Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting electrical

I have a 2000 SE with 17,000 miles. Last week my battery died and after I got it jumped, it ran fine that day. The next morning, the car wouldn't start again so I got it towed to the dealer. They found out that my trunk light was faulty and draining my battery so they replaced the battery and sent me on my way. I told them I don't need my trunk light so they disconnected it in order to prevent this from happening again. Yesterday, when I started my car, I noticed that the battery light came on and it stayed on for a couple of minutes before it shut off. That same day, my right turn signal stopped working in the back. The problem is that both these issues, the battery light coming on and the right turn signal only occur sporadically. There is no pattern to when it goes haywire. My dealer is saying that everything is working fine when they have it in their shop and they don't see a problem.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to locate the source of these problems?

have you installed anything at all in the trunk area? Sounds like the problem is back there somewhere.

When you say it doesn't work (turn signal) does it click real fast??

Thanks for your input.

I have not installed anything in the trunk area but the signal does click really fast.

Usually a fast blinker means the bulb is blown. Check that out for the fix there. I don't really have anything on the battery though, sounds like the alternator is bad. Take your car to Autozone or something similar and have them run a diagnostic on the battery and alternator.

I wonder if one of your battery connections are loose. After I installed a new battery the light would come on and go off and it turned out that one of the connections was loose. Simple to fix, but a dealer or shop might overlook it.

I just got a call from the dealer saying that I can pick up the car anytime. While they had the car 48 hours, they ran all the diagnostics, checked the light bulb, battery connections, etc., they are not finding a problem. AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! The only way they are going to find a problem is if they can see the actual problem when it's happening because the tests don't reveal anything. My first visit cost me close to $400, wonder how much this little visit will cost...

I have come to the conclusion that MOST Fords are like many women - they are high maintenance!!!

Disclaimer - I did not say that.

Newsflash Bob... I know plenty of men who are "high maintenance" :-)

On a serious note, I thought I had done enough research about Ford Contours prior to the purchase but now I am realizing that this model seems to have alot of electrical problems. Perhaps it's my ignorance, I did not think that I would be having this kind of problem with only 17,000 miles.

It may be something non-electrical yet! Don't give up hope!

Lina, you are not at all ignorant. They don't normally develope issues with mileage that low. I have almost 80k on my 98 Mystique and she hasn't given me much trouble. Was the battery they installed the correct number of amps? If your tail-light bulb is OK was the fuse for it OK? I wonder if perhaps your alternator may have been damaged somehow when the battery was jumped.