Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Water Pump Problems on 2.5 litre engines...lawsuit

I just suffered the dreaded water pump failure on my SVT. Because Ford knows about this problem which is caused by inferior OEM parts, I'm going after Ford Motor Company for the repairs. I need anyone who has had this problem to email me at douglas.e.myers@jci.com with the details of your experience.

I may not prevail, but my track record is pretty darn good at suing people in small claims for this type of ripoff. Ford knows it has a problem (the dealer admitted it) but they hope to stonewall their way out of it.

Help me build a case and I will keep you informed as to my progress and the outcome, as well as the methodology for suing in Small Claims Court.

I might point out that this is a very powerful weapon because the Complaintant (that's me) can subpoena Ford Executive Officers who either have to settle to avoid the suit or appear in court to testify and avoid contempt. They don't like to while away their time in some podunk courtroom so they often settle and write the money off as a business expense. Either way I win because I either get some dollars to offset the repair expense, or I get to inconvenience them as a thank you for their having inconvenienced all of us with crappy water pumps.

Thanks in advance.

Hey.. welcome to CEG.. As always, I hope you leave here having learned a little more than you knew when you came..

As far as the waterpumps... All I can say are these things:

1. Good on you, for being so head strong.
2. It's been tried.
Dead Motors
Waterpump Failures
Blown Engines

You can see from those threads...

3. GOOD LUCK

Ray

I just sent an e-mail, with a link to this post, to a Canadian consumer advocate named Phil Edmonston who writes a book called Lemon-Aid. He has been trying to stick it to Ford for years because of their shoddy engineering and cost-cutting in areas that shouldn't be cut. It drives me nuts that every time I take a long drive, it could be my water pump's last. That's wrong, and Ford should be made to recall these bad boys and fix their mistakes.

I had a 1995 Ford Contour water pump go out. The replacement part purchase is on record with Adavanced Auto. All you have to is ask parts stores for there forecasted monthly demand for ford contour water pumps.

Best of luck to you. I also sent the following to your email address.

"Hi, here's my story:

I got my 98 SVT a few months ago with 92k miles on it. My water pump died the day I got the car home. What happened was I took the car for a test run around the block. I went wide open throttle for 1st and 2nd gears. Drove about a half mile around the block then pulled into my driveway. I noticed that the temp gauge was reading above normal. I sat and watched it go up as the car idled, until it passed the "L" in NORMAL. At which point I turned off the motor and knew that my water pump had gone, since I've known for a while that these pumps are flawed.

I then went to the autoparts store (with a different car) and bought the only pump they had. It had another plastic impeller, but I needed the car the next day so I had no choice.

Now I have a water pump that I know will fail again so I plan on replacing it fairly soon with one that has a metal impeller.

I've attached a picture I took of my broken water pump and the new one side by side."

same thing happened to my fathers car about a month ago. except that my sister was driving and didnt notice the engine burning to hell and the engine finally blew. they did a full engine swap with another msytique 6cyl. he only ended up paying $400 for the whole swap, but thats because he had a warranty through some other people that paid for most of it. good luck on the water pump, im about to buy a 1998 contour SE and im going to swap out that water pump before i even drive it.