Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting 2.0 zetec questions and issues

ok, ive done some searching and havent seen to much about the issue i am not having on the 96 contour i just purchased.

so here is the run down....


bought car for cheap, guy said it overheats.

turns out it was just the temp gauge sensor. tried to replace it and the tstat housing decided that it wanted to crack off at one of the lower hose nipples. no biggie, went to the dealer picked up a new one and picked up a 180* tstat on the way home along with a new ECT sensor.

put those in, tried to bleed the system, but for some odd reason, i see no way in order to bleed the air from the coolant lines. unlike the other cars i have worked on, there are bleeder screws that allow the air to escape. nope not on this one.

so i do my best by toping it off, filling it up, topping off, etc... you get the point.

so went for a drive, cruising its just fine, sits right on the M on the \NORMAL/ temp dash gauge. if i drive a little hard it would get into the A. if i came to a stop it would go well into the L and inbetween the L and the / but never go over the /.

so with me being a little worried, i opted to hit up the local shop for a radiator flush and fill with some new coolant since the old stuff didnt look "that" good.

after i left, it immediately did the same things as before. M while driving, A if get on the gas a lot, and L if im sitting at a light or just at idle.

so i come home, and listen and watch for the fans to kick on, which the kick on when the needle hits the left edge of the L and shuts off as it cools off in the A range.


so there is my story, now my questions...

what temp does the radiator fans kick on, or what temp are they supposed to kick on at?

is it normal for the temp gauge to have that much movement during normal driving?

should i be worried that the temp needle is getting into the L of \NORMAL/?

is the temp gauge all that accurate in comparison to the ECT sensor? i know the computer uses the ECT for its timing and fuel tables so im not worried to much if the gauge needle is "off".

are the 2.0 zetecs known for any type of gasket issues like crappy head gaskets? i was thinking that the combustion chamber gas is leaking into the coolant, but its not burning off or showing signs of coolant on the plugs, which i have replaced.

thanks ahead of time for those that take the time to read and help out!

jeremy

You don't have to bleed the air on these cars.

My car does the same thing (though with the 180 tstat it stays at the O usually unless I get stuck in traffic). It seems the low speed fan does not kick on. It's not really a big deal since the high speed fan will kick on eventually before any damage occurs. The easiest solution if you're so inclined to do so, is wire something up so you can turn the fans on yourself. But these engines do run hot, do a search to learn more.

yep, ive been searching the forums the last few days since i got the car.

however, i never ran across anything that mentioned high/low speed fans. it only has one fan. and if there are 2 speeds for this one fan, what would be the reason one is not working?

ive ran across a couple posts that mention people having the same issue as me and is "just living with it", but im not ok with that just yet.

since it is an old car, but new to me, i want to make sure that this is "just how it runs". im ok with it if thats how its going to be, but with the way the gauge is working, it leaves little room for error (overheating) since it gets damn close to the / [RED] area.


and whats this about "you dont have to bleed the system in these cars?" if it has air in the head, lines, heater core, etc... it must be bled, that goes for all cars, unless it has some way of bleeding the system itself, but with a closed coolant system, i dont see how it can bleed itself.


and i have searched and found that the ztecs do better when hot, but im not concerned about that, im concerned about the guage and its accuracy.


thanks!

Welcome FavoriteMystaque should be able to answer some of your fan questions when he reads your post.

you know, my car does the same darn thing, and it bothers me too. I could be wrong, but isn't this the infamous "f'ed up resistor for the low-speed fan thing"? If it is, I'd love to see a thorough How-To for this.

MadMerc, I think you may be crossing the "low-speeds" with the HVAC low speeds not working (HVAC only working on high) problem. If not, then I must be confused (Baby girl is SICK SICK SICK and I am running on no sleep for two days, working during the day and staying up at night to make sure she doesn't throw up/choke at night)


The single fan is a two stage fan.

The Zetec engine does run hotter than you would "think" it would.

The gauge is not all that accurate. (you can see from the "normal" ratings, instead of temperature, that its gonna be hard to determine coolant temps by relying on the gauge.)

You DO need to bleed the cooling system of most/all of the air, though without any built in ways of doing so, you can only remove the resevoir cap and massage the coolant lines to "burp" the car of any lodged air.

Welcome to CEG. Thanks for utilizing our search feature rather thoroughly (apparently).

Ray

Sorry to hear about the kid Ray...

I might be mistaken. I thought there was a resistor down in the fan shroud that kept corroding on people. I probably heard wrong...

Oh, no no no.. I wasn't saying there WASN'T one... I was just making sure we were on the same page.


Ray

Oh, it's cool man. I really would like to get my low speed fan to come on. The only time the low speed fan comes on on my car is when I put R-134a in my AC system, which promptly leaks out from god knows where. Speaking of which, I'd love to take my AC outta my car. A Vent and Heater are all I really need.

Hi Jeremy, welcome and hope you're enjoying your Contour.

The Zetec ahs a single fan that is controlled by two relays.
The low-speed should come on at 100C and the high-speed at 103C. It is possible in a number of ways for the lo-speed circuit to be nonfunctional while the hi-speed is. This could be why your temps go up high but always come down eventually.

Open your power distribution box, and I think your owner's manual has a map of the relays. The low=speed relay is tall and green. The hi=speed is short and black.

Try this: run your engine and drive around until it heats up enough to kick the fan on, like you said. Park it, open the hood, and while the fan is still running, pluck out the tall green low-speed fan relay.

If the fan stops, that means it was your low-speed fan running, and maybe just your temp gauge is a little on the high side.

If the fan doesn't stop, that means it is the high-speed fan running, and probably your low-speed fan is not working.

In that case, first thing to try is turn on A/C. Fan should come on. If it doesn't, suspect the resistor which, as MadMerc says, is mounted on the bottom of the fan shroud and steps down the voltage during low-speed fan operation. I have had that corrode through on me. You can test it by pulling the connector and testing continuity across the two pins in the fan shroud. But I am getting ahead of myself. Test whether your low=speed fan is running or not then check out these posts:

me struggling through a similar issue, including (note MadMerc) my experiences replacing the fan resistor

my summary of troubleshooting for this issue, after I got it sorted out

Good luck.