Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Overdrive problem

Hello all, I really hope you can help me.

I have looked in the FAQ and searched this forum and did not find a problem exactly like mine, but if I missed one please forgive me.

I have a 1996 Ford Contour V6 that I inherited from my folks. Last night when I was driving home, the overdrive light began flashing off and on and the car was jerking each time in time with the light. I tried pressing the OD button on the shifter, but sometimes that seemed to work to turn the light off or on and sometimes it made no difference. I tried leaving it off, but it just came on and off anyway

Is this a problem with the transmission itself, or with an electrical component, like the switch itself since sometimes it seemed to work and sometimes it didn't.

Am I going to hurt it if I drive it to my closest Ford Dealer that happenes to be 20 miles away? Is there a chance it will just stop and strand me somewhere?

For the record, I am not a mechanic of any form, I just thought maybe you guys could help me figure out what to do and if the Ford guys are honest with me.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Jennifer

Do you know if the shifter knob has ever been removed. If the answer is yes, the small wires may have been easily damaged on replacement, now causing a intermittant short circuit that operates the overdrive button circuit. I have priced a shifter assembly at Ford and the price is $495.00 for the parts only. This service manager says the shifter and or shifter knob is not available separately from Ford. I intend to check another dealer.

Hi, I agree with the Vehicle Speed Sensor idea. This happened to me, the OD light flashing. After a while, eventually the VSS on the transmission failed completely, the car would not go into 4th gear, and the speedometer reads 0 mph, regardless of speed. After replacing the VSS, the OD light worked normally, all was well, and my CEL light went off for the first time in 3 years! You can just replace the PRNDL shifter stick if needed if there is a wiring issue, but the VSS is more likely. Thanks and good luck!

- Contour_97

Ex Ford Motor Dearborn Design Engineer/Analyst - 7 years
Now Caterpillar Valvetrain Design Engineer - 6 years
97 Contour GL Sport/Auto/2.5L V6/80,500 miles
Love my Contour when it works!

Hi guys!

Sorry about leaving out some info the first time...yes the car is an automatic. I have no reason to believe that the shifter knob has ever been removed. And no, the speedometer was not acting up or doing anything unusual that I could see. Does that mean that it is not a VSS problem if the speedomoter is behaving normally? Or could it just be the beginning of a VSS problem?

Part two of the story began Friday morning when I drove to my Ford dealer. This time it did not jerk in and out of 4th gear (overdrive) because it never got there in the first place. It only went up to 3rd gear. I dropped it off, explained to the guy as best I could and went on my way. 6 hours later they called me and said they could not reproduce the problem and that everything was runnning fine. They also said it might be a grounding problem, but without reproducing it they couldn't really tell. I thought maybe they were checking the wrong car, but when I got in and drove it home it did run fine, using all 4 gears. I am so confused...Any thoughts on what this means? Is there a next step?

Once again, I am really grateful for any ideas!

Thanks,
Jennifer

Hi again,

I don't know if I explained that the hard jerking shifting problem is only with the overdrive, the other shifts are of normal smoothness. Also, from what I've read in other threads on this forum, problems with some sensors can lead to the light flashing on and off, but not necessarily affect the shifting...my shifting is affected, but only in the last gear? Does that make any sense at all?

Thanks again,

Jennifer

Change the AT Fluid and see if it helps. And it is also a good chance that the VSS could be going soon but change the ATF first.

Okay, thanks!

I'll try that (the AT fluid) this week. Hope that does the trick! I'll let you know...

Thanks again,

Jennifer

Hi ! I have a ford contour GL 4 cyl. It has a similar problem of O/D flashing and hard shifting whenver the O/Dlight flashing. The O/D light has a mind of itself. On 60% of drives it flashes.

I got the AT fluid replaced, but there has been no change in O/D light Since the day it first flashed (@1111000 miles) until now (141000 miles) the O/D light has'nt chnged its behaviour. I even showed it to mechanics, the best they could say was "smething wrong with the traany", one guy thought it was a problem with a solonoid in the transmission.