Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches Eastern Canada Good Shop for my tour in Waterloo/Guelph?

Man if I had some earlier notice I would have come to help you find this. The guys here know how I am with electronics. As it stands I could help next weekend, that is if Mark hasn't already done so. I had a similar problem to yours earlier this year. I would try to start the engine and it would crank all day long but not start. I ended up tracing it to a faulty CKP or CPS Crank Position Sensor. Once replaced the problem went away. Now having said that my problem was intermitant and I was also able to bumb start the car on all occasions, you do not have that luxury. Which wires did you move that made the cracking noise? You should have been able to do a plug and wire job without touching he harness.

You guys are awesome!

Even now, Mark is on his way to help start her up.
I couldn't imagine that any car has the kind of generous support you guys provide. Y'know, even if the Contour was a POS (I don't think it is, BTW) I think it's worth keeping her, just cuz I don't believe I could get support as good as you guys anywhere else.

Hey, just a thought, but if Ford were better at servicing, you guys might have missed out on a lot of new friends and helpful advice because you wouldn't need support groups like this.

Seriously, kudos to all you guys. I'll keep you posted if we fire her up tonight.

Thanks
Tim

Okaaaay.
Major update, which should close this thread off, but I'll start a new one for the new problems.... It's a long post, but worth it if you're a real sadist, and like to see bad things happen to nice guys!

Mark came over to help me out. (If there's a CEG award for 'above and beyond the call of duty', he deserves it!) I hadn't done anything wrong so far as he could tell. We futzed around for a while, coil off, coil on, wiggled the cable (jiggled the handle, etc) and nothing.

Then, we noticed a little connector near the battery attached to a large plastic shield, which looked like it belonged over the positive connector (the big flat one at the side of the battery). We put that back on, and hey presto, it started (yaay)! We tried to get it to fail, but it wouldn't, and it started every time. We wondered if maybe the little black connector was part of the PATS syste, and that was what was stopping the sparks from firing.

So we talked about the other preventative stuff I should do (full UIM clean new O2 sensor, since I have it anyway, and it was a steal at $60, change the Waterpump impeller for a metal one) and then the car could be sweet.

But that's the good stuff.

I wanted an opinion on the car generally, and we took it out for a spin. Hmmm, he said, the tranny seems jerky. Maybe a sensor. $30, no biggie. Further into the test, he says hmm, it's slipping quite a bit. Likely that's the mid-range power loss you're having. Then he revs it quite hard (though no redline, only to about 4500-5000 revs, and it goes nowhere. Literally!

He coaxed it in 1 (ATX, remember), feathering the gas, and we crawl at 10-20km back to my house. The tranny seems fubar!

It's under warranty, and last week the car had the flywheel gear ring replaced, cuz the old one was chewed up. Seems real coincidental that the car hasn't done 400 clicks since I got it back, and right at the top of the post (all those pages ago) I said there were a few clunks and knocks.

Either they didn't reassemble it right, or the tranny is toast, but either way, I'm gonna fight this with the warranty people.

Oh, some good news. I figure once this is done, the car will be a known quantity to me now, so I'm gonna keep her, and (maybe with the help of one or two of you guys) do some fixes, then keep this baby for as long as I can.

I'm out now, it's late and I'm tired. I'll start a new post about the warranty troubles (if anyone's interested)

Cheers,
T

You guys rock.

Yee ha I broke another Tour. Ok well the problem was pre exsistant but still I can't help but feel a little responsible. Anyway I went there with the hope of having 2 V6's side by side that there may be some parts swaping and such if needed. Anyways I wouldn't be suprised if the problem rears its ugly head once again or maybe it just needed to be started to get back to good. Other thoughts as Tim has not had the car for a long time and all the quirks may not be out in the open. Maybe a tooth is missing on the starter though that is improbable for all the attempts made to get her started before I even showed up. Or as Rob Mentioned maybe the CPS. Anyway Screwy tranny aside as I'm sure it is related to the work done just recently. ( I gave it a bit of a run but nothing more then this car is designed for or used. Heck lets just say none of the abuse I can and have offered mine.) After this is repaired and such given the song Tim picked the car up for he and his wife should be happy. As well Tim's (not that I know a whole lot ) knowledge from his short time with the Tour is awesome. This is a guy whom actually has used the search button.

Tim I hope all goes well with the Warranty Clowns and please keep us up to date. Its nice to speculate as to what the problems are but nicer to know if said speculation was correct.

Cheers, Mark

Wow Mark you don't waste time. Must have seemed like a short trip to you compared to the usual Oshawa - London - Oshawa run. I'm glad you got it going but the the tranny is definately fubared. Is is just not shifting gears or are there rattles and clunks? Could it possibly be the TSS not working corectly or is it just slipping in which case it will be the clutch plates.

I know I said I'd start a new post, but what the hell.

I just read a bunch of stuff that indicate the exact problems we had last night - reverse okay, the other gears messed up. Could be a couple of things, including a fubar tranny. But, one guy even said that the sensor on its own could even cause the same issue, and the tranny might be salvagable. (I'm really hoping, oh boy am I really hoping!)

My theory is that when the flywheel ring gear was replaced, they either misaligned the shafts when they were putting it together, or made some other error. Just too coincidental.
You are supposed to use a specific Ford tool for alignment, I believe. Apparently the standard ones have too much wiggle room on these models (so I read).

Strangely, the shop that did the work has said that no way did they mess up the tranny, and the flywheel 'is part of the engine, not the tranny. Different problem!'

Well, duh, Einstein! But the tranny got taken off, and then put back on, and it's just a little too coincidental, in my mind.

Anyway, I have the warranty info, and a shop to take it to for a quote. The first thousand's on the warranty, and the rest is mine to pay. I figure see how it goes, and then try to come back to the shop that did the flywheel, if the tranny place says that it was improperly assembled in the first place.

Fair's fair though, if thats not the case, I'm not gonna go to town on some guy for that, other than he might have suspected problems while it was off, and saved the labour of getting the ATX off a second time.

To tell the truth, I'd rather not have that shop do the work anyway, as I have little confidence. They did manage to break the master fuse box off the car when dropping (NOT lifting) the powerplant out of the car, after all!

So, I'll keep you posted, and after the tranny's fixed, Ive got a date with an O2 sensor, a UIM clean (that offer still good, Mark?) and a water pump....

Yeah I'm still good as long as you are not afraid I may break something.

Naah, I figure you're even - one fix (it started), one break (ATX), right?

Called around, found a local guy who knows the CD4e box, has the custom Ford tooling and the diagnostics electronics. According to the posts over on the tranny forum, all the questions I should have asked, he answered correctly. Won't be cheap, but gave me a lot of confidence. Because he's local, he'll even tow the 'tour, just to make sure nothing else is broken getting it there.

He says he:
Will fix, NOT replace tranny, unless it's totally munged.
Will do what is needed ONLY, unless I have special requests.
Is used to CD4e in all flavours (incl 'Tour, Mystique, Mazda, etc)
It could be related to flywheel, or even the sensor, but can't commit till inspection, obviously.

Full recondition, could be 3700, but that's replacing everything except the case, average costs are around 2500. He said likely it's 700 minimum, just to pull it out.

Sounded kosher to me. What do you guys think?

Oh, one more offer (from the dealer) was to take the car back to the shop who did the flywheel. I think not, given the circumstances. (I might need to fight them for reimbursement later.)

Thoughts?

Personally I'd be going back to the shop that buggered it up in the first place and demand it get fixed right. I'm not one for shelling out extra money. Failing a proper fix then go to the other guy.