Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Transmission Sticking ?

Hi,

I have a 96 ford Contour wiht a 2.4l engine.. automatic transmission. I have encountered a problem, but I'm not sure how to go about a repair.
A few weeks ago.. I had my transmission flushed, because the car was having problems with acceleration during take off. It has improved since then, however, it is still not shifting smoothly. FOr instance... when accellerating, ti tends to get a little stuck between 10 @ 20 . after it gets out past 20, it's fine.. drives normal. Sometimes it does it, and then other times, it jerks a little, and does fine. I don't think that the transmission is slipping, But what could cause this? I had possible began the thought of changing the timing belt. Maybe another transmission flush would do the trick? Not sure what to do.. any sugesstions?

Sounds like your valve body has a sticking valve in it. It's not uncommon for this to happen, after a flush, if you have not changed your fluid on a regular basis before the flush. You can check the CD4E FAQ's, in the tranny forums, for some personal insight on this topic.

For what it's worth, if you cannot put any money into it right now, then I would suggest trying a bottle of Lucas Trans Fix (or whatever it's called). It really saved my tail in a similar situation, which I was about 200 miles away from home.

To fix it for good, sounds like you might need a valve body, which can be had for around $250 or so. Again, check the tranny forums, CD4E FAQ and do some searches on "valve body", and you should be able to get all the info you need. If not, please feel free to let me know and I will try to help you out.

A) there was no 2.4L engine in the contour, theres a 2.0L Zetec I4 and a 2.5L Duratec V6.
b) The 2.5 (if you have that engine) does NOT have a timing belt, it has Timing Chains where thoeretically never need to be changed, but it is an interference engine, so if the chain does snap (fat chance) then the engine is done for.

Im going to agree with unisys about the valve body, As well as you might want to look into getting the updated shift sensor (TSS) for the transmission, its really easy to change and extends the life of the transmission, $30 worth in parts and about 30-60 minutes of your time to change it.