Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting 95 Contour: Speed sensor gone bad?

I was driving my V6 95 Ford Contour on the highway today when all of a sudden
my speedometer went to zero. At the same time my rpm shot up to
about 4000. It looked like the xmission wasn't shifting into 4th.
I also noticed that the mileage on my odometer stopped increasing.
I stopped, turned off the car and tried again but same thing. Shifting up and down
are a little rough but not too bad. Just won't shift into 4th and speedometer
doesn't work.

The car has 117000 miles on it and I do regularly (every 40000) change
the xmission fluid. Any ideas what the problem might be? Could it be the
speed sensor. If so, where is it located and is it easy to change?

Thanks.

P.S. It was a very cold morning here in Chicago (-3F) if that had anything to do with it.

Thanks for the quick reply. Sorry I wasn't very clear but it looks like the tach
is working fine. The rpm went up to 4000 because the xmission dropped
down to 3rd. When I come to a stop, tach comes down to about 500 or so.

check the speedo cable first to make sure it is still pluged in
next check the speed sensor it is on the firewall side of the tranny near the top

Thanks everyone for the replies. Can someone give detailed direction on where I can find the speedo cable and the speed sensor? I guess the cable would be attached to the tranny somehow. Is the speed sensor also attached to the tranny? Is the other end of the cable attached to the speed sensor?

Sorry for all the silly questions but the tranny is something i've never looked at and have no idea what to look for.

Thanks again for all your help.

This sounds exactly like what mine did last summer on a drive back from Detroit. I was cruising down the highway and suddenly my speedo (no, not my swimsuit) dropped to zero. It started slowing down because I'd had the cruise control on and that disengaged. I thought "major problem here" for a few seconds until I discovered it still ran okay if I just pressed on the gas pedal. I have an MTX and I see you have an ATX so your trans depends on the speed being sent to the computer to determine the proper gear selection.

Anyway, mine turned out to be a broken VSS (vehicle speed sensor). Since it was a major pain in the rump to change I drove it all summer that way before changing it.

My VSS is all electronic, I think yours has a mechanical speedo cable going to it. With mine, a little PLASTIC (!) shaft that extends into the transaxle broke off. It was broken too far down to extract it with tweezers or anything else I tried. Someone else was able to get theirs out by heating up a piece of metal and "welding" it to the tip of the shaft and pulling it out. I had to take mine to a local shop where the mechanic said he spent 3 1/2 hours taking part of the trans off to extract the broken piece. I was charged $170. The new VSS at least has a brass shaft.

SInce yours is an ATX the location might be different. Mine is on the top of the trans, near the firewall, pointing straight out the top. You can see a tiny part of it if you lay on your back and look up just to the left of the Y-pipe. I used a plumber's basin wrench to remove the main part of the VSS. I have pics of the old and new one not installed if you want me to email them to you.

1995 Contours built after January 1995 apparently have an electronic speedo, not a cable speedo.

I'm assuming you can look at the VIN number to see when the vehicle was made?
Is there a writeup on how to dechiper the VIN on the Contour?

Thanks.

Check the sticker in the door jam of the driver's door. It should have the build month and year.

Geoff

this may help some

father has a 95 SE with the electric speedo

a few times spread out he had the speedo die and the idle go bad, car is a 5spd so no shifting issues

the last time it happened I started searching and I had determined that it should be a bad VSS. but this was not the case

my father noticed that it seemed to happen when the engine was under alot or torque

turns out the plug for the VSS id pulled tight and orientated in a direction were it will hold water, just like the parking brake cables....

anyway, he sprayed some silicone of the sensor to keep it working and cut the tie wrap on the sensor so that the wires wouldn't pull on it anymore and it was orienteted in a direction to not hold water if any got in there

hope that helps, also the VSS is a hall type sensor, it shouldn't ever wear out, it is just a spinning cylinder inside another that creates a voltage difference as it spins