Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Transaxle tranmission already needs to be rebuilt.

Help! My Contour is less than five years old and already I am having problems with the transmission. Two tranmission specialists said it neede to be rebuilt, at the cost of 3000. Has anyone else had problems with this? I am at a loss, and would really appreciate any suggestions. Thank You.

ATX, MTX, what are the symptoms, what kind of a driver are you (aggressive, non-aggressive), was it bought used, etc.?

The MTX-75 has seen it's fair share of problems. There are certain "weak links" in it, especially if driven a certain way. Syncros and selector forks tend to head south, differentials will totally fail given enough wheel-hop or type of jarring abuse on the tranny, cluthes will give up the ghost early if you "ride" the clutch too much...

...at least those seem to be the most common occurances of transmission failure that have crossed this board.

I honestly haven't heard of too many ATX failures, though that's probably due to the skew in enthusiasts here (most are "manual" lovers)...

More information, please.

Welcome aboard! I must say, you have come to the right place.

$3000!!! For a rebuild!!!! Don't go for it! Unless you are going with a high performance rebuild from Level 10. I don't even have to know the year of the car to be able to tell you that is way too much. A reman with a 12/12 warrenty will only run you around $1600 dollars plus labor. And I doubt they are going to charge you $1400 in labor.

Ok! Now take a really deep breath. Stay calm. You are in good company. Now let's go through the basics....

1) What year car do you have?

2) How many miles on it?

3) Is it an Automatic or a Manual?

4) What sort of problems where you having that led you to take the car to the shop?

5) What sort of maintaince schedule have you keep on the transmission?

With answers to these basic questions, we can start helping you with your problem and be able to give you the best advice we can.

Hope to hear from you soon!

The car is a 98, it has 92,000 miles on it. It is an automatic and I have been very regular with all the maintenence. I bought the car new. I would really appreciate any advice anyone can give me. Thank you!

That's a good start. Now tell us what the transmission is doing that it shouldn't or normally doesn't. Or tell us what it doesn't do that it normally does.

But 3K sounds about 2x the price. My 87 Buick 18 months ago had its tranny rebuilt (also a 4 speed automatic with lockup torque converter) removed, overhauled and reinstalled for $1500.

Find a reputable family owned independent shop, someone willing to put their name on the door instead of some national franchisers name, and have it looked at again.

Take your time, rent a car for a week and get it taken care of. But share with us the symptoms, it could be as simple as a sensor instead of a rebuild.

Stuff breaks, but stuff also gets fixed everyday.

TB
Fixes stuff almost everyday, LOL.

Now define "I have been very regular with all the maintenence".

a few of us have had atx failures well under 100,000 miles..mine died at 89k...doesn't seem to matter how well maintained or how easily driven

u can do better than 3000 for a rebuild though...my remanufactured atx from and installed at a ford dealer cost my warranty co right around or a little less than 3000

My '95 V6 LX with the CD4E ATX needed a rebuild after 4 years and 42k miles. I didn't do anything to deserve it. The transmission just self-destructed. The rebuild cost $3,500. The list of parts replaced was pretty long. Now at 88k miles the transmission is acting up again --- rough shifting, etc. I'm hoping it's an electrical problem, but I'm ready to junk the car rather than spending another $3.5k on a rebuild.

-R.