Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Overheating??

Does anyone else's cars come close to overheating? My Contour is a '96, and I bought last June. I've kept it up as well as I can, but I noticed that even shortly after I bought it, it came very close to the red. When I saw that, I would turn off the AC asap and even have to run the heater for a little while. Maybe it's the Oklahoma heat, but I just wanted to know if anyone else's does this too.

Thanks!!!

My 96 v6 did the same thing at around 90k. The water pump was shot. I was lucky that I glanced down at the temp gauge before the temp got in to the red zone. No dummy light, could have ruined the engine.

The first question is do you have a Zetec? If you do they are know to run hot. This is normal and ok as long as the guage does not go into the red. The fan cycles very quickly and doesn't turn on until the guage is almost at the top of the normal band. If you search the Zetec area you will find alot of information on it.

If you have a Duratec I would concider changing the water pump. I am not sure if it is a sign of impellure failure but everyone says it is a good amintence thing to do to save the trouble of having an engine replacement.

A coolant change should also help bring the tempurature down. Also the guage is not calabrated per say, that is the guage doesn't show a temp so at the top it still may be well withing the save range

hope that helps some

Thanks for the info. It is a Zetec, and I'm glad to know that it's somewhat normal. I was told to put in "water wetter" after I change the coolant. Anyone ever heard of it?

Thanks again---

I have heard of water wetter, my friend used it in his 84 mercedies deseil and he said it ran cooler so it seems like ti works since deseils run hot I beleive

glad i could help

Last week I was scanning a code on a 96 Zetec and we noticed that his temp gauge was way up close to red. OBD-II told me that he was within normal operating temps and his fans were switching when they were supposed to (exactly when mine do). Must have something to do with the temp sender location on the Zetec that runs the gauge. Two senders are in the engine, one for the PCM (that OBD-II gives me data for) and one for the driver human (that runs the dash gauge).

I have the Zetec and the fan kicks in R-M of NORMAL. The temp has never gone past M but it would help if we were to see some warmer weather here!
Even with the hard driving that I put the engine through, the only time I see the temp guage move more is when I've stopped after some hard driving in the city. The fan kicks in and does not let the temp go past M.

Stephen

Damn those humans, they need input too!

when i first got my tour new, (zetec btw) it never would go past the M, then slowly after each year, it would continue to get higher and closer to the red. it was running in the A-L last summer until I replaced the thermostat. now it rarely goes over the R w/ the a/c running. before it was replaced, I had it on the obd-II scanner and even though the temp gauge was high, the coolant temp was right around 200. I just think that ford's coolant gauges aren't accurate. If they were, they would have put temp (numbers) instead of NORMAL.... just my .02 though. :p

I have been having this problem on my 96 Contour. I have had a flush on the system. It is not a Zetec engine. It always runs just below the red, even in the colder weather we are now having in Chicago. The fan kicks on. My other car is a Fiero. They run hot also. But there is an aftermarket temp sensor to turn the fan on earlier and keep it cooler. Is there something like this for the contour? :rolleyes: