Looking at a contour tomorrow

[Mellis]

Looking at a contour tomorrow and it looks pretty nice. He sent me very good detailed pics of the car and all seems well. Im a little nervous about the rebuilt motor though, i dont want any headaches. He said it spun a bearing and he replaced the bearings, pistons, rings, gaskets, etc...

http://hartford.craigslist.org/cto/4562463978.html

Does anyone know the car or owner? Its in Connecticut

 

[mrspindlelegs]

Well, my reply is 1 day late. I'm not familiar with this specific Contour. The owner didn't post an Ad on the Contour Enthusiasts Group which seems surprising. I would be nervous of any Contour and I am still currently one. The SVTs are great driving cars when everything is working right but they are so full of "corner cutting" in the quality department that it is pathetic. The following issues are of concern with this car:

1. Almost all Contours suffer from substandard wiring harnesses. The insulation dries out and cracks off resulting in shorts that affect numerous things. The 1998s were particularly bad with regard to this situation. No new harnesses are available anymore so if you run into this problem, you have to cross your fingers and hope you can find a good used harness or you have to open the harness up and replace all the faulty wires.

2. The Duratec V6 engines are very prone to spinning bearings because the powdered metal scintered connecting rods are substandard. The original motor was a 2.5L V6. Why does this car have the 3.0L V6? Most likely the 2.5L spun a bearing. Why did his 3.0L spin a bearing too? There are a couple root causes on 3.0L but one thing to be aware of is that the Duratec 3.0Ls use the same exact connecting rods as the 2.5L. There is no way the same connecting rod will do any better with a heavier piston in a 3.0L than in the 2.5L. The owner claims the motor was rebuilt. If this is true, were the connecting rods replaced? If not, run away unless you don't mind rebuilding or replacing the motor again in the near future.

3. The owner says his Contour has a Spec-brand clutch. Run as fast as you can. Spec Clutches made for Contours are grenades waiting to happen. Clutchnet has been the only aftermarket brand that has the best track record when it comes to performance but their delivery times can take a bit (several weeks).

4. Find out if the owner had the transmission upgraded to handle the power of the 3.0L engine. The differential is a powdered metal scintered design just like the connecting rods and is known to fail (spider gears getting thrown through the case). If he hasn't upgraded to a Quaife or Torsen differential or at least replaced with the stronger 1995 - 97 differential, you have a time bomb on your hands.

5. Another weak point in the transaxle is the shift tower. There is a bolt that holds everything together on the shift tower but it lies on the inside of the transaxle. This bolt very often breaks off and the head drops down into the transmission. You will be stuck in a specific gear or neutral. The worst case scenario is that the broken piece of the bolt will wedge itself between the gears and the transmission case resulting in a cracked case. Best case scenario is the case does not get broken, the car is stuck in neutral which makes removal of the broken shift tower easy. You fish out the bolt and send the shift tower to Terry Haines to have him modify the shift tower so that it cannot break anymore. Really, these transaxles need to be completely modified by Terry to prevent differential failures too.

6. Sunroof motors love to fail in these cars. No more new replacement motors are available. Aftermarket gears can be purchased but sometimes the plastic case on the motor housing is what fails. Not fun if the failure occurs when the roof is open and a rainstorm is coming.

7. This is currently a New England car. How are those rocker panels holding up underneath the sideskirts? Are they rotting out?

If your reason for looking at this car is to use it as a daily driver, beware, it could easily suffer a catastrophic failure that leaves you hanging. If you already have a daily driver and this will be a toy, just have plenty of patience and money ready if it behaves like a lemon. If you get lucky and it behaves well, you will find this car a very rewarding experience.

 

[SVTKEV]

^^this guy knows contours,couldn't have said it better myself