Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting death of a tranny

an update of sorts:

i finally had to call the dealership around 330 pm wed after not hearing anything about my car since the day before...

1...the first good news.....pressure test revealed leaky waterpump so thats definitely getting replaced under warr!!!

2...looks like thermostat is bad too and will be covered

3...i asked about whether the replacement tranny would be rebuilt, remanuf or new...the response was that it would be a ford remanuf and there are no 'new' transmissions available (im guessing thats because the 'tour was discontinued???)...service dude also mentioned that it is really up to the warr company to chose whether to use fords tranny or purchase one elsewhere..they are totally in the drivers seat as he put it

4...not sure i got a straight answer when asking about how well the system would be flushed...he mentioned that there is no pan and so blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda...i dunno i did a homer simpson and zoned for a min...i think he was saying that things like that would be taken care of but i plan on finding somewhere to have the system flushed again pretty soon

i got my hopes up when i first got a service person on the phone...she found my file then reported to me that "they're working on it now, but im not sure when it'll be done"...i took that to mean everything had been approved and they were putting my car back together....which of course was not really the case once i talked to the guy handling my service....

when i asked him if it looked like everything being repaired would be covered he said that he didn't see any reason why it wouldn't be....that was actually pretty reassuring to hear....the inspector is due out today (thurs) to look at the car....he shoulda come yesterday but they made ford check all my claims first so they could inspect everything at once

i still dont have my car but i really do feel quite a bit better than i have the last few days...i been sh!ttin hondas, but hopefully all my worrying has been for nothing

latest update:

my now daily 330pm call to ford service dept got me the following infomation:

warranty inspector came out today and approved my repairs!!!!!!!!!!!....

waterpump is also covered under warr but the thermostat and some bypass hose is not covered...thats roughly a little over 100 bucks outta pocket...20 for the thermo and the rest labor

the recalls will be taken care of by the guy doing the thermo replacement...for the blower switch or something i forget and a wiring harness check/relocation

my regular service guy was on vacation today ...took his family on a field trip to museum of natural history over in the hood across from usc so another guy was handling my car today

since he was not the regular guy he didn't wanna really be pinned down to a final expense outta my pocket which i understand but i did get him to give me a ballpark estimate which came out to about $300 for everything....100 deductible

300 is about what i was figuring on if my warr was worth what i paid for it so im happy as a contouraholic kickin a hondas ass

the tranny will be in friday...which means they may not put it in until sometime early next week im guessing....im hoping to have my baby back by end of next week

my warranty just paid for itself big time and after initially ignoring me when i first arrived the dealership they are treating me very very well....if my car has no strange problems that weren't there when i took it in...instead of filing a complaint i will send them a letter of gratitude and the same will definitely go to the warranty company

MAKE SURE THEY FLUSH THE TRANSMISSION COOLER !!!!!

I can't tell you how important this is.
If they don't do it, you'll be replacing the transmission again within 35,000 miles.

transmission cooler IS being flushed i found out when service dude called today...tranny install began this afternoon and they're expecting to be done with the car monday or tuesday...

warr. isn't paying for trans diagnostic, the thermostat, a bypass hose and clamps and the coolant flush and refilled...

revised estimate out of my pocket $560....not as nice sounding as 300 but also still a lot better than 2600

and the waterpump failing was discovered before it could do any real dammage

i have a theory on why my transmission failed and it involves me going back to jiffy lube when i get my car back and raising some serious call the police type hell....i paid 125 for a transmission flush and yup they flushed it....just didn't refill it is my thinking...when i checked the fluid level when it went out it was very very low almost nothing on the dipstick...i added a bit of fluid so that i knew it wasn't completely empty but i had made 3 back and forth trips from the valley to here in irvine...99 miles each trip plus my everyday driving so the damage was definitely done...and this is beside the report i had to go back and make a few days later when i discovered they had broken my oilcap

i used to stand and watch the gomers at sh!tty lube when they serviced my gti because they had once left the oil cap off causing fresh oil to be sprayed everywhere under the hood

guess short of finding somewhere else to go or doing the services myself in the future i'll have to stand outside and monitor these *******s once more
but man are they in for it

hey how about you just buy my car it has a new transmission and a new engine!

only if its 3.0 my friend

My 95 LX is going through the exact smae thing. Two days ago I was on I-4 doin about 90, then all of a sudden the speedometer drops down. The car then dropped about two gears almost leaving stopped on the highway. I managed to limp mto my uncle's house, but on the way the car wouldn't shift into OD. Took the POS to Midas today were they did a transmission fluid flush. The fluid looked like f*&^in oil. I drove it back to school some 150 miles, all the while it's shifting like ****. The speedometer, odometer, and tripometer still not working. It still wouldn't shift into OD. Got back to school and checked the tranny fluid. There is no damn tranny fluid in the transmission.

I'll be so glad when I get rid of this POS, and get something with some real power like a riced out Civic

The only good part is that because my odometer is broke, when I do get rid of the car it will look like it has 300 miles less than it does.

Funny how the transmission needs oil to work....