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Joined: Jun 2004
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Hi everybody, my name is Bill and I'm a Contour owner.
Actually I kinda like the little car but but it has a few idiosyncrocies that have me wondering. It's a '95 Zetec ATX that I bought for my teenage daughter and I'd like to get it somewhat dependable and safe for her. I already replaced the front rotors and the rear springs & struts as well as brakes, tires, plugs, wires, filters, fluids etc.
My 2 main concerns now are with the tranny having a hard 1-2 upshift (bangs into 2nd) and the motor running a little hot.
The harsh upshift is worse under hard acceleration and not as noticable under easy acceleration.
The temp needle (with ac on & outside temps in 80-90s) runs mostly on the L with an occasional dip into the red in heavy traffic. The car never has boiled over but AC efficiancy drops off.
Any help with these issues would be appreciated plus any Contour specific tidbits I might ought to be aware of. I've been lurking here for about a week already and I've learned a bunch just digging through the archives. I'm a VW mechanic by trade (retired actually) and these here American cars kinda throw me.
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The overheating is a common problem. You'll probably get a lot of answers that say it's supposed to do that, but I don't buy that theory. On the 95, you should have two speeds on a single cooling fan. I suspect that the low speed fan is not coming on when it is supposed to. Check your wiring, and the fan, and a resistor mounted at the bottom driver's side of the radiator. All of these are known weak links in the cooling system. Also, the entire wiring harness is a problem on the 95's. Ford extended the warranty on the harness, but with a 95, your time may have expired. I think the warranty was like 8 or 10 years, and 100,000 miles.
There have been other posts on the harsh 1-2 shift, but since I've not had that problem, I'll let others address that issue. I think a faulty sensor of some kind may be involved.
95 Contour Zetec, ATX (wrecked, sitting in the barn)
95 Mystique Zetec, MTX
2000 Taurus SEL 3.0L Duratec
1994 Crown Victoria LX 4.6 V8
1993 Chevy Silverado 4.3 V6
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Joined: Sep 2003
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Originally posted by bill c.:
Hi everybody, my name is Bill and I'm a Contour owner.
Actually I kinda like the little car but but it has a few idiosyncrocies that have me wondering. It's a '95 Zetec ATX that I bought for my teenage daughter and I'd like to get it somewhat dependable and safe for her. I already replaced the front rotors and the rear springs & struts as well as brakes, tires, plugs, wires, filters, fluids etc.
My 2 main concerns now are with the tranny having a hard 1-2 upshift (bangs into 2nd) and the motor running a little hot.
The harsh upshift is worse under hard acceleration and not as noticable under easy acceleration.
The temp needle (with ac on & outside temps in 80-90s) runs mostly on the L with an occasional dip into the red in heavy traffic. The car never has boiled over but AC efficiancy drops off.
Any help with these issues would be appreciated plus any Contour specific tidbits I might ought to be aware of. I've been lurking here for about a week already and I've learned a bunch just digging through the archives. I'm a VW mechanic by trade (retired actually) and these here American cars kinda throw me.
How to fix 1 -2 bang shift
I had that problem to, replaced the sensor and it went away.
Secondly I have a 96 and my temp. needle is all over the place, usally by ML. I took it to a few shops who all said the car is not that hot. Secondly there is a TSB for "temp. gauge giving inaccurate readings", or something like that. If you want it fixed that bad you might have to do the TSB.
Mine though has never gone into the red, if it does that often you may have a problem.
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what engine and what tranny if its the cd4e try this website for the tss http://fordpartsonline.com/
NEED AN SVT REAR BUMPER!!! pm me
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with the temp reading:
it is pretty normal for the reading to go up on the zetecs, espically in a traffic jam when its hot, etc. mine goes up to M or L, most other times mine will be in the middle, and my zetec runs perfectly. i wouldnt be too worried if it goes to the "M" or the "L", but if it starts going into the red then i'd say you might need to check that out. if you are worried about overheating, i remember someone saying that turning on the A/C will also cool the engine? correct me if im wrong though
1998 T-Red CSVT 3.0L
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my engine never gets close to red, the highest i have ever seen it go is just past the middle of its range.
NEED AN SVT REAR BUMPER!!! pm me
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Thanks for the info guys, especially the link for the tranny fix. I think I'm going to do a cooling flush/replace and stick a 170 thermostat in it. Here in the hot humid south it's tough to get a car to run cool.
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There IS a TSB on the Zetec for the temp gauge reading higher than it should when the temp is in fact normal.
The correct way to check for this (I'm an ASE master tech), is to take it to a shop that has good tool selection, and have them use an infrared temp gun to read temp at the water outlet of the engine (before it hits the radiator), and make sure that temp is within spec while your gauge is sitting at the 'L' like it was when you thought it was running hot. Once you verify the actual running temp then you can figure out what to do from there. If it WAS just the gauge reading hotter than it really is, then I'd probably take apart the instrument cluster (not too hard) and remove the needle for the temp gauge and put it back on in the spot where it read correctly while I was frequently checking it with the IR temp gun. Or you could just learn the temps in your mind that the engine is really at at various gauge readings. To me, it's not as important what the gauge actually reads, but just whether the gauge is reading outside the area where it always sits at while you noramlly drive the car. For instance, if it always reads 'A' to 'L' everyday while you drive it, and then one day it reads past that, THEN I might suspect some problem with engine cooling. Obviously, it may run a few degrees warmer in the summertime, but you catch my drift, right?
That's just my 2 cents.
'95 CONTOUR SE
-Enkei 16s
-SVT wannabe
-Dual escapes w/ 2 1/2" stainless tips
-True LED taillight conversion
- Audi Xenon Projector Retrofit
-Mp3 deck, dual 10s
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Originally posted by bill c.:
Thanks for the info guys, especially the link for the tranny fix. I think I'm going to do a cooling flush/replace and stick a 170 thermostat in it. Here in the hot humid south it's tough to get a car to run cool.
Hey Bill, keep us updated on your issues and if you have any other transmission problems, after changing the turbine speed sensor, let us know and we will try to help you out some more. 
Welcome aboard! 
Phillip Jackson
`98 Mystique LS
262K+ and counting...
ATX rebuilt @ 151K
"This storm has broken me, my only friend!" RIP Dime
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Joined: Jun 2004
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Originally posted by unisys12:
Originally posted by bill c.:
Thanks for the info guys, especially the link for the tranny fix. I think I'm going to do a cooling flush/replace and stick a 170 thermostat in it. Here in the hot humid south it's tough to get a car to run cool.
Hey Bill, keep us updated on your issues and if you have any other transmission problems, after changing the turbine speed sensor, let us know and we will try to help you out some more.
Welcome aboard!
Will do, thanks 
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