Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Tail slides

Hi everyone,

The rear of my Contour slides when I make turns at moderate speed. I can feel the tail of the car drifting. At first, I was taken aback because I was used to this with the BMW I had previously because the tail would slide if you mashed the gas pedal. If I take a turn at 30 mph or higher, the tail will start to drift, which is rather concerning. Has anyone else had this before, or am I going mad? Also, I generally drive alone in the car, with it empty, and the car is bone stock, down to the radio and rims.

- Ian in Tampa
99 SE Sport T-red MTX 59k, soon 60k

Check to see if any parts of your trailing arms in the rear are bent.

I can take a right intersection turn at about 40 or so without any traction loss or sliding (not bragging), so I don't really see how that works. I thought it was really hard to get the tail to slide (in a dry situation) in a FWD car, I can't seem to do it either....

V6 Mondeos/Contours can have thier tails slide if one lifts foot of the throtlle suddenly, or hits the brakes hard while having the wheel turned (like entereing the corner). First rule of racing: Finish your braking before you start turning the wheel! Second rule: Do not accelerate until your wheels are straight! It changes the ballance of the car by shifting weight forward, thus having rear end without any grip. Granted it takes a lot to do it and race car drives are doing while hitting the brake pedal with their left food, while accelerating (in order to shift the ballanc eof the car) it's called strocatto (not stacatto) and it is invented in Italy (where else) for all of theose FWD FIATS. What are the thigs that are keeping your wheels down? Shock absorbers! Does the tail hops when it slides, or just slide like a Vette would do? If it hops go look for shocks, if it just slides look for tires. Nothing else, in my mind (other than going "slightly" over 30mph in to a corner) could make the rear end slide. Besides Contours/Mondeos are not the best ballanced cars int he world, at least the V6 ones.

Oh yea, forgot to say, i can get the back end out on will, but i have mad skillzzz. I love how it never fails to make passengers crap themselves, they arent used to being sideways on offramps.

Ian,

I agree that it sounds like it could be a suspension issue.

In addition, have you had the car towed at all lately?

I had my car towed by a flat bed once, and they used my rear control arms as chain anchor points. They bent them both badly, but also linearly, so it was difficult to tell if that was the original design, or they were bent. I actually had to go to the dealer and look at a new one to determine it was bent.

Eitherway, it had the same feeling with any moderate turn felt like the rear end was kicking out.

Take a look.

It may sound really basic, but have you checked the tire pressure on your rears? If one is real off, say from a nail it does screwy thing to your handling.