Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Weird 'Tour Problems!

Well Im sure alot of you have had problems with your countour at one point or another.... so, lets hear what went wrong? (Just curious)

Ill post my current problem:

Just bought my Contour, and was driving home in the evening in the rain. I had wipers, headlights stero and a/c on. The orange backlight on my stereo faded, and then the stero turned off, the speedodometer (sp.) flew to 100, then stopped at 0, even though I was moving, and then the car died.... fun! Its been in the shop almost a week now So....whats your weird car stories?

i was driving from my friends house in woodhaven and i pulled out of his driveway and i was driving down the street and my speedo suddenly said 0 and then i realized it had turned itself off...pretty weird aint it!...mine started right back up and i havent had a problem with it since and that was like 4 weeks ago...so i dunno man

Attn Mr.Giggles and ContourGuy! I just might know the reason your Contours were behaving badly! Lets all gather round the campfire!

Everyone sing with me (to the tune of that stupid lolipop song from like 100 years ago that's stuck in my head for some reason): Alternator, alternator, check your frikkin alternator......alternator, alternator, better check your alternator.....alternator, alternator.....OHHH LA LA ALTERNATOR.....alternator!
Oh, and check your battery connections too. If one gets loose, weird (wierd?) things will happen.
I'm going to bed now. No more adult beverages for me!

Wow... You're a fun one!

gotta be an electrical surge, check fuses too just in case. Could be a loose connection causing power to surge???

What year do you have? It could be corrosion of the electrical wiring, the main one that connects the battery to everything else. A week in the shop? Do they have an idea or fixed it? A week is a long time.

Weirdest thing I can remember is driving into puddles and having the belt squeal, lights dim, and battery idiot light turn on. But of course that's a common Contour quirk (no splash guard), so not all that weird, eh?

Oh, and the refusing to stay on / misfiring incident that spanned several weeks over the cold sap this winter. But that was no quirk.

How about back in the day when I first bought my tour with 32K. I would drive somewhere come out to go start it again and all it would do was turn over no matter what I tried. It had no real pattern to it, sometimes it did it and sometiems it didnt. Finally I was fed up at 1am in a parking lot across the highway from a Ford dealer I dropped off a note with keys in the overnight drop off box telling them the location of the car and to call me when it was fixed (it was still under warranty THANK GOD;)) Started right up the next morning when they went to look at it and I told them I didnt want it until they fixed something, 4 days later they call and tell me that they believe me that it was acting up after all as it finally would not start after 4 days of running.... another 4 days later and a bunch of parts, the fuel pump was discovered as the culprit! Damn Ford fuel pumps, I just replced it yesterday again at 77K and once last spring at 50K!

After reading this it made me think i have been driving along 2 times when the car turned off. I always thought i hit the keys with my knee or something. Second time it happend i was making a left turn and almost ended up in a ditch. everytime i have had to restart it on my own.