Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting GRRRR.. Ford's lack of quality (heater switch)

Originally posted by Sandman333:

---

A head gasket isn't a part that should ever wear out on a car. Well, maybe a blown top fuel dragster, but certainly not mom's minivan. I don't care how many miles, it should never break. It was a factory defect, and should have been recalled. How many other consumer products would get away with factory defects like that without being publicly shunned? We buy these vehicles because they are what is available. Well, I'm at the point where I'm going to spend a bit more money for quality (read: German manufacturers). Quality is Job 1? Well, not at Ford it isn't.

---

Normally, a head gasket SHOULD last on a car, unless you never flush the coolant (like most Americans don't) every 2 years minimum. Antifreeze turns acidic after running for years, and then becomes corrosive. Not saying that's the cause but just saying it doesn't help a head gasket to never change the coolant.
But I DO agree with you on the tranny bug from Ford in your van. That's pretty pathetic that in 5 years they still couldn't fix that bug. They must not feed sufficient R&D money into many of these departments or something? I almost have found with the Contours, that the later ones are built worse and have more bugs in them than earlier ones (due to production cost cutting in the later years), since I see many problems, complaints, and bulletins regarding the '98-on models, and I've had hardly any problems with mine. Mostly just routine maintenance

First off, go find Hutch and get him to pistol-whip you a couple of times to knock some sense into you. Then come back and get a dose of reality.

Your car's running flawlessly on OEM everything after 117K miles on it? Congratulations. You have what is called in most people's books an exception to the rule. Contour's seem to come in 2 batches:

1) Those that need little if no attention
2) Prepackaged lemons on wheels

In my experience, Ford HAS been worse than most other manufacturers at playing "hide the problem" game with customers. I' won't even go into the saga of my '89 SHO and the problems it had. The ONLY thing on it that ran flawlessly for 140K miles was the Japanese-built 3.0 V-6 YAMAHA engine. I swear it just kept getting stronger and stronger the older it got. To this day I love that engine better than any other I've ever had.

Everything else around it was either made state-side, hecho en mexico or somewhere else where the QC department was either playing "slap and tickle" with each other or hitting the bong while doing QC samples. In short, the whole danm car tried to fall apart on me. Again, feel free to find the recall list for the '89 Taurus SHO. Also feel free to talk to folks that had 'em and put up with piss-poor designs on brakes, undersized clutches, horrible A/C clutch/line issues, gasket leaks around the oil pan, etc., etc.

I'll also spare you the transmission problems I had with my '93 ATX SHO. I think I went through 4 before it quit "stutter shifting" or shifting so hard that you looked in the rearview mirror every gear change just waiting to see the gears, torque converter and other internals bouncing down the road chasing after you in an angry shower of sparks...

All of these were known problems to Ford and their techs, given the massive number of complaints that I remember SHO folks pushing to their dealers. A lot of good it did us, as I recall...

Lastly, do yourself and your car a favor and change your freakin' plugs. It sounds as if you've bought into the whole Duratec/Zetec marketing thing about having the engine go 100K without any major tune-up work done. It's precisely that:

Marketing hype.

Your ignition probably sucks to hell and back if you've gone this long on OEM plugs...

If you believe the hype, though, I've got a 40HP Borla exhaust off of an '89 SHO I can sell you. I can even give you the advertisement from Borla stating that gain as well!

Originally posted by starsky:

---

........By the way my zetec is tour is 100 % original at 117,000 miles and even has the original... spark plugs.

---

Now that is stupid.....

Beating a dead horse here....tboner I hate to tell you that recalls are not just for safety reasons. In fact, that is my one gripe, well one of MANY, with Ford. A safety recall (aka: fan fuse) is a must change regardless of miles/years. A NON-safety recall is NOT changed unless broken and if said part breaks after "time limit or miles/years listed" then YOU have to pay for it. Namely, heater blower switch (which was the original post), heater blower resistor (which I had to pay b/c my 6yrs/76K was up on), dashboard warping...I could go on. So before you make that assumption, check the facts (and yes I am VERY bitter about it). I paid 14K for a car with a working blower switch and resistor, normal dashboard and the 10 other recalls that were issued on my car (not including the 6 safety ones), I shouldn't have to put out extra money. We're not talking brakes, engine, tranny, and other 7 year maintenance issues, you know, these are parts that Ford knows there is a problem with and I shouldn't have to pay for it.

Originally posted by 7999:

---

If you find a good dealership service department they love to do recall work. The dealership gets paid by Ford for doing the work. Ford has to pay the dealership for the recall service work.

If I need repair work did, I usually call several dealerships on the phone and explain my problem to them. Sometimes one dealership will give me a price of repair of $500 and another will do the work for free under recall work. Before paying a lot of money check with more than one dealership.

