Problems with car..........

Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives

I just got my 2000 Contour from a Dealership on November 10th. I haven't even had it for two weeks yet, and noticed a problem today, not sure if it's minor, or something major.

Today I was backing out of the drive way, and my car started jerking. It wasn't hard jerks, it would just pull forward every 5 seconds or so, and shake a little. It seemed to do it when I was driving slow (under 25 mph.) Then when I turned onto a main street, I hit the gas to get up to the speed limit, and it would not go. I was hitting the gas, and nothing happened for a few seconds, and then it picked back up, and it was fine.

The engine & trans wasn't making any noise, so I assume it has nothing to do with that. The car was doing fine driving around, and then we stopped, had dinner. When we came back out and went to leave, the car started jerking again. It picked up fine when I drove on the main streets, but for the first few minutes while driving, it was doing that jerking thing.

It seems to stop though after about 2 - 3 minutes of driving, and doesn't do it at all when you are driving at a faster speed. It almost seemed like my car was going to lose power, but lights or radio never dimmed.

My mother was in the car, and she seemed to think maybe it had something to do with the gas. Her boyfriend thought maybe it was moisture in the gas tank? When my fiance' drove with me this evening, he seemed to think it may need new spark plugs, and wires. (His truck did something similar back in summer, and it needed all new spark plugs and wires.)

I really don't know what to do...I don't know squat about cars, except how to drive them.

I tried to explain this the best I could...but does anyone have an idea of what this *could* possibly be?

Thanks in advance for any replies, they are always greatly appreciated.

~ Kari ~

i would take it back where you got it from and explain the probe to them cause i have the same problem you do. see if they an fix it.

what kind of warranty does the dealer have on used cars???
go there and find out... you should have found this out when buying the car.. its probably something that they should have fixed before they sold the car.. thats the reason why they give so little for trade ins... as they have to get them running right to sell them and guarantee them to the people they sell them to.....

I do have a warranty on the car. It is 2 years / 24,000 miles. I'm plan on calling tomorrow morning to see what they will do for me.

The warranty says that any repairs that they do under the warranty, I have to pay the first $100 and they cover the rest.

My concern is that is problem will not be covered under the warranty, and they will want an arm & a leg to fix it. They SHOULD just fix it because I JUST bought the darn thing. I do not have the money to get it repaired right now, I expected to buy a car, and not have to worry about much for a while.

I'll call tomorrow morning and see if they will look at it. It needs to be taken care of, I'm going on a long trip Thanksgiving Day, and I don't want to have to worry about it on the highway.

Thanks again for the replies, I will be sure to update you with the information that I get from the dealers.

~ Kari ~

when i bought my contour from the dealer i got that where u pay the $100 bucks on like blown engine and ect. but never have used it so to late now good luck on ur car

At first I thought it was a plugged up cat or bad fuel pump, but with it going away, well I say take it in and see what they say

Do you have a CEL?

Quote:

Do you have a CEL?

I'm not quite sure what you mean about CEL...sorry

Could you explain further?

I'll assume you have a V-6 engine. Additional information like that - & if you noticed a Check Engine light would be helpful.

Based on your description, the plugs/wires replacement seems a possible solution to your problem. The dealer may have installed crappy plugs. What we need in these high performance machines is Double Platinum Autolites.

Several folks here have had some considerable experience with plugs & wires - myself included.

CEL = Check Engine Light

Also known as the Contour Enthusiast Light

OH...lol...now you can really tell I know nothing...lol

But no - there is no check engine light on. I JUST called the dealership service department, and I told him the situation, and told him I JUST bought the car. He said that it is $98 JUST for them to look at it!?!?!?

So I hung up and called the guy who sold me the car. He wasn't in yet, so I left him a message. If he doesn't call shortly, I'll call back, again, and again until he picks up!

I would be interested to know if there was a "Check Engine Light" as well. Is this an automatic or manual shift?

