This board came in handy for a couple of issues I had with the wife's Contour. I did a search on a couple of issues I had:
#1:
CEL light on. Car would sometimes stall/hesitate when I hit the gas a few seconds after startup. I took the advice of some of the old archives and brought it into Autozone for a free CEL reading. He was getting P171, running lean.
I took a look at the archives again and found that a dirty MAF sensor can cause this. I took a look at mine, and it looked ok. However, I *carefully* took a q-tip and cleaned it off anyways. It went from a black color to a very shiny color, I couldn't believe it.
I reset the CEL codes by disconnecting the battery. It's been weeks and no sign of CEL! I don't get that hesitation off the line, either. Before I attempted to clean it, I had disconnected the battery to remove the CEL. However it did come back days later. This time looks to be good, though, still good to go.
#2
On the road, I got a nasty howling noise from the right front of the car. Digging into the archives revealed a potential issue with the wheel bearings. When I turned to the left, the weight of the car shifted to the right tires, and that's when the noise started. It did get less noisy at speeds >60mph.
I brought the car to Goodyear and told them what I thought it was. Sure enough, the right front wheel bearings needed replacing. I think it helped to have an idea on what the problem was instead of going into the shop knowing nothing. It was $69 for the bearings and $100 for labor. I think that's a fair price.
Anyways, thanks for the help everyone! I don't consider myself a "Ford guy", but I'm learning
