overheating.. - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

imdawrlus · 08-14-2005, 20:12

ok well this is my first post here and this is for my girlfriend.....its a 95 contour 4 cyl automatic.....she got it a few weeks ago and has had a problem with the tempature gauge going close to the redline...its a pain becasue i dosent actually tell the tempature it just has a "normal" bracket and then cold and hot.....most of the time when she/we drive it the gauge is near the "L"....we've replaced the thermostat and that didnt seem to make a difference....we also flushed the coolant out 4 or 5 times and refilled it with clean water and antifreeze..this seemed to help a little bit, now its down near the "A"...the old coolant was relatively clean.....the outside of the radior is clean, no leaves or anything blocking airflow....here in massachusetts where we live it is pretty much open driving, there is very little time spent idling so it almost always has good natural airflow.....

i'm leaning towards the temp sensor giving a bad reading...is there only one sensor? i have the haynes manual but it only has very vague info....the only sensor i could find was the one right on the thermostat housing.....i had her start it and i wiggled the wires, nothing....i then unplugged it while it was running, the check engine light came on but the gauge on the dash didnt move.....the contacts seemed to be very coroded on the sensor so i took a couple q tips and some acetone and cleaned it all up real good......

anyone wanna take a guess as to whats wrong with it???? any advice is greatly appreciated....i'm a gm guy myself so i dont know a whole lot about fords but i'm learning quick haha.....thanks everyone...

imdawrlus · 08-15-2005, 20:41

this site sucks....thanks everyone

madmelon · 08-16-2005, 06:06

Unfortuantely, this is a little read section. To add to that, your problem could be alot of different things, half of which i probably don't know about.
Perhaps some sort of head/head gasget problem is causing it- Aussie Falcons tend to have overheating going hand in hand with a blown head gasget.
Or perhaps the tubes inside the radiator are blocked. There are many things it could be.

docjames · 08-16-2005, 22:10

Mondeo's/ Contours are known for the water pump failing. It's a crappy plastic design, which usually fails by the 60000mile mark.

It's best to replace it with one with metal impeller blades.

I'll PM you a good site to check for more info.

SVStables · 08-19-2005, 17:05

My mother had a 95 4 cly. mystique... well she didn't pay attention to the tempeture, and pushed it... one to many times, blowing the head gastkets, backflooding the engine, getting water in the pistons and just about everywhere else, and it was all because of that little plastic thing that was mentioned earleir. It fried the entire engine, and we still have the junker sitting infront of our house...

Our 95' contour 2.5 v6, never had that problem, going well over 190k miles... (Had to replace the cadalatic converter though... ) but I think it seems to be only on the 4cly... maybe I'm wrong... but my pa' just sold the 95'...

Now I got a 98' SE 2.5 V6, and it's pretty darn nice. Just putting in my input...

Bk4293 · 08-28-2005, 13:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by docjames

Mondeo's/ Contours are known for the water pump failing. It's a crappy plastic design, which usually fails by the 60000mile mark.

It's best to replace it with one with metal impeller blades.

I'll PM you a good site to check for more info.

Actually the plastic/metal impellar design applies mainly to the V6 Duratech...

Have you checked out contour.org ?