Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting 96 ATX

This weekend I set out for a drive in 15 degree weather and after about a 10 minute idle warm up I set out. About 1/2 mile into the drive up a steep hill my tranny jerked and the od light started flashing. I pulled over and it was hard to put in park, I had to push hard to get past Reverse. Anyway I tried putting it in the gears and in everyone it pretty much jerked in everyone. I turned off the car popped the hood and checked the fluid level. It is definately time for a fluid replacement. The fluid is fairly brown and had bubbles in it. I started the car no light and the car ran fine for the 120 mile trip. Well today after about 70 miles of driving the car kind of does this rev thing when shifting from 1st to 2nd, it jumps like 500 rpms sort of like a slip. Any ideas? Why are our trannys so expensive. By the way the car has 87000 miles and is a duratec which I bought with 60K on it.

Welcome, you've come to the right place - let's go around the room and everyone tell Skon a little about themselves and their Contour Tranny experience.......the important thing is to feel comfortable and just open up.......

...sorry about that, ok, where was I......
Search the Archives skon - you'll find more there than will get posted in this thread.

Me? I have a 97 Sport 2.0L Zetec. I got my first tranny rebuilt at 56,000 (cost $2000). Currently, I'm experiencing similar problems to what you described - again. I did get 44,000 miles since my last rebuild.......read the archives, it's possible it might be an electrical problem.

Good Luck - and come back again next week - lol

I would reset the PCM and get the tranny fluid changed ASAP. This could possible fix your problem. Also check all your fuses, I heard a few posts about blow fuses causing the tranny to do weird things. Also if getting the fluid changed corrects the problem, I would take it back after about 1k miles and get it done again just to give it another good flush. Dont worry too much yet mabye its just the really dirty fluid.

i bought my car with 70 thousand and my atx died at 89 thousand a yr ago...right after i got a powerflush at crappy lube

whatever u do changing the fluid i and a few others here would advise u NOT to use a powerflush type system...seems alot of others atx's failed after getting the flush done, for whatever reason

best bet would be to get it drained manually, or do it yourself....

other things mentioned also cause problems as well...start with changing out that brown fluid though

I would agree with the above comments. Hopefully a fluid change will correct your problems. Mine's been trouble free for it's 130K mile life, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and changing the fluid every spring so the tranny has a fresh batch for the hot summer months. The synthetics are supposed to hold up a little better, but heat is a big killer of ATXs in general.

Hey I agree with changing the fluid yourself.. is this done from the drain plug on the bottom of the ATX?, cause when I had mine changed they hooked up a machine to the inlet of the tranny near the radiator and then refilled. I guess this was a flush but I think ill change mine myself next time (about 5k mi's) So far..... KNOCK ON WOOD.... My Contour ATX is holding up at 107k. No flashing O/D lights, or rough gears, shifts as smooth as a babys ass!

Do our trannys have a replaceable filter? I called Cottaman Trans, and they do a fluid swap for 14.99 + the cost of the filter, but I think I read in another post that our transmisions do not have replaceable filters with out tearing apart the transmission. Is that true? I would do the swap myself, but I do not have the equipment to lift the car.
Also I found a place that sells remanufactured transmissions for $850 including the tourque converter. Sounded like a good price. What do you think?

I believe the filter is internal and is not serviceble. Its suppose to last the life time of the ATX ...

There is a screen filter inside the transmission, but yes you must rip apart the tranny to get to it. A good thing to add may be the inline filter, i think it's made by FilterTek, and it's approved by Ford. Though if you get changes regulary, then you shouldn't need it. Don't get a Power Flush on a tranny that has any decent amount of miles on it. I suggest using Mobil1 ATF, yes it's expensive, but it will help the transmission, I noticed I can get into gear easier now.