I am not 100% on this, but the other things sound like they could cause this, but most of the time bad plugs will show signs that they need to be changed by a rough idle, stumble in the idle every now and then, stumble at "high speeds", so on and so on.

Honestly, if it is an automatic, I think it is your Torque Convertor Clutch or possible a bad/worn band in the transmission.

Without getting into a ton of specifics, you may ask yourself, "But how and why?". Poor maintaince practices by the previous owners. Our autos require some rather aggresive maintaince practices when compared to most others. Just remember in the future, that you should have your tranny fluid changed at least every 12,000 miles. Most of us here have found that this is the easiest way to fend off these demons. Don't worry about the filter, it is not serviceable. It is located deep within the transmission case.

Since you are going to be calling the shop/dealer this morning, I will save you the worries of testing things yourself.

If it is the tranny, don't panic! The dealer will not rebuild it. They will have to replace it. Most dealers will not rebuild these units. If the tranny is your problem, just be glad that you have that warrenty. Good luck!

if its an MTX, im leaning toward a bad clutch or shifter linkage. seems like thereis a delay between the time you put it in gear and the time it actually goes in gear.

My contour is a 2000 V6. Not sure if that helps any...(I failed to mention that on my first post on this thread).

I finally got a hold of my sales guy from the dealership, and he said that he was going to talk to his manager, and see what he could do to get my car in. He said he would call me back in 30 minutes (it has already been an hour). I am giving him until noon, and then I'm calling back.

The jerking in my car does seem like a hesitation. That's a good way to explain it. It only seems to do it when you first start driving, for the first few minutes, and then goes away. I hope whatever it is, they fix for me.

GO GET 'EM!!!!

The guy from the dealership called. He wanted me to tell him *again* exactly what my car was doing. Once I told him everything, again, he said that he would look up my warranty, and see if it covers "it". He said he couldn't promise me anything, and said he would call me back shortly.

How in the world can HE determine if they can cover "it" under my warranty, if he doesn't even know what "it" is, that is going on??? They would have to LOOK at it to determine if my warranty covers it or not! I wish I wouldn't have gone to this dealership. Nothing but crap from them since I bought the car. It's like once you buy it, you're on your own!

If he calls back and says no, I'm taking myself up there, and I'll be SURE to have a nice talk with the OWNER of the dealership, and if he's not there, I will go there EVERY DAY until he is there!

Grrrrr....this is so frustrating!!!

Karilyn,

Start documenting your interactions with the dealership. List names, times, dates, and summerize what was said in conversations. This could become extremely useful in the future. Additionally, did you buy the car from a Ford Dealership?

No - I bought it used from a Pontiac Dealership.

I also just wrote down all of the things that have gone on so far, and I am saving them. Each time something happens, I will add it on, and print it out if necessary. Thanks for the idea.

Originally posted by karilyn1982:
I also just wrote down all of the things that have gone on so far, and I am saving them. Each time something happens, I will add it on, ...

Oooo, juicy! Karilyn, this could get fun! Getting a GM dealer under your thumb, because of a problem with your Ford. Hehe, gotta love it!

lol - and the longer I wait for this jerk to call, the madder I get! He called at 12:00 p.m. and it is now 3:30 p.m. I am just ITCHING to call him, but I want to see how long it actually takes for him to *remember* to call.

How full is your gas tank when it's doing that, and how many miles does the car have? My car was having trouble getting up to speed, and it would "jerk" sometimes when I would give it gas. It only happened below 1/4 tank, then only below 1/2 tank. At this point I took it in, and although there was no Check Engine Light, there was a code in the computer. It turned out that I needed a new fuel pump. BTW, I drive a '99 Contour V6 Auto, and this happened around 35-40k miles.

Conclusion to my car problem...

