Hello Ann and welcome to CEG.
First of all, thank you for taking the time out to do some research at CEG and then post your question and experiences.
The problem you described is a problem that I have experienced with my 98.5 Contour SE Sport.
When driving long distances on the highway, the automatic transaxle (also known as a CD4E) tends to gets HOT.
This is cause by a very poor design in the valve body of the transmission,
that tends to hang up the pressure bypass valve which is responsible
for bleeding some of the pressure from the ATX Oil pump to the cooling line.
When this happens, there isn't enough flow to the ATX Oil cooler and the CD4E is not properly cooled
and it continually generates more and more heat until it finally overheats.
Driving up hills doesn't help this situation at all and neither you or I
were aware of this problem when it first happened to me too.
As a result, the amount of superheated oil that DOES pass through the ATX Oil cooler in your radiator,
gives off enough heat to heat the AntiFreeze hotter than your engine can,
and it will look as if the engine is actually overheating !!!
I was able to prove this to my dealship with their very own scan tool.
When it happened to my car, I let them read the engine and CD4E temperatures.
The CD4E temperature was almost 300F while the engine was 250F.
If the CD4E is still hunting for gears when driving up hill,
there may be other problems that the dealership did not diagnose properly.
Changing something as inexpensive as the Ransge Selector Sensor for the shifter on the CD4E can help a problem such as this.
If the shift solenoid in the transmission wasnt replaced in the rebuild, it may still be faulty and be causing the problem.
A bad computer (PCM) can also cause the same symptoms.
I would take the Contour to another dealership and let them had a look at it,
and get another opinion.
You may find that something simple may have been overlooked.
Let us know what happens.
Good luck to you.
