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

    You can register to join the community.

Contours Famous for Transmission Problems?

H

harrup

CEG'er
Joined
Sep 18, 2000
Messages
138
Location
richmond, va
I have a 95 & a 2000 Contour. Love the cars but have had transmission problems in 95--replaced TSS & now it is slipping & leaking. I am currently using a Lucas Stop Slip product but that does not stop the leak. The 95 has about 100,000 miles on the transmission.

Why are these cars noted to have transmission problems? Is it a design flaw? Can I expect problems with my 2000 AT or did they alter the trans between 95 & 2000. What other problems can I expect?
 
AT is just a big pile of garbage. I don't think there were any major changes to the trans from year to year.
 
Design flaw with the owners. Changing oil on time and keeping trans cool is the key here:) 147000 on my sport, bought it with clean fluid and all records that came with the car indicate it was serviced regularly. No issues whatsoever. I still changed the fluid just to be sure.
There is no design flaw. Build quality issue, yes.
 
There were claims way back that there was a design flaw in how the trans fluid was cooled, leading to higher operating temps when travelling long distances at freeway speeds. I've never seen any data to back this up, however. I would definitely concur that regular maintenance is key with the CD4E; I get my fluid flushed at 18 months despite the mileage. This has kept my 2nd ATX running fairly well for almost 100k miles.
 
There have been several things wrong with this trans since Mazda first used it in their cars. It singlehandedly pretty much killed the 626 series, once the word got out. Many mods have been done to many parts during the course of production. Runaway line pressure was much of the earlier concern, from valve body wear. Crossleaks in circuits made for lube oil shutdowns and ballooned converters. Front pump had problems with gasket designs leading to blowouts. The forward/coast/direct cylinder has issues with end breaking off it and destroying trans. Very hard to get back together without troubles also as there are several clearance checks to be made at reassembly. If parts changed, mechs just slap it back together and trans shows problems. Trans certainly has had its' share of troubles, but if properly assembled and good parts works very well.
 
I would agree with those who say it is the fluid. The fluid should be changed at least 5 times as frequently as most people change it, because it gets hot and causes excess wear on items such as the torque converter, planetary gears, 2-4 band, and the valve body.
 
My ATX failed strangely at 55,000 miles

My ATX failed strangely at 55,000 miles

I was driving at about 35 MPH, when I heard a strange 'bang' and the tranny began slipping - then I could not move the car at all. I pulled over and followed a trail of tranny fluid back to some parts (a spring and a circlip, a cover plate, and something else, I don't remember what) lying in the road.

I went back to my car and saw an empty orifice at the bottom of my tranny. With the help of a friend, I got some tranny fluid (all had emptied out) and was able to replace the part, spring, cover plate and circlip by compressing the assembly with a small hydraulic jack and working the circlip in with a screwdriver. I refilled the tranny, and amazingly it worked flawlessy and I was able to drive away. However, a week later, when driving down the highway, the same thing happened again.

This time I had the car towed back to the dealer. They ended up installing a brand-new tranny, because they said the casing was damaged at the circlip retainer, so the whole tranny had to be scrapped. Luckily, the car was under warranty so the $3000.00 bill only cost me the $250.00 deductible.

I still have no idea what the part was, or what actually happened. 123,000 miles now with no further tranny problems. The part is highlighted in the diagram below. Can someone tell me what it is, and what could have happened to cause the tranny to violently eject it twice?

tranny.png


---------------------------------------------------------------------
'98 Mystique LS, Duratec, ATX
 
That part is the servo cap. It is common for the seal to break and for it to leak, and even sometimes, as in your case, it can pop out.
 
Servo cap only one piece of it, it is the entire servo assembly, which is highly loaded by a big spring. Once the circlip was pushed out, the damaged groove may not be able to hold the circlip in place anymore. For that kind of money I would have figured out a way to get cap to stay in place. Depends on if the flange edge totally broken or sheared off or not. Entirely possible that circlip just installed upside down if it is the type that has rolled edge on one side and other side sharp cornered. Rolled edge facing out 10 times easier to pop out of place. Sharp corner should face out to dig into flange deeper, harder to knock out of place. That 'working it in with a screwdriver' may very well have rolled the flange edge to damage even more if done roughly enough. Cover must be overcompressed slightly to allow circlip to cleanly be loosened from tool in place and proper depth so no scraping of the flange edge occurs.
 
I flushed the transmission almost exactly 2 years ago. Have driven 21,000 mi since then.
My mechanic said he put in synthetic fluid when he flushed it before & doesn't think I will even have to do the flush at 30,000 because he used synthetic fluid.

Does the synthetic fluid really hold up longer? How long?
 
Question is, did he change ALL of the fluid? You only get like 1/3 out at a change. 30,000 figure was for non-synthetic Mercon III, the other will definitely last longer. How long? Who knows? Mercon V suggested for later models seems to suggest may go 100,000 miles. I don't go that long with it, I change at like 60,000.
 
I saw the word flush. You only have their word that all of it was changed. A perfect scam if I ever heard of one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top