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Old 01-30-2012, 08:30 AM   #1
RoosterBlue
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Buying a Contour SVT

So I'm lookin to buy somethin a little nicer and sportier than my Focus ZX3.
I love the look of the SVT body kit and wheels and the interior and all (and the ever elusive cruise control!!) but im not so sure about the drive train. Ive heard a lot of mixed reviews from all over, so i figured I'd further my research.

I'm anal on maintenance (wash every week, oil change every 2500, always premium) but I commute about 250+ mi's a week to work and school and such, so i need something relatively reliable.
I don't plan on modifying it much past the typical cold air though, if at all.

I'd just like to hear your thoughts on the SVT model, what mileage to stay away from, good price's and buying tips.

Thanks a lot!!
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Old 01-30-2012, 12:14 PM   #2
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Re: Buying a Contour SVT

Most people complain about spinning the rod bearings in this motor due to oil starvation, which usually happens around a long sweeping right hand turn. That's the main reason why the car has received a bad rep. Run 6 qts of oil instead of the recommended 5.5 and you will be fine. I have 178K miles on mine and the motor is fine. My brother has about 170K on his. No problems with the motor as well. Neither of ours burn any oil. Before that I had a 96 SE. Powertrain was excellent. If you are just using the car for transportation, I doubt you will have any problems. Typically, it's the cars that have been really beaten on that have the problems with the engine and transaxle.

Common problems:
- 3rd gear syncro grind which you already know about due to the later models switching to a cheaper single blocker design. A lot of this has to do with maintenance and driving style. If the car has been maintained and not beaten on, it should be fine.
- 98 and early model 99's, had problems with the water pump plastic impellar breaking. Late model 99s and 00 got the metal impellar. Chances are, if its above 100K miles on a 98/99, its broke and been replaced with the revised WP.
- Check Engine Light is on notoriously. Generally its for system too rich/too lean. From what I've been told, the ECM has a very small processing window of what is acceptable, at least thats what I've been told, so it may throw a code for this even though there is no real danger.
- Fuel pumps in late 99/all 00 which use returnless fuel pumps have a tendency to go out. My 99 which is a return style went out after 100K miles. My brothers which is a 00 went out around 165K miles.

There's probably more that I'm not thinking of. Any high mileage car is going to have parts that wear out like alternators, wheel bearings, etc. I just have to replace the brushes for my alternator last weekend. They were worn.

Contour.org is a good website to check but unfortunately its down right now for maintenance. All of us are residing on the Contour Enthusiasts Group facebook page until it comes back up.
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1996 Ford Contour SE - Sold
3.0L V6 and Arizona Dyno Chip Turbo Kit
364 whp, 410 wtq @ 16 psi and only 4,700 rpms.
1999 Tropic Green SVT Contour - Bone stock and MINT
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Old 01-30-2012, 10:20 PM   #3
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Re: Buying a Contour SVT

WHOA!!!!
thanks!!!! damn, thats everything i was looking for!!
never had that much success with any forum, ever, hahaha.

another question. My goal is to buy one with 115k mi's or less, for around 4k or less. it'd be near the great lakes area (unless i can get a guaranteed buy, then i'd make a trip out of it). that sound promising or is there another mileage/price combo i should expect?

here's what i was looking at...
1998 with 125k

REALLY like this one

1998 with 126k

like the green

Last edited by RoosterBlue; 01-30-2012 at 10:36 PM. Reason: thought i'd give some ideas.
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Old 01-31-2012, 07:51 PM   #4
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Re: Buying a Contour SVT

Quote:
Originally Posted by RoosterBlue View Post
WHOA!!!!
thanks!!!! damn, thats everything i was looking for!!
never had that much success with any forum, ever, hahaha.

another question. My goal is to buy one with 115k mi's or less, for around 4k or less. it'd be near the great lakes area (unless i can get a guaranteed buy, then i'd make a trip out of it). that sound promising or is there another mileage/price combo i should expect?

here's what i was looking at...
1998 with 125k

REALLY like this one

1998 with 126k

like the green
Silver Frost 98 SVT. Looks to be overpriced to me for $2795. Major curb rash on the front bumper, missing drivers side side skirt, rust on the drivers side fender, ABS light is on, interior seats look pretty rough. $2200 would probably be my offer on that assuming it drives fine.

