Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General I know you guys all love your contours...

Christina you do need to know that these cars tend to have ATX problems and since the one your looking at is an ATX you might check a few things. SO check the ATX fluid, it should be a light pink color and not smell burnt. Find out the maintenance record of the trannys fluid, make sure the car has never towed anything, was it driven hard? If it is any of these or you can't get maintenance records on that ATX I would recommend a different on. BTW a bad ATX cost between $1000 to $2000 to fix.

These cars don't really have any extra ATX issues. Any ATX that is abused and mistreated is going to have problems. And the fluid is red, not pink. Something is not right if your fluid is bright pink.

Matt I said light pink not bright pink and yes any ATX will have problems if abused thats why she needs to check these things. The thing that would scare me the most is the milage on the ATX. Thats a lot of miles mine died at 146k miles and it was behind a weaker motor and had religious maitenance, I ran the plates at Jiffy Lube and they had the customer history for the last 7 years so most of the cars life since its a 96. So chances are hers won't make it that far even if it had religious maintenance due to the fact that she has a more powerful motor. That is only 30K miles away too, assuming it lasts as long as mine did. So at 15k miles a year thats 2 years.

Any color pink is off. I think how long an ATX will last depends on driving style. Someone who has 150k highway miles will have a tranny still running fine compared to even 100k city miles. And if they floor it, drive up mountains, etc. You can't put two trannys side by side and compare them effectively w/o knowing a ton of info.

I dissagree on the pink part since whenever I properly flush a tranny the fluid is light pink, it starts to turn red after a little bit of wear. Of course it also depends on the color that the fluid started as. I definately agree on the part of not being able to compare one tranny to the next. But mine were mostly highway miles buy a middle aged woman. not city miles by me I think a tour is a great car but I wouldn't buy an ATX one with more then 50k miles. If she can find a low milage one or a MTX one. I am just trying to help her out. Not convince that this is the best car ever. Although I think it is.

Color blind. Should be red.

Not color blind but maybe light red would be a better description. That is the color on the dip stick since there isn't much fluid there, obviously in the pan its red.

Look at all you pervs jump on a thread like this.

Twenty-six replies in around 7 hours NEVER happens for somebody walking in to try and ask about CEG or Contours. They get flamed beyond belief.

"You should search you stupid newb!! I mean, gosh...and make me a Goddamned sandwich while you're at it!"

Oh, wait...it's cuz she's a girl. Could I get treatment like that if I went and changed my name to "Andrea99" or something?

BTW, I'm smashed so I'm still pretty anal and crap. I think I made a nice post in SE a lil while ago that I don't even remember. I'm not sure though. I'll find out when I wake up in the morning about 25 miles, six cokes, twelve pancakes and two kids later from where I started. Damn girls trying to sleep with me all the time.

-SAV

SAV, do you want me to make you some coffee tomorrow?

And actually, she got help because she asked good questions and wasn't an idiot. And half my posts weren't even to her, they were about dryawall.

Napoleon, don't be jealous 'cause I've been chatting with babes online all day!

C'mon SAV, you know I'm training to be a cage fighter.

Welcome to the board Cristi!