I waited and waited for this car salesman jerk to call me back. I waited until 4:30 p.m. and then I called. I left a message with another guy, to tell my salesman to give me a call. He never called back. At 6:30 p.m. I called the dealership, and finally got a hold of the guy. The first thing he says? "Oh - sorry I didn't call! We sold TEN cars today!" I said, "Really, that's nice, glad you could take time the time out of your busy schedule to call me back." He didn't say anything to that. Then he told me that the service department told him that my problem sounded like there could be water in my gas tank, or it could be the spark plugs. (We had thought from the beginning that this could be the problem, we just wanted to be sure.) Then he told me that these things were not covered under the warranty. He said it would be cheaper for me to go some where "smaller" and get it taken care of.

I really cannot argue much with what he said. It probably is a spark plug, because there was no moisture coming from my exhaust. (I may go buy a can of Dri-Gas to be sure though). But it angers me that they wouldn't even look at it. I still would have to of paid the $98.00. After I hung up with the dealer, I called my mother. She said that the salesman called HER and asked her what was wrong witht the car! She said she didn't know, and to call me. Which he never did anyways. What good service, eh??? I plan on writing a not so nice letter to the owner of the company, and let them know that they WILL lose a lot of business with their STEALERSHIP ways. I will make sure to tell people to avoid Rowan Pontiac GMC. I wish I would have.

So now I suppose my question is, is it cheap to replace/fix the spark plugs? Is there a "how to" on how to do this? I'm pretty clueless when it comes to these kinds of things.

Thanks again for all the help and advice. It means a lot to me that you all would take the time to comment, and give support.

Have a great night!
~ Kari ~

Wallace487 - in reference to your question, this happened on a full tank. I actually filled it up the night before. My car currently has 59,830 miles on it.

I plan on getting the car checked out somewhere soon, and if it's not spark plugs, I'm hoping it is a water pump, or something covered under warranty. *crosses fingers*

I won't be able to get it in somewhere for another week or so.

Another question....

I am leaving to Mesick, Michigan on Thanksgiving. It's about a 3.5 to 4 hour trip there. Do you think I would be okay to drive up there with my car the way it is right now? I drove my car several times today, and it hasn't jerked at all today. And when it did do it yesterday, it didn't do it very long, and once driving, it went away. What do you all think? Safe to travel up north for the weekend?

I'm aure theres a local SE MI CEG-er who could look at your car and replace the plugs/wires. Put up a post and see who steps up

I'd help you out but thats not my area of expertese, I'm a detailer...remember that in the spring

Mesick...that's appraoching my neck of the Northwoods. About a 45 minute-hour drive for me. Plugs aren't too bad, the CEG tried, tested and recomended plugs are autolite APP764. You can get them at Advance Auto for like $4/plug last I checked. With a 6" extension (i think thats what i used) and good plug socket someone who knows what they're doing should be able to change those out in about half an hour. Heck, if I wasn't so busy this weekend with Thanksgiving and a friends wedding, I'd volunteer to drive over to Mesick and do it for ya, but no can do. Best of luck, and hope that solves your problem!

Thanks for the replies

I thought the spart plugs would be much more..lol..glad to hear they are relativly cheap

I'd ask bf to change them for me...but I may just ask the neighbor. We'll see.

Yep...up to Mesick this weekend. It is so beautiful up there. I lived up there during the summer, and worked right in Traverse City. What a drive! lol.

Anyways, thanks again - you guys are great!

~ Kari ~

One other little note - if you change the plugs, be sure change the wires too. That will save you the headache of having to get someone to go back in there.

Again, Good Luck!

Karilyn
I have a 96 with the V-6. It was doinf what i think yours was doing. I would press on the gas to go and it would lunge forward, then act like it ran out of gas, and then lunge forward. When I gave mine a tune-up and replaced the oxygen sensors it quit. I also reset the computer by unhooking the negative battery cable for 10 minutes. You might want to try that, unhook the battery cable for about ten minutes and then hook it back up. You will have to reprogram your radio and your clock. After you hook the cable back up be sure to let the engine idle for about five minutes to relearn its idle characteristics. See if that helps.

Blaze