We bought this 96 contour just over a year ago from a lease company with 80,000 miles. To date, we've spent almost $6000 on this car. Most of it going to the transmission.
Here's the latest mess:
Since day one, it's aways shifted a little funny. Tried resetting the computer, flushed the fluid in the tranny, etc. This is plain jane, bone stock 4 cylinder automatic contour gl.
In May, the tranny started making lots noise and w/in a few days was totally dead. No foward, no reverse. Dead. That night I started looking around and calling. Found the same as the rest of you. $2400 was the giong rate at ford. Most tranny shops quoted similiar. But we found a place in Phx that had a rebuilt one with a 12 month warranty for $925, including converter. (exchange). I came here and found out about the Transgo kit and asked the shop if they used that kit? Yes, I was told. Okay, so sounds like they know what they are doing. We found a local shop that'd do the swap for $600. Done deal. Also had all 4 motor mounts changed, and external filter added to tranny. Another $500.
3.5 months later, w/o any warning at all, tranny completely dies. no foward, no reverse, no warning. Just one day, went to make left turn. Car no go.
So I take it to another shop, that specializs in trannies. They confirm, tranny dead. Nothing electrical or computer. So we call up the Phx place, they say they send it back, we'll look at it. They have it for a few days, and say, "tourque converter blew up." 4 days later we had another tranny. I do not know if it's the same one, or another one. Have the 2nd shop install it, replace filter, flush any lines, etc, plus replaced the axles which needed replacing, $1700 more.
We got the car back Friday and here it is Saturday and the tranny is making noises (one time, wife was driving) and now it's really slow off the line and shifts (1-2) are very mushy.
What the heck is it with this car? I've owned a dozen ford products going back 20+ years. Nothing comes close to this
mess. We now refer to it as "the money pit."
What can I do? I'm not financially able to go buy a new car right now. Especially after forking over $4000 the past 4 months to keep it on the road. Yes, if I had known this would happen, when the first tranny died I would have rolled it off the cliff. But the car is a nice car and other than this, has been good. It drives nice, gets good milage and the perfect car for my wife.
Any suggestions?
