all of those are common high mile Mark 8 problems except the diff and the fact that my M8 doesnt have a power antenna lol.

Is there a decent aftermarket for brakes, pads and rotors at least? The cars come standard with ABS right?
 
SVT's have 4-wheel disc with ABS, yes.

There is a Baer Big Brake upgrade (12 or 13 in rotors, 2 piece, with 6 pot calipers) but it isn't cheap!

There is also an upgrade option by Warmonger (half of the Nautilus group) that provides brackets to upgrade the FRONT rotors to 300mm(11in) variety from a Focus SVT, and brackets that take the (now unused) SVTC front rotors and places them in the back to maintain the same ratio, in order to preserve braking bias.

So, in the end, you are using SVTC front pads and stock calipers on SVTF rotors (moving the pad further out for greater leverage), and SVTC rear pads and calipers with SVTC front rotors in the rear. this is an INCREDIBLY cheap alternative, and is going on in teh group buy forum right now, actually!
 
Ray said:
There is also an upgrade option by Warmonger (half of the Nautilus group) that provides brackets to upgrade the FRONT rotors to 300mm(11in) variety from a Focus SVT, and brackets that take the (now unused) SVTC front rotors and places them in the back to maintain the same ratio, in order to preserve braking bias.
Click to expand...

Some modification required.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top