---

I was told by my local dealership that the mechanic prefered not to work on recalls because they didn't make money off the deal. Ford only pays a set amount regardless of the time he would have to spend to change my wire-harness for example. Only take your car to a dealer if necessary, or if you have a good dealer. If you do..congrats! Can I move by you?

As for the TBS...if I ONLY would have known that in 1998, when I brought my car in for an AC leak in the passenger floor, that Ford had released a TBS stating that they had redesigned the evaporator box and it was covered under the bumper to bumper warranty. I had NO idea...Ford didn't bother to change it...and 4 years later I put out $400 for the box and $360 for the labor (my mechanic did the work). Ford does not in ANY way advertise that there may be problems with the vehicles and furthmore, I wasn't notified that there were outstanding recalls on the car since I bought it used and the previous owner didn't have the car serviced. Had I been told that my car had 16 recalls and 106 service bulletins on it, I probably wouldn't have bought it, regardless of how much fun is was (and still is) to drive.

Like I said..beating a dead horse...sorry guys!

You have to take the good with the bad. You might pay a lot more just for routine maintenance on a Porsche, Mercedes, or BMW than you would ever spend on repairing your Contour.

I think the Contour was built better than most Fords. Ford wanted to market the Contour worldwide so they built it with very good quality and craftsmanship. I think the Contour was built for a thrifty type of person.

Originally posted by 7999:

---

........they built it with very good quality and craftsmanship.

---

No they didn't. I have replaced the water pump (precautionary), front and rear sway bar links and have to change the handbrake cable on my car. My gearbox is on it's way out. All this with ~54k on the clock. Many other CEG's have hada lot more problems than I.

My previous car had 102k on the clock and apart from oil/filters/plugs/pads/discs required no other repair other than a burst shock from a pothole.

There again, that was a german car, not a UAW hack job.

Originally posted by MarkO:

---

Originally posted by 7999:

---

........they built it with very good quality and craftsmanship.

---

No they didn't. I have replaced the water pump (precautionary), front and rear sway bar links and have to change the handbrake cable on my car. My gearbox is on it's way out. All this with ~54k on the clock. Many other CEG's have hada lot more problems than I.

My previous car had 102k on the clock and apart from oil/filters/plugs/pads/discs required no other repair other than a burst shock from a pothole.

There again, that was a german car, not a UAW hack job.

---

My Contour has about 100,000 miles with hardly any problems. My sisters Plymouth acclaim had 250,000 miles before the head gasket went bad. When the cylinder head was removed the engine cylinders looked like new (no wear at all). My dad has a 1977 Ford truck with the original engine and clutch. I guess quality must vary.

I buy my cars used and usually pay about $5000 for a 2 or 3 year old car with low miles. I usually keep the car 3 or 4 years and spend very little or nothing for repairs. I would have to spend 2 or 3 times that price for a non domestic car. I might could buy a Yugo or Excel for that price but I don't like the quality of the Yugo or Excel.

Originally posted by MarkO:

---

No they didn't. I have replaced the water pump (precautionary), front and rear sway bar links and have to change the handbrake cable on my car. My gearbox is on it's way out. All this with ~54k on the clock. Many other CEG's have hada lot more problems than I.

My previous car had 102k on the clock and apart from oil/filters/plugs/pads/discs required no other repair other than a burst shock from a pothole.

There again, that was a german car, not a UAW hack job.

---

I am a mechanic by trade, and I have replaced like 6 or so waterpumps this year in VW New Beetle/ Jetta cars that had LESS than 75k miles. They ALSO have plastic impeller. One of the New Beetles I did, got so hot that it melted the plastic thermostat housing cover too. So you see, it really doesn't matter who builds the car. They are ALL trying to save money. I even see a lot of the German's truly good ideas implemented onto many Ford cars too.

PS- If your previous car was so good, why don't you sell your Mystyque and buy another one of those like you had?

Originally posted by Josch:

---

PS- If your previous car was so good, why don't you sell your Mystyque and buy another one of those like you had?

---

They don't sell Opel's in America. (No, I don't consider the Saturn L series an Opel) Next question ???

BTW, just because other manufacturer's are cutting costs by using inappropriate materials in inappropriate places (ie plastic w/pump impellers), it does not make it right. Instead of it being shame on Ford, it's shame on Ford and VW.

A lot of cars now come with plastic intake manifolds. I think you will probably see more and more synthetic plastics used for new car parts.

That is bad that you are having so many problems. What repairs have you had to have done? How much did the repairs cost? Do you think Ford prices are too high?

I must be very lucky. I haven't had any major problems with my cars.

I did take a vacation in Florida. I stayed at a hotel one night. When I came out of the hotel my car was sitting on blocks with no tires or wheels.