Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting old car to new car question

Okay, I know for most of you these are going to see like really stupid questions, but understand, I have just come from a 1983 Ford..old carbeurators and chokes,etc,to a new 1996 Contour with fuel injection.

I have absolutely no friends with cars or experience so no one to ask really and of course I just bought it from a car lot so I keep waiting to find out I've been had. Anyone who has doen that probably knows what I mean. You don't want to find out too late you made a mistake.

Anyway some little things I have noticed about the new car that I am wondering is normal, or is it a warning sign. When I apply the gas from sitting at a stop light, their is a brief lag and then the car takes off with a wee bit of a "jerk". Coming from an '83 I usually stalled before the car actually took off so understand the shell shock here.

Yesterday we got our first snow fall. Not much but it was the coldest it's been. The car started great after sitting out in minus 5-9 all day where my other one would have protested, but as I was driving home there is a hill I have to take, the car didn't feel like it wanted to really go up that hill. I wasn't sputtering or anything, but I seemed to have to apply the gas a bit more then I have had to up til now. Is this maybe just a cold fuel injection thing?

Third and final thing. Using my signals (again, yesterday during the snow) I noticed that suddenly the left signal blinks very hyperactively, while the right blinks at a normal rate. I know on my old car after I got a new alternator, this seemed normal but both blinked at an equal rate.

Anyone have any thoughts on whether these things are normal?

I also find I idle roughly but only when I am stopped for a light or something,but it seems normal while driving, as well on the cold mornings when I first turn it on there seems to be small knocking under the passenger side of the hood. Again, are these normal for a fuel injected car? For the old carb cars, it usually meant you wern't going to get down the block before stalling.LOL

Please put my mind at ease.

i can answer at least part of your question...when a signal blinks like crazy it normally means that either the front or back turn signal bulb is out. it blinks like that to let you know so you can get it fixed.

Oh..I didn't check if they were all working afterwards. I'll check that next time I am off driving it, I know it's not the front one anyway. Hopefully it isn't out as I would have no idea how to change the back one but at least it should be a cheap repair.

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I also find I idle roughly but only when I am stopped for a light or something,but it seems normal while driving, as well on the cold mornings when I first turn it on there seems to be small knocking under the passenger side of the hood.

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These two things are I think, if not 'normal' then common idiosyncracies of Contours. I am going out on a limb to guess you have the 4-cyl (Zetec) engine and the auto trans. The steering wheel shakes a lot when you are idling in Drive, right? If you shift to N it goes away. I had the dealership do something about this while under warranty, they installed some kind of retrofit kit that I don't remember what it was all about but I'm pretty sure it's the kind of thing you don't bother with if you're out of warranty. Shouldn't cause any other problems just an irritation.

The clackety clack on cold morning under the hood i'm guessing is the timing belt. They are known to slap against the upper plastic cover on cold starts. You can access the cover (on the passenger end of the valve cover) without taking anything else off - it's held on by two bolts and you can add extra washers under the cover to increase the clearance a bit above the belt. In fact you can take the cover off and run the engine that way to see if that's what the noise is.

If I have guessed wrong about your engine/trans then let us know what you are driving and you might get more opinions.

You guessed right about the 4 cylinder auto trannie, so you're probably right about everything else. You are also riht about it not happening in Neutral..(I only know that cause i got to experience my first icy spin out in the new car and a close up veiw of the CN trainyard fence rail.)

Thanks much. That does put my mind at ease on that then. i was running some fuel injector cleaner through to see if that would help, and it didn't seem to be, but i also noticed it isn't static in the amount of vibration that happens. sometimes it's worse then other times, which seemed strange if it was the timing off.

Thanks for your information.

Thanks for the advice on the signal light. It was indeed the rear drivers side light not blinking as it shoudl ahve been. (LOL - not even two weeks and already repairing stuff) but I got me a new bulb for 2.99 and put it in all by myself (well, ok, I asked how to open the little white casing here on the boards) but almost all by myself) so I'm very proud now!!

glad to see you got it fixed