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

    You can register to join the community.

Waterpump died, head gasket(s) shot

D

dbateman

CEG'er
Joined
Jan 19, 2004
Messages
113
Location
Virginia
Another Contour goes down. :( I gave it to my sister 6 months ago, she'd been learning to drive stick on it. I thought the clutch would be the first thing to go, but she was driving it weekend before last when it cut off on her, temperature gauge was pegged. She doesn't know how long it had been pegged.

My mechanic/friend estimates about $1,800 to replace the water pump, head gaskets, and have the heads machined. Plus it needs a clutch very soon, it has 185,000 miles on the original.

My mechanic expressed a little interest in having his guys do a 3L conversion, so I think I'll let him have it and give him some instructions on the condition that I get to drive it if he does it.

Anyway, it's a shame, I took really good care of the car but just can't justify putting that much money into it, and I have 4 other vehicles to take care of.
 
dbateman said:
My mechanic/friend estimates about $1,800 to replace the water pump, head gaskets, and have the heads machined. Plus it needs a clutch very soon, it has 185,000 miles on the original.

Anyway, it's a shame, I took really good care of the car but just can't justify putting that much money into it, and I have 4 other vehicles to take care of.
Click to expand...


Ugh that sucks. Sorry she wasnt paying closer attention to the temp gauge.
 
I probably should have preemptively replaced the water pump again. I've gotta admit even if I was driving I might not have noticed the temperature for a while. You tend to zone out.
 
autometer temp guage in the chain bin ftw!! right in my line of sight..i keep my eye on that just as much as i do my speedo:laugh: you learn to do that after owning a tour for 7 of the last 8 years:nonono:
 
yeah i would always check the temp especially in the summer one time it got barely of the l almost touching red so i turned on the heater full blast and parked it lol temp came down and i found out i had a leak in the plastic water holder thing.
 
95pgt-t said:
autometer temp guage in the chain bin ftw!! right in my line of sight..i keep my eye on that just as much as i do my speedo:laugh: you learn to do that after owning a tour for 7 of the last 8 years:nonono:
Click to expand...

That sucks man. I do watch mine though. On my old 96 302 ranger it would over heat because the electric fan would kick on when ever it wanted. It was possesd i swear. So i finally took the wire and just ran a switch aftwards.

It was so bad at one point in traffic the temp gauge went all the way up to red. Then i popped the hood and turned on the heater. Went to finally move in a pile up on the e-way and the thing started to ping like crazy. Thank god traffic opened up and the temp went down. I would of hated rebuilding my 302 that i just put in 2 months before.
 
Did the engine no longer run? Often, it will run fine with new waterpump and coolant, and the gauge will come off the peg after you disconnect the shorted temp sensor and replace it. You already did replace the waterpump, what kind was it? Also, cooling fans are problematic. I find the temp gauge is out of my normal view as I drive, almost need a voice alarm..
 
Last edited:
Watching the temp gauge may do no good. Not sure about earlier Contours but on Focus, the gauge is rigged to slowly move to the "normal" temp (in the middle) and then STAY THERE EVEN WHEN OVERHEATING until a certain point. The gauge stays in the middle in summer and winter, that ain't normal, it should move around a little. When I hook up a laptop to PCM to read sensor outputs, when put on temperature, the temp will go up but the gauge stays dead put in middle. Have seen gauge in middle when actual temp was 250 degrees, apparently they have the gauge damped to avoid people complaining about car running hot. Read between the lines in what it says in manual--that on overheating the PCM will move the gauge needle into the red zone. It can be hot WAY before that point and gauge will show NORMAL.
 
Its well known that most sensors are basically the same thing as a dummy light and arent extremely accurate or responsive. That being said you can easily watch the coolant temp creep up so this was just a case of not paying attention.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top