Thanks for trying to help. From what you describe, it does not sound like the power steering rack. I will check the steering linkage maybe that is the problem. I have done a lot of searching on this site but have not found anything that that fits my problem. Unfortunately this noise is something that is very uncommon for Contours. We are about to make a very long trip (over 5,000 miles round trip) with my 2000 SVT with 160,000 miles but this noise brothers me and I don't want to be stranded out in the middle of nowhere.
