Aussie Ford

Greetings fellow Contour lovers……
Sorry I’ve been away so long but work has had me way too busy. However, one has to remember that Tours have that way of getting your attention and usually at the most inconvenient time. I know mine seem to have that quality in them….. in fact I’ve been parking way to close to my 02 Ram and it has started exhibiting those qualities also, but that is another forum…. LOL

I have been tinkering with an apparent overheating issue in my 95 for some time. I say apparent because if one were looking at the temp gauge my car was always overheating and the fans wouldn’t come on until the needle was way past the red zone. That drove me a bit nuts since I could not find anything wrong. I must have checked and swapped the fan control relays a hundred times. I even swapped my ECM out with my spare. Everything always checked out just as it should. I opened up my spare instrument cluster and messed with that temp gauge. When I was sure that the one was checking out OK I installed it. Now here is the rub on all of this. If when it started getting hot you turned on the heat just barely the temp would go down and stay in the NORMAL range. Shortyman has a temp sensor that he uses in his work and measured the temp of the water pipe at the front of the engine. We found that the gauge was actually so far off that it couldn’t be trusted and the fans were coming on when they should be. This was confirmed by the ECM when I had it hooked to a computer/engine monitor. I figured it was some sort of electrical issue and checked out many wires from the gauge sensor to the instrument cluster, and the wires to the ECM. I told my wife she could just drive it and forgetabout the temp gauge. While that always drove me nuts she doesn’t look at them that much…. Those of you that have read my previous adventures with the 95 can understand that……. LOL

Next, other strange things started going on. The interior lights dim. The blower stops working. Sometimes the car locks out and you can not get it out of park. The turn signals stop working, and when you turn them on the temp gauge goes all the way hot and the tach goes to zero. The green turn signal indicator lights come on when the car is running along with the blue high beam indicator. When you turn on the headlights the car dies, etc.

Now with all this weirdness going on I let the car sit for a few weeks until finally I’d had enough and I really needed a break from all my hours at work. That was last weekend. I told Shortyman I just had to figure this mess out, and he offered to help. We went to Shortyman’s shop and started in. He really is an animal at times and just started disconnecting stuff. After each item we’d check to see if the car would start and if the instrument lights were out. The first thing disconnected was the doors with their modified harnesses. We disconnected the instrument cluster, removed the radio, unplugged taillights, headlight switch, and interior lights. Checked the HVAC controls. Finally pay dirt when we removed a parking light and the car died. It also died when we removed the dash dimmer switch. I just mention all this stuff because there was so many strange items going on and all electrical. Now at some point we came to the same conclusion that an old fellow once told me….. when strange electrical things are going on it’s usually a grounding issue. Now I was not looking forward to hunting down any wiring problem in my custom dash harness, and seriously considered just getting another one and doing the mods to it and swapping it out…. But one has to start someplace so why not the junction of most of the major grounds for the interior. On the Tour that is over on the passenger side footwell. I pulled the rocker trim piece and checked out the junctions. I found several that had been hot enough to melt the insulation on the wires. I cleaned them up put on some of that liquid electrical tape then followed up by applying some real electrical tape. Once the clean up was complete I bolted them in place and we put everything back together…….

What could have caused something like that you ask…… well the bolt holding them was really loose and sometimes those wires would provide a partial ground and other times none. Power is a strange thing and will seek a path wherever it can find it, even through the dash dimmer switch.

The next question is how could that come loose? It is my opinion some dumb ass didn’t properly tighten it during some previous mod like remote entry or something…. I wouldn’t worry about that happening to you.

Regards,

AF, aka Dumb Ass

PS: The car now runs perfect the wife loves it and the dog won’t get out of it……. Life is good again. Well almost the SVT has a CEL now……..!

Lately it seems that we have been fortunate to have some new folks join in our converstions here. That is really exciting to me cuz I always look forward to meeting new friends and hope to have a couple of meets this year to greet some of them in person.

Anyway to the point, many times some of my tinkerings are referred to and over on that other site once Bugz asked me how many mods I'd done to my Tours. At that time I really didn't know, but I did post a partial list, and this is a changing document as new things come up.

I think this is the only car where the manufacturer built the best one first then started taking things away from it. Most of my mods have been to either replace those deleted items or improve on them. To that end most have been creature comforts, but there are performance ones included too.

Now that I have boored you with gab, perhaps you can ge excited with something below....... LOL


Mods to my Tours:
99 Contour SE V6/MTX just to make it as good as a 95 with a touch of SVT,……and more.
Body:
· SVT E1 wheels.
· BMW side marker lights – dual level(running & turning).
· Cyclops brake light. (spoiler was stock)
· Spoiler light hooked to tail lights (eventually dual level & turn signals)
· Gold front Ford grill emblem.
· Fog light mod.
· Pre 98 lighted lock cylinder.
· Pre 98.5 lighted entry door handle switches.
· Pre 98 heated mirrors – body color.
· 98 hood latch.
· To do: (parts on hand)
o Spoiler light dimmed and hooked to fog light switch, and bright with turn signals.
o Power antenna.
o Pre 97 Latching gas door.
o Pre 98 under hood light.