Black 99 SVT. Overall looks clean. Paint looks to be in good shape. Drivers seat appears to be a little soiled. Maybe see if they will throw in a new drivers side headlight and mesh for the bumper. I think its priced close to what it should be if they get those two things fixed. Make sure the moonroof works. The gears have a tendency to break.

Toreador Red 98 EO SVT. Good from far, but far from good. Many small things concern me about this. Crummy aftermarket exhaust tips & aftermarket spoiler. Multiple A/C vents are broken or missing. Drivers side window button is aftermarket and doesn't fit right. I get the feeling this car has been torn into and hasn't been done right. I would stay away from this one. Overpriced for me.

99 Tropic Green. Appears to be the cleanest of the bunch but the pictures are limited. This is an exact replica of mine minus the aftermarket exhaust which appear to be Magnaflow mufflers which is the brand I would recommend. For what its worth, I paid $5K for mine with 100K miles about 4 years ago and the car is absolutely flawless. I think if you can get this one for $4.5K it would be a good pickup as long as nothing is wrong with it.
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1996 Ford Contour SE - Sold
3.0L V6 and Arizona Dyno Chip Turbo Kit
364 whp, 410 wtq @ 16 psi and only 4,700 rpms.
1999 Tropic Green SVT Contour - Bone stock and MINT
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Old 01-31-2012, 07:59 PM   #5
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Re: Buying a Contour SVT

Here is mine how she sits today. Mileage sits at 188K. Paint is in great shape. No dents or dings. Leather is still in great shape. Almost no wear on the leather steering wheel or shift knob. Carpet looks brand new.



















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www.contour.org
1996 Ford Contour SE - Sold
3.0L V6 and Arizona Dyno Chip Turbo Kit
364 whp, 410 wtq @ 16 psi and only 4,700 rpms.
1999 Tropic Green SVT Contour - Bone stock and MINT
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Old 02-03-2012, 01:48 AM   #6
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Re: Buying a Contour SVT

oooooomg dude. I love that green!!! soooo sexy lookin!!!
i got a budget of like ~$3500, and live in wisconsin. you lookin to sell it? haha.

im still lookin around and am being super cautious. already got f*cked over with a 4x4 i bought months ago, so im definitely takin my time.
you've been a huge help tho, and have given me a lot of confidence about gettin back out and buying a car.

do you mind takin a look at a couple more classifieds?

This guy seem's the most legit. imma start talkin to him about it tomaro, and could probably pick it up for way under my budget

This one seems super nice, but way outta my budget (ill ask him a price tomaro)

And then this one seems alright... but idk about swaps. and whos knows if he beat the sh*t out if it with the swap (would you be able to shed any more light on these 3L swaps?)

again, thanks a ton for your help and consideration.
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Old 02-03-2012, 06:44 AM   #7
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Re: Buying a Contour SVT

Quote:
Originally Posted by RoosterBlue View Post
oooooomg dude. I love that green!!! soooo sexy lookin!!!
i got a budget of like ~$3500, and live in wisconsin. you lookin to sell it? haha.

im still lookin around and am being super cautious. already got f*cked over with a 4x4 i bought months ago, so im definitely takin my time.
you've been a huge help tho, and have given me a lot of confidence about gettin back out and buying a car.

do you mind takin a look at a couple more classifieds?

This guy seem's the most legit. imma start talkin to him about it tomaro, and could probably pick it up for way under my budget

This one seems super nice, but way outta my budget (ill ask him a price tomaro)

And then this one seems alright... but idk about swaps. and whos knows if he beat the sh*t out if it with the swap (would you be able to shed any more light on these 3L swaps?)

again, thanks a ton for your help and consideration.
I did a 3.0L swap in my Red 1996 SE that is in my signature. The 3.0L Duratec is for the most part, identical to the 2.5L duratec which is why many people swap it in for a power upgrade. It's just been bored over .5L bigger. There is a lot of different varations of heads, cams, intakes, etc that can be mixed and matched. It's up to the owner for preference.

