Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches Western Canada car problems

I figured we should have a car problems post. Just to show some of our issues we have came across or any current problems. Perhaps help out others who encounter them.

To start:

Mystique: IMRC failed 1 month after buying my car. clogged cats, burnt off o2 sensors (thx park muffler), cracked tranny case / water in trans. Quite a bit more I'm sure...


SHO: Oil in plug wells, clogged cat, broken cat, starter dead (current - had the car towed last night)

4 bad wheel bearings, 1 stripped hub assembly, 1 warpped rotor, stripped half shaft, 1 blown engine (rod shot out of the oil pan), 1 siezed engine (spun bearings), stripped differential gears and broken shifter cable, leaky water pump, 2 broken stabilizer bar end links, power window motor... i can't remember the rest.
current problems: passenger door doesn't always close and a dying starter.

82 Jetta 1.7L gas (most stubborn car ever built):
The instrument cluster stopped working at 270K, new one indicates almost 300K
It's on clutch #2 at about 470K, not bad
It's on it's 8th set of tires
It's on it's 5th exhaust
It's on it's 3rd set of shocks
It's on it's 2nd set of CV axles
It really needs brakes, they work well and the pads seem to have quite a bit left, but it's been about 8 years at least
It's on it's ??? battery
Written off in 1985, T-boned by a Mustang
Written off in 1988, driven over a rock which demolished the underside of the car
Written off in 1993, stolen and driven over 40K in a 6 month period, stabbed and beaten...
Written off in 1998, rear ended by an 88 suburban on Calgary trail
Still starts and runs/drives like new...

1986 Jetta Carat:
It was stolen

88 Nissan Micra:
It needed a battery
This happens when it gets windy:


96 Contour Duratec MTX:
Power Steering pump failed at 45K
Secondaries almost never opened correctly
Rear suspension clunk, never figured out what from until owning the car for 6 months. The car had been lowered and I always scraped on the driveway and got stock at work at the bottom of a ramp, so I replaced them with stock shocks and springs from a Contour SE.

02 Focus ZX5:
Faulty rack&pinion assembly, caused the death of the power steering pump at less than 200kms.
Rust issue that happens on any Focus with the chrome hatch strip. That's #1 on my fixit list right now.
That's it...

More SHO problems... oh the joys of buying 10 year old car that was not maintained....

Driving yesterday, hit the gas to turn left in an intersection... no go, rpm's drop, car sputters and dies

After alot of cooldown I was able to drive it to my shop where it died in the parking lot.. It will be getting a new fuel pump that I was going to install this week. And troubleshoot the problem. I'm thinking the waterpump is leaking onto the Crank position sensor. I'm going to have them do a compression test on the engine as well. I want to ensure the yamahammer is good or else new car for me as I need more reliability and can't afford constant repairs!

If they replace the crank sensor I would have replaced just about every damn sensor on the carto control the engine!

Car is fixed and wearing new shoes!

Was just the fuel pump - Good thing I had bought a new one - Walbro 190 LPH. I was going to replace it this week on my own... Just my luck.

I am getting my new tires put on as well.


Ricers beware... Stock good running SHO has to try out the new shoes...

i guess new repairs added to the list:
replaced alternator, another wheel bearing (front left), and serpentine belt yesterday. also replaced trans fluid and checked the computer for codes for a total of $900. ouch! no codes and every sensor checked out good, WTF i have a CEL light that comes on only when i'm out highway speed. the scanner couldn't find any stored codes.
That leaves the starter for tomorrow so more money going into the car

Further expanding on my last repairs:
The whining noise was caused by a bad pulley on the alternator, the alternator was working fine and it�??s been making the noise for almost 2 years now but had enough of this irritating sound. Trujap you know what I�??m talking about you heard it, you have the same noise on your car but not as loud which could be a tensioner or idler pulley which isn�??t expensive to replace.
The alternator had a crack on the casing which might be a result of something striking from underneath which is near impossible without doing any damage to the sub-frame �?? at least this is my theory�?�. This really sucked because of the damage on the casing I didn�??t get a core refund for my alternator. My new Bosh alternator came with a 5 year warranty and a price tag of $398.
Front wheel bearing had some play so I decided to replace it too �??this is 5th bearing to go on my car�?�. It gets worse; on the highway drive back home my car starts to make a humming noise and wobble when I turned the steering wheel and/or eased off the gas scaring me to think the bearing is already gone with less than 500kms on it. So I jacked up the car when I get home and inspected the wheel and there is lots of play up/down and side/side, I get a little worried now that there must be something terribly wrong. I start taking the wheel off and realize that all 4 lug nuts were loose and I can turn them with my hand. Now I�??m enraged, how could they forget to tighten the lugs? I tightened the wheel back on the car and went for a little drive, the car drives good now but I still called the mechanic and give him [censored] and booked my car for next week to have it inspected. The bearing still has a little play to it but not noticeable when I�??m driving but they�??re going to replace it for free of charge.
I also replaced the starter on the weekend thats a total of $1200 spent on the car last week.

Wow thats a sh!tload of cash... If your going to be in town you should go to my mechanic for work. They know the car well (I was there ALOT!), and do great work for a decent price.

I'm going in on Monday for an oil change. Will be using an oil filter for a 5.0 Stang on my SHO for more oil capacity - should be nice to have an extra 1/2 liter of oil all the time. I will also have them check my wheel bearings and CV axles. I'm hearing a ticking when driving that speeds up as I do and slows down as I do.... This is intermittant though making it very hard to troubleshoot. I've had since I got the car and it sounds like its something inside the car. So I've been pushing in interior pieces like mad trying to find it...

We will see on Monday though. At least with my agressive (ever see a sumo wrestler eat a bowl of rice?) method of maintaining my car has made it much more driveable, better fuel economy and power while remainging in stock form!

1200 might sound a lot but it could've been worse:
got my codes checked and reseted for free usually its a $60 fee.
paid $60 for serp. belt
paid $60 for bearing
paid $30 for tranny flush
paid $400 for new alternator (no core exchange usually its around $200)
and i only got charged $60/hr shop rate for the 5 hrs i took to do all of the above.

going rate for starter and labor is around $400 at Ford i paid $300.
plus these guys know my car in and out they've done an engine swap and tranny rebuilt for me.