Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting 97 Contour Overheat / Boiling.

97 contour with 6 cyl. This is my sons car so I'm getting this second hand. BTW, I'm not particularly mechanically savvy.

Car is overheating and leaving a trail. Obviously boiling IMHO. Sound proofing above cap on reservoir is wet.

About a week ago the top hose blew (the big $$$ one) and was replaced by a local shop. Previously to that, the thermostat was replaced (don't know why). There has been occasional coolant drips on the driveway (prior to hose blowing) and son has administered bars leak to the rad. BTW, temp sensor NOT working, guage reads cold at all times.

Anyway, after searching / reading here, seems there is a good chance this is a water pump. Don't know if heat blows cold when overheating.

Is the impeller issue (cracking) applicable to a 97 contour with the V6? If so, great. Assume I should also be looking at replacing the thermostat, since it is probably fried too.

How can the system be bled afterwards? Is is possible that a n airlock in the system could also create this problem is the system was not bled after the hose replacement?

I was watching the reservoir over the weekend while the car was idling. The water level in the reservoir would slowly increase until it was right at the cap level. This was after the car had boiled and cooled off a bit. Anyway, I figured i t didn't push water out of the cap because the level was now lower. After the car had been shut down a few minutes, the top hose started to shudder as fluid either filled it or emptied from it. Based on my "guesswork" it seemed to me the direction of flow was towards the firewall. Does this sound right? As I said, I'm not that mechanically savvy.

A lot of questions here, any help much appreciated!

Yes, there will be no heat when the water pump is bad. Sounds to me like that is most likely your problem.

Thanks for the answer. but I don't know that the heat is not working.

Make sure the fans turn on when they should. How many miles on the car?

Based on my experience with my 1998 Mystique V6, change the waterpump and its drive belt ASAP. Don't drive the car any distance before fixing this. Try to get a metal impeller on the new pump, or white plastic. Check for broken pieces of the old black plastic pump impeller. If the thermostat was just changed the t-stat is probably OK. The temperature gauge sender should be replaced, unless it is just simply unplugged. My sender was shorted out, which pegs the needle right on full hot. The sender is the brass hex head item to the right of the blue cap in the picture below, (Not the circled Engine Coolant Sensor) The other thing to the left of the blue cap is the waterpump and belt If the radiator cooling fans operate "vigorously" with no odd sounds when the a/c is switched on, they are probably OK, and should trigger when the engine temp is at M on the scale.

Happy 4th to all!

Thanks FavoriteMystaque for the comprehensive response.

A little additional information has come to light.

The car has 100K on it. A few months ago the water pump was replaced. Don't know the circumstances but it was done from above, which based on reading here, is the hard way.

Last night I attempted to bleed the system, since there was nothing else I could do.

I opened the cap on the reservoir and topped it up. Idled the engine. After a few minutes, lots of bubbles entering the reservoir (I assume the thermostat opened???). After a couple of minutes, no more bubbles! Based on this I'm assuming the systen was NOT bled when the hose was replaced last week.

Oil levels were fine with no sign of moisture on the oil filler cap.

Anyhow, while this was happening, I ran the heater. Outside air temp was about 90Deg so I was having a hard time determining if the heater was working or just blowing outside air. Son assures me heater normally works really well, so maybe this was ambient.

Son also says fans work, with the "second" fan kicking in when it "gets hot". Whether they work exactly when they should, I'm not sure.

I'm going to drive it about 5 miles today to see how that goes. If it goes well, will replace the water with coolant and off we go. If it continues to overheat, I guess we'll do the water pump and t/stat (justin case).

One more question, what is the best way to flush the system? There is Bars Leak in the Rad.

Ok, have driven the car this morning to the store. 3 miles each way.

Had to top up the reservoir before starting the car. Slightly above the max line.

So, the first 3 miles went well. Heater and A/C worked great. Checked levels and all was good, no signs of overheating (95 deg outside today). Car sat for 10-15 minutes while I was in the store.

Driving home after about 2 miles noticed fan noise, 2nd fan must have kicked in. Then noticed wet tire track in rear view and A/C went warm. Wet tire track gone after about 1/2 mile but A/C warm all the way. Popped the hood, sound proofing above reservoir was wet again.

Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Any ideas?

With a 95 degree ambient temp it is very difficult to test the heater. I would think that even the slightest trickle of hot coolant through the heater core is going to make the already hot air feel even hotter.

When the water pump went on my 2.0L, the heater would still blow semi-hot air when at speed, but when the engine would idle the heat would go cool. This was during the winter though so much easier to tell.

My car did the same other things that yours is doing. The coolant tank would burp and spew coolant into the engine bay and the a/c would shut down.

One thing you can try when the engine is cool (and it's messy) is to take the thermostat out and either leave the t-stat housing off altogether, or put it back on, but leave the hose off, or leave the hose on but don't connect it to the upper radiator inlet. Have someone start the car and observe the volume of coolant that comes out at idle, then have them rev it a little, then again at idle. Give it your best guess as to whether what you are seeing is enough pressure/volume to push through the radiator and all the way through the rest of the cooling system.

On my 2.0L, the coolant pretty much just rolled out of the t-stat housing when I did this test, and kind of shot out when revved up, but still not like you would expect it to given how much coolant passages there are, etc. Sure enough, when I got to the water pump, every impeller blade had sheared off of the pump (it was plastic too).

Another thing I did was blew through the radiator by literally raising the upper hose and blowing through it (radiator still full of coolant). I felt very little resistance and could hear the coolant moving around so It felt to me like the radiator wasn't plugged. A better test might be to disconnect both hoses and plug a garden hose in the top tube and push water through to see how well it comes out the other side.

Anyway, just trying to throw anything out there. Good luck, I know how frustrating cooling systems can be!

The coolant will "gurgle" when the thermostat opens. If the bubbling stopped, the headgaskets may be OK. I hope the waterpump fixes it, it really sounds like your car is doing what my car did for the previous owner. It's possible the new waterpump impeller has spun on the shaft or cracked. Maybe the shop that did the work needs to be contacted, but you can't drive all the way there. Keep us posted, good luck with the repair.

Well, here goes. Been to NAPA for new WP (metal impeller), new T/Stat, Cap and Temp gauge sender. About to start (in the RAIN) and keeping fingers crossed.