Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Forced Induction I'm LIVID ... the saga begins!!!

You be the judge: 3.5MB Windows Media File documenting the day I drove the car home from picking it up from the transporter. The minute I drove it home from the transporter (1.5 miles) I knew there was something wrong with the car and wanted to document the condition of the car from earliest moments possible. This is just to show the smoking and clutch knock/chatter (at least I think it's clutch chatter). I have the mileage documented (on video 20 minutes after picking up the car) at 51,156 miles. The car as of now, sitting in my garage on jack stands at 51,190 miles. Yes, I put a whopping 34 miles on the car, 25 of which where driving to and from my sister-in-law's house for storage. My neighbors can testify to this fact. The other 10 miles where me driving around trying to diagnose the issues at hand ... as far as I can see, it's an open and shut case.

I negitiated a return of $2,700 from the guy 6 weeks ago and have yet to see a penny. I managed to get ahold the guy later that night after making my last post in this thread. We had a meeting of the minds to say the least and he basically said that I would not be getting a penny more than the $2,700 we already agreed up. He assured me that I would have my money by the end of this month and promptly hung up. I quickly called back and left a voice mail that I would definitely be pursuing the issue legally if I didn't have the $2,700 in my hand by the 1st of January ... time will tell what's going to happen.

So what does that mean, you are giving it all back and getting $2700 or he's giving you that much back towards repairs? I mean you already took everything apart so that would suck.

$2700 would get you enough to drop in a 3L and get it bgack up and running. Good luck with the deadbeat!

Wow, I just watched the video. All I really had to see was that video. I called it right on day one when I first listened to your symptoms.
That smoking out the back is also exactly what happens.

I did that to my engine when running with no intercooler at about 6psi. That means that either it wasn't tuned well or that front mount isn't working that well.
If you have an water to air intercooler then it will be more efficient at low speeds. He also may have been running it on high boost too, who knows.
From everything, it sounds to me like he knew he broke it, or suspected as much and wanted to unload it.
Really, just fixing a few problems with the pipes and throwing in a shortblock would work fine.

I definitely liked the sound of its exhaust though.

Did you see the IAC feed was tapped in from the LOW PRESSURE side of the turbo Under WOT it would bleed boost back to the turbo as the IAC would open. Man.....so many things wrong with that turbo setup that it isn't even funny.

Yea he knew. No mistake it was knocking. No one could miss that. Pretty sweet whitish/blue smoke.

I've been through some legal issues with the car's I've picked up and unless you get a lawyer most of the time you'll never see a dime. One SVT I bought had all the SVT parts stripped off it when I got it. I was told it was taken apart but the parts would be in the truck. They tried putting stock 2.5L parts in the trunk. Half the engine parts were missing. I still haven't gotten anything back from that deal. That guy was in the Navy and I figured I could go through the Navy and get him in trouble but I still haven't had any luck. Good luck with your issues. I hope you get something out of it.