Got a new car, time to park the SC!!!

Well I've been having a lot of problems with my SC over the past few weeks. Its been a struggle trying to get the money together to fix it. Now with gas prices over $3.00 a gallon I know I can't afford to drive it. I will still be around the site and plan to fix my SC. However, I don't see it being my daily driver anymore. Today I bought a '00 Ford Contour. Its a 4cyl 5spd with 27K miles. anyone know any pros/ cons of these cars. The car was a repossession we picked up and I purchased it from the bank. I feel like I got a great deal in that I paid less than half of fair market value. How reliable are they is what Im wondering. My SC has 316K miles on it. Might I be able to expect the same out of this one. Its not nearly as fun to drive as my SC but its much more affordable.

Make sure you do regular maintence, especially the timing belt. I have worked on 3 (various years) with the 4 banger and the timing belts snapped between the milage of 70,000 and 80,000 miles. No matter what I would replace the belt at 60,00 make sure to do the water pump at the same time.

If you'd still like me to come check your SC sometime, let me know. We can probably get it running again. Glad you found something else to drive and sounds like you got a good deal on it.

David,

The SC is running now, just leaking oil profusely. Dont have money to fix it right now, especially if its very labor intensive. I dont plan on getting rid of it, just gotta have something a little better on gas anyway. It went up .55 today. It was 2.94 when I went to work and 3.49 when I got off, and thats regular. Premium is almost 4.00 now. Thanks for the offer. Maybe when I get the money you can help me get the oil leak fixed if you have time. I'll be happy to pay to get it fixed but would certainly prefer someone who is familiar with these cars. My mechanic charged me 325.00 labor to change the balancer, cps, and DIS module. I can imagine what hes gonna want for the oil seal.

They are pretty reliable cars form what I can tell. Just keep up on the regular maintinance.

Shane

fordfan_27 said:

David,

The SC is running now, just leaking oil profusely. Dont have money to fix it right now, especially if its very labor intensive. I dont plan on getting rid of it, just gotta have something a little better on gas anyway. It went up .55 today. It was 2.94 when I went to work and 3.49 when I got off, and thats regular. Premium is almost 4.00 now. Thanks for the offer. Maybe when I get the money you can help me get the oil leak fixed if you have time. I'll be happy to pay to get it fixed but would certainly prefer someone who is familiar with these cars. My mechanic charged me 325.00 labor to change the balancer, cps, and DIS module. I can imagine what hes gonna want for the oil seal.

Click to expand...

That's a lot for changing those parts in my opinion, I would have done it for free and saved you some money. I saw your thread about the leak. Let me know when you want to fix it.

fordfan_27 said:

David,

The SC is running now, just leaking oil profusely. Dont have money to fix it right now, especially if its very labor intensive. I dont plan on getting rid of it, just gotta have something a little better on gas anyway. It went up .55 today. It was 2.94 when I went to work and 3.49 when I got off, and thats regular. Premium is almost 4.00 now. Thanks for the offer. Maybe when I get the money you can help me get the oil leak fixed if you have time. I'll be happy to pay to get it fixed but would certainly prefer someone who is familiar with these cars. My mechanic charged me 325.00 labor to change the balancer, cps, and DIS module. I can imagine what hes gonna want for the oil seal.

Click to expand...

He shouldn't charge you anything for installing the seal, since he should have replaced it when installing the new balancer.

David

I concour with Dave.

The contours were not exactly the cream of the crop so to speak. They had electircal problems out the arse. I was constantly doing some sort of switch replacement to keep the wiring from burning up. The timing belt on ALL engines should be done at 60K. Ane yes the water pumps were bad on them too. However all of the forementioned parts were recalled on all of the cars with problems. They also had bad belt mouldings, door hinges, and gas cap release doors, sway bars, and sway bar end links.

Chris

I sold you the balancer, And if you supplied the parts the labor should not have been more that 1 hr like 60.00 because one time I pulled the balancer to change the CPS, then put it back together all in about 30 min. And I was laying on the ground in my driveway useing a jack.