Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting worst car built

85,000 miles huh? That only gives part of an indication of the vehicle's overall life taken off it. What kind of miles were those? Remember that the car is already 6 years old if it's a '98. Any car 6 years old needs attention maintenance-wise. I am a certified technician by trade, and I hear SO many sob stories from customers all day long, every day about "wah, wah, my car this, my car that, why did it break?" And people never are prepared for when it finally breaks due to lack of proper maintenance, and it's now costing them $3000 say, to replace some major thing because they didn't know that a car needs TLC at regular intervals. Did you happen to by chance read your owner's manual and perform all the service procedures at their proper times? Like did you do a 30k or more importantly the 60k service yet? Did you have all the factory recalls and TSBs serviced? You got the 90k service comin up anyways to be ready for. Do you have money set aside for that? I see too many customers who never set aside a dime for maintenance, and it always seems to bite them again and again in their lives. But the wise customers we have, never have this trial because they always plan on scheduled maintenance. Also those same wise people always want us to perform maintenance inspection to find any other things that might need attention even if it wasn't 'scheduled' maintenance per say. Inspections can go a long way to help figure out what a car may need. We always look over and advise customers of any red flags when we do simple oil changes, and half the people have us address them, while others don't seem to care too much. My Contour has been a great car for me since I always give it what it needs. I have 135,000 miles on mine with original motor/trans and it drives like new since I keep it up. It DOES have new O2 sensors on it, new cats, and passes emissions. It has new clutch, CV axles, lower control arms, water pump, and has always had new platinum plugs, new wires, fuel filters, PCV valves, air filters and any other tune-up parts it has ever needed, when it needed them. Not to mention annual coolant drain and fill, trans fluid flushes, brake fluid and power steering fluid flushes, and not to mention 3000 mile oil changes. I have always put the annual $1300 that Consumer Reports magazine estimates for annual maintenance each year on my make/model of car as shown in their auto review issues. Consumer Reports DID rate many of the Honda cars with lower estimated annual maintenance costs than Contour, so maybe you should sell your car, and buy a car that better fits your needs? Check out Consumer Reports car reviews. If your car has a $1300 estimated annual maintenance cost, and you only put a few hundred into it in the 6 years you've had it, then someday when all that maintenance catches up to your ignorance, then you will realize that you have much larger than a $1300 x 6 = ___ dollar bill waiting to suck you dry after you experience parts breakage. I'm just trying to put it in perspective for you is all. What do you expect? It's only a car. Who knows, maybe the dealer you bought the car from put an odometer in with less miles than it has. That's is one of the biggest used car sales tricks goin nowdays. One of the largest listings on www.car-part.com is for their used speedometer heads. So maybe your car has more miles on it than you know? But if so, that was up to you to determine before you laid down your money on it. It's all about laws of physics. Cars wear out. If you take really good care of them, the wear out process can be greatly slowed down. I still love my Contour just as much as the day I bought it at 27,000 miles. I hope to turn 200,000 miles at least before I retire the old drivetrain. All those fluid flushes, and taking care of it whenever something went out of spec is really paying off big time now

By the way, there is a TSB (technical service bulletin) through Ford about that on Zetecs, the temp gauge may read higher than other Contours. And this is a gauge problem and has nothing to do with actual temperature. This is normal. The important thing you observe is that this is your normal range of operation in the gauge, and if it goes above that level which you normally see the gauge at, only THEN would you might have reason to believe that you are overheating. Read the TSB. I found it on ALLdata not too long ago when we had a Mystique in our shop that had a Zetec. Is yours a Zetec (the 4 cyl one)?

Actually (atleast on my 96) the temp gauge is fairly accurate in the sense that it does show when the engine is really hot. Though if it's in the normal range,, than that's normal hence it being called the normal range. At around the O in normal, my ECT is 172 degrees. I believe 180 is about what you want this type of engine to run at for optimal conditions which would put the needle sticking bout straight up.

Yeah, for the record, it was TSB 98-21-3 OCT 98 Temperature Gauge - Reads High At Normal Temperature
If I was at work I could print off the entire bulletin, but I'm not.

Well you know I believe in maintenance schedules....but when a water pump has to be replaced 5 times within 6 months, I should be billing someone for MY time. 5th water pump worked perfectly and have NO problems.....

Cars are getting more expensive, don't last as long, a pain in the a to work on and parts are expensive........sounds like a good revenue curve to me.....at least if your FORD.

If FORD invested another $1000 in Contours on the assembly line for well built cars, I would have gladly paid the difference. After all what is 18,000 compared to 19,000 when your spending this much? I will keep my Contour since it is paid for and I do all the repairs myself...buy I will NEVER buy a FORD again.

Now I have my eye on this 2004 Sonata with V6.....with 100,000 mile warranty.....wish my Contour had a 100,000 mile warranty........Yep it is confirmed, I won't purchase from Ford again.....

Who made the water pump? Where did you get it at?

Yeah, you do have to replace stuff to keep the baby going. At first I was frustrated (every car I had previously was a company car where I drove them into the ground), but quickly learned the concept of MAINTENANCE as I had no choice but to keep the car going. Some people think that parts last forever and it's inexcusable to have to think about replacing them. Buy used and maintain. You'll enjoy your car a lot more and a lot longer.

Here's what I have replaced. I'm at the 205,000 km mark (128,000 miles):

CV Boots/Joints
Struts
Timing Belt
Wheel bearings
3rd set of brakes
3rd set of tires
3 tune ups.