Suspension & Brakes:
· To do: (parts on hand)
o E0 front brakes.
o SVT springs.
o 95 SE front & rear sway bars.
Engine:
· SVT air intake.
· SVT throttle body – optimized.
· Poly filled rear roll restrictor.
· SVT stab-o-shock.
· SVT exhaust system - cat back.
· To do: (parts on hand)
o SVT LIM & UIM.
o SVT ECM.
o SVT injectors.
o SVT heads & cams.
o Keyed shift tower mod.
o SVT flywheel.
Interior:
· 98 Mystique dash w/ wood grain headlight and radio/HVAC bezels, and drivers side glove box.
· SVT instrument pod.
· Painted instrument bezel and steering column covers.
· Cougar leather shift knob.
· Cougar lock switches.
· Clock.
· Glove box light.
· Lighted 99 dimmer switch.
· Lighted moonroof switch.
· Pyle radio single din - AM/FM, cassette tape, CD player.
· Mystique leather seats w/ fold down rear seat backs.
· Mystique rear dome light.
· Mystique door panels w/ under door lights.
· Under door light mod.
· Dimming door handle pocket lights.
· Pre 98.5 front door handles.
· Auto up & down on front door windows.
· Todo: (parts on hand)
o Auto down on rear doors.
o Pre 98.5 door handles on rear doors.
o Locking glove box.
o Glove box light.
o Pre 97 trunk/gas door release.
o Driver side visor w/ lighted mirrors.
95 Contour 2.0L/ATX to fix things Ford forgot to install.
Body:
· E0 SVT wheels
· 95 Mystique trunk
· 99 gold tone rear Ford reflector.
· Gold antenna bezel.
· Gold front Ford emblem.
· Power antenna.
· 98+ rear door sails.
· Fog lights.
· Under hood insulation.
· To do:
o Front & rear bumpers with gold tone inserts.
o BMW side marker lights – dual level(running & turning).
o Spoiler.
Suspension & Brakes:
· 95 SE front & rear sway bars.
· Rear disc brakes.
Engine:
· Wiring harness upgrade per recall.
· New timing belt.
· New water pump.
· New radiator.
· Dual radiator fans.
· SVT exhaust.
· To Do:
o SVT air intake.
Interior:
· Body wiring harness.
· Dash wiring harness.
· Under dash fuse box.
· Tilt steering column.
· Power windows with auto up & down on front door windows.
· Mystique leather seats w/ fold down rear seat backs.
· Mystique rear dome light.
· Mystique door panels w/ under door lights.
· Mystique dash & console.
· Taurus coin & cup holder.
· Up dated cup holder.
· 99 lighted dimmer switch.
· Lighted head light & fog light switch.
· Wood grain headlight switch bezel.
· Fog light mod.
· Keyless entry.
· To do:
o Auto down for rear door windows.

99 Contour SVT V6/MTX
Body:
· 98 hood latch.
· To do:
o Spoiler.
o BMW side marker lights – dual level(running & turning).
o Pre 98 heated mirrors.
o Pre 97 latching gas door.
o Pre 98 under hood light.
o Pre 98 lighted lock cylinders.
o Pre 98.5 lighted entry door handle switches.
Suspension & Brakes:
· Bilstein struts.
· To do:
o SVT Focus front brakes.
o Drilled & slotted rotors.
o 95 SE front & rear sway bars.
Engine:
· Throttle hang fix.
· To do:
o Optimized throttle body.
o Keyed shift tower mod.
o Terry Haines tranny.
Interior:
· Cougar shift knob.
· Lighted driver side visor mirror.
· Mystique rear dome light.
· Lighted moon roof switch.
· 99 lighted dimmer switch.
· Cougar door lock switches.
· 95 Mystique dash w/ driver side glove box & console.
· Taurus coin & cup holder.
· Mystique lighted head light switch.
· Glove box light.
· To do:
o Door handle pocket lights
o Auto ups & down on windows.
o Mystique door panels w/ under door lights.


If you have questions, or saw something you want to do and there isn't a How To, let me know and I can help.

Regards,
AF

So you all know by now how much I enjoy using SVT's as parts cars for my 4banger. This time I want to put an SVT air intake on it. Anyone done this before?

AF


 P1180020.JPG   98.95K   1 downloads

Your not starting that again..... seriously.....

Chloe

Folks,
I'd like to invite you to check out the new local forums Dom has set up for us, and invite you to get your fellow local Tour folks and have some fun.

Here in the northwest we have been intouch for many years through a similar forum have set up mod meets, repair meets, wash your car in the rain meets... It is the NW, just have fun meets, and of course run meets.

We hang out, support each other, celebrate stuff like..... hey it's tuesday and it isn't raining, or someone just got a new Tour, or a new member.....

Remember if you own a Contour you need a support group! and having local friends you can depend on I find to be essential.

You can even stop in to the NW Forum and tell us what's going on in your area..... we may even act like we care.....LOL

But really we're here for the same reason WE LIKE OUR CONTOURS....and Mystiques too.
 04-16-11 minimeet.jpg   43.53K   4 downloads

Regards,
Aussie Ford

 02-19-12_1541.jpg   23.78K   8 downloads
That is not a hard question for Shortyman.....

 02-19-12_1545.jpg   23.88K   14 downloads
One tears apart a contour in it.... of course!

And while doing so we discovered a cracked exhaust manifold previously unknown.
 02-19-12_2058.jpg   21.36K   15 downloads

Then being well situated it turns out that literally 6 blocks away is a JY that had the part.

More on the story to follow.


AF