Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting da symptoms......

Ok, Got a '95 Contour, 114K miles, cats were plugged but seemed to have unclogged. Now the problem. My oil consumption is way up--about a quart or two per tank O gas. When I add oil, I notice white smoke slowly coming out of the oil fill or dipstick when I check the oil. I'm sure driving the car with plugged pre-cats did some damage but now that the car seems unclogged on it's own doing.....what da ya think is causing all of this? Smoke seems to come out the tail pipe. No coolant loss....CEL always comes on and off so i put no stake in that thing. I was losing about a quart of oil every 1000 miles prior to cooking my pre-cats from crossing my spark plug wires when changing the plugs. Ideas?????

Sounds like too much crankcase pressure re oil fog out of dipstick/filler...could be 1) pCV system,check thevalve and the accordian tube for oil 2)blow-by,worn-damaged piston rings and/or valve stem seals...did you check the under body act aswell for plugging?

Where's the PCV system located and the accordian tube?

Accordian tube is from the throttle body to air cleaner,PCV is under thr throttle body,right & back.

Ok, say I remove the accordian tube...and get to the pcv valve, replacing is pretty easy, right? And Cheap?

As far as clogging...I never did anything to the pre-cats. Just let them burn off and blow all that **** out by itself. Seems to run okay. Only problem is the oil consumption is up.

Mine is a '95. Say I have bad O2 sensors, will this just cause the car to run rich? My mileage may be down some too--not a lot. Will the timing retard? And how much to replace an O2 sensor?

and O, do i have to remove the throttle body to get to the pcv valve? What's all involved?

No, you can leave thr throttle body in place. The PCV valve looks like a "junction" between some hoses located just beneath the throttle body. once the "accordion" tube is out of the way, you should be able to see it.