Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting PLEASE HELP!!!

ARIGHT EVERYONE IM GETTIN AGGRAVATED.. I HAVE A 97 CONTOUR ZETEC AND TODAY I TOOK IT OUT AND THE TEMP GAUGE GOES TO THE "a" IN NORMAL.. HOTTER THAN IT USUALLY RUNS.. SO I CHECK THE COOLANT AND ITS FULL.. SO I REALIZE THE FAN ISNT KICKIN ON...so i checked all the fuses and they were fine.. and then i hot wired teh fan to make sure it would turn cause i thought it went bad or something.. but wen i hot wired it it turned... so next i replaced the sensor that goes into the thermostat housing and the fan still wont turn on.. any suggestions? the car doesnt over heat.. it stays in the "normal" area but still its hotter than it should be.. thanks for reading!!!

It's a common complaint, but the Zetec's do seem to run hot. As long as it stays in the normal range, it's not anything to worry about.

However, it is a possibility that the transmission is the source of the added heat. It could be the cooler is at a reduced capacity and the extra heat is bleeding into the block. This would only be true if you have an auto tranny. You may want to look into it -- the radiator is used to cool the tranny fluid and is unique to the automatic equipped cars. Manuals have different radiators.

-Lance

thank you for the response... however i do have a five speed and also i did notice that the fan isnt kicking on.. can you think of what i can do to fix the fan? i changed the sensor in the Thermo housing but is there another relay somewhere? i know the fan itself is still good cause i put a hotwire on it and it did turn over...im lost?

If you checked that fuse 2 (60 amp yellow) under the hood, in the power distribution box, Check the relays under the hood. Should be R2 (high speed) and R2 (low speed). If you can hot wire the fan and it runs, then it has to be a relay.

I am not sure on the Ztec's, but it might be the same as the Duratecs.

Where is the relay located at? When i went to autozone(not that they know anything) but they said that sensor on the thermo housing controls it? i dunno.. im gonna check all the fuses again.. thanks for the replies..

The Power Distribution Box is located directly to the right of your battery. I was going to tell you how to locate them, but I seem very long winded so I decided to do this instead for ya... Fan Relay Location. I found the image in the wiring harness recall and just saved the image of the power distribution box, added lines and labled the two relays in question.

Hope it can help you out.

EDIT: Above link doesn't work, right click the following, then copy and paste to blank browser address line.

http://www.geocities.com/yyz81/fan_relay_location.gif

Geocities has time limits on traffic and since I don't have a host, it was the best I could do. Sorry. I just tried it and it was ok.

There was a recall on my 95 for the fan blower motor switch. Check it out and see if that applies to you.

aright everyone got an update... the fuse is fine.. the two relays are fine... SO... i turn to FORD.. on the phone for 2 hours and no luck cause i couldnt get a person that knew what they were talkin about...aright.. so i go to ford personally and talk to a tech.. and the answer i got is there is a resistor on the bottom of the fan shroud that probably went bad. Now i have the part here and it says F5rz-8l603-AC.. if anyone doubts that this is the problem try and post something before i tackle it tomorrow and put it in and find out i wasted 40 bucks.. now there was a recall on that fan blower switch.. but they called it the heater blower switch and i figured that wasnt related to the cooling fan? if it is where is that one located at and i can investigate that too... thanks everyone for ur help!