Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Can anyone figure this one out?

Yesterday, out of the clear blue sky, while driving to work, my wife's 99 contour decided to turn itself off. From what she said, there was no sputtering, no warning at all. She said all the warning lights came on, and the power steering cut out, I assume because she said it was really hard to steer all of a sudden, and then the car just turned off. Anyone have any ideas of what may be going on here?

what happen did she pull over and turn it off and try and restart it or some thing or did you have to have it towed somewere. but well i have not had that happen to me but like sence my o2 sensor has my engin light out and some times when i back up and put it in drive really fast it dies on me like a stick shift. lol and well i didnt know you could kill an automatic lol but i guess you can.

Happened to me 1 time with my old Mercury. The key cylinder for the ignition switch is spring loaded for the start position. I let it go & it sprung back just a little too far. I drove about 8 miles on my way to work, then the car just shut off. I came to a stop, re-started & off I went.

Turned out to be a recall item that I had taken care of the next week.

If you have a PATS system, it may be more involved than that, but its a place to start.

Did your car start up again later, or is it still dead?

Well, she complicated matters by getting out of the car after it shut off, and locking the keys inside, but that's another story...

Once I got there with the spare key, I was able to restert it with no problem, and then proceeded to drive it to a shop a half an hour away. It gave me no problems all the way there, which baffles me....

anyone?

See my post above. That's the only thing I can think of, other than the obvious electrical/PATS glitch. You may want to double check the grounds for various components to be sure everything is getting its proper dose of voltage.

Well it's obviously something electrical and slightly broken so it might move and disconnect like a ground wire. It also could be the electronic distributor or coil.. i had these go out on my old buick and it would just shut off, but after a few mintues start right back up