Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General FINALLY able to work on my own car

i bought the haynes book and it's pretty easy. my temp gage goes past the red zone when i put the key in the "on" position. i took out the thermostate and that's not the problem but when i unhooked the sender sensor it went down so that's a $25 fix. anyone know how much a garage would have charged me for this?????? i'm starting to like the tour a little more now :p

Minimum of 1 hour labour and probably would have tried to sell you God knows what along with the $25 sensor.

A set of tools and a service manual make owning a Contour much easier to bare. At least you know you aren't getting ripped off when little things go wrong, and you know in advance when a job is going to be tons of work (and can decide if it's worth pawning off to a shop).

yeah such as a valve tap in the back bank, requiring god knows what to be able to get off that valve cover, believe me its next to impossible, actually... impossible for me to.

I hear ya Travis. The rear Valve Cover was a PIA for Allen & myself to get off. Lots of prying on the engine bracket (I assume that's what has you stuck) with a big screwdriver and we somehow worked it off. It can be done, and a second person helps lots (one prys the other tries to get it out of there).

now that im finally gonna have a garage i will be able to do at least a little more work on my se myself

which of course means it'll be dead as hell in a couple months :rolleyes: