Man, sounds like you always get the bad batch of Ford cars or maybe drive them hard... dunno
Sorry to hear that you're having all these problems with Fords cars. At least the Ranger seems to be holding up.
The cars listed are friends and my cars.
All Contours bought were used at Ford dealers as "Pre-certified" vehicles. I think that means that they check the car out a little more than your corner car dealer.
1996 Contour GL
120K+ miles.
Water pump, thermostat, Temp gauge Switch/sender changed
at 100K miles.
Had car since 1999
No other problems.
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1997 Contour GL
110K+ miles
No issues.
Runs fine
Had car since 2001
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1998 Contour GL
91K miles
Water pump, thermostat, Temp gauge switch/sender, PCM temp sensor.
Investigating Temp gauge issue - maybe not displaying correct temp.
Tranny was being a little rough between 1-2 gear.
Did a tranny fluid flush and now it's OK.
Bought car in 2005.
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1998 Winstar
130K+ miles
No issues
Very dependable van.
Used it to traval cross country on numerous vacations.
Traded in for 2005 Ford Escape
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**All above cars have Auto trannies**
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2003 Focus ZX3
42K miles
No issues
Bought car in Nov.2002
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2005 Focus ZX3
9K miles
No issues
Bought car in July 2004
I drive my ZX3 hard at times but I take precautions to make sure I don't over do it. I know if something fails, I might have contributed to the part at fault in failing.
That's the risk you take when you drive your car hard.
I try to do this as sparingly as possible.
Also, all cars above get regular maintenance like oil, coolant flushes, tranny fluild flush, etc.
Don't wait for something to happen before doing regular maintenance.