My car is not for sale and honestly, it would take more than what I paid for me for me to let it go.

OK. Onto the classifieds.

98 Silver Frost SVT. Looks clean. Might be some damage to the front bumper. He cropped the picture to hide it looks like. It does have a trailer hitch so the rear bumper has probably been cut to accomodate it. Two pictures is hard to tell what condition its really in. $3100-3200 is probably reasonable.

00 Toreador Red SVT. Looks to be the cleanest of the bunch. Missing front lower mesh is all that I can tell what is wrong with it. He's probably asking between $5-6K.

00 SVT Contour. No mention of color or price. Not much to go buy here other than he has a 3.0L. Probably worth between $4-5K depending on condition.
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1996 Ford Contour SE - Sold
3.0L V6 and Arizona Dyno Chip Turbo Kit
364 whp, 410 wtq @ 16 psi and only 4,700 rpms.
1999 Tropic Green SVT Contour - Bone stock and MINT
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Old 02-03-2012, 08:37 AM   #8
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Re: Buying a Contour SVT

Right, there aren't a lot of pictures to go buy on these craigslist posts, but ill be having them send me as many as i can get.
with the silver one, he's the closest to me, so ill be talking to him the most.
If its clean and in good shape cosmetically, is the mileage (140k) something to stay away from?
In my head, im hopin 140,000 miles just means hes already put in a new clutch, timing belt, water pump, tensioners... ya know?
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Old 02-03-2012, 10:42 AM   #9
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Re: Buying a Contour SVT

Quote:
Originally Posted by RoosterBlue View Post
Right, there aren't a lot of pictures to go buy on these craigslist posts, but ill be having them send me as many as i can get.
with the silver one, he's the closest to me, so ill be talking to him the most.
If its clean and in good shape cosmetically, is the mileage (140k) something to stay away from?
In my head, im hopin 140,000 miles just means hes already put in a new clutch, timing belt, water pump, tensioners... ya know?
140K reallys means nothing. I know people with over 300K miles on their Contours and they are in great shape and others that I would never touch with 30K miles because of how they are treated. A lot depends on the driving style and the preventive maintenance done on the car. Mine has 188K and the only thing I've replaced as of 100K miles is the fuel pump, blower motor resistor, and alternator brushes. I'm still on the original clutch and it has no problems.

This car doesn't use timing belts. It has timing chains. They should never need to be replaced. If for some reason they did, you might as well do a 3.0L swap because the motor needs to be pulled.

The tensioner should not need to be replaced. Those should be good for the life of the car for the Duratec motor. I don't recall anyone ever having to replace those.

If the fuel pump used the plastic impellar which it should because it is a 98, it was replaced a long time ago.

Ask for the maintenance records or what he has replaced or know has been replaced. Make sure to check underneath the car too if you go and look at it. The valve cover gaskets have a tendency to wear out after a while and start leaking which is normal with any car.
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1996 Ford Contour SE - Sold
3.0L V6 and Arizona Dyno Chip Turbo Kit
364 whp, 410 wtq @ 16 psi and only 4,700 rpms.
1999 Tropic Green SVT Contour - Bone stock and MINT
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Old 02-04-2012, 09:04 PM   #10
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Re: Buying a Contour SVT

Thanks a lot for all the help man.
I went and looked at the Silver Contour today (140,000 miles), and it was in awesome shape.
the body is really clean, and with the rear trailer hitch, he just took the rear diffuser off and it looks fine.
he bought it from an SVT enthusiast who had it garaged a lot, and did a 10k trip around the west side of the US, and basically fixed all the little things here and there that any car over 100k needs.

Rides amazingly. nice short clutch and gear change (as opposed to my focus)
and i caught myself doin 110 on the freeway and not even knowin it, haha.
its the first SVT ive driven and i really loved it. everything works on it and there isnt a thing i need to do.
im selling my focus to my bro this Saturday and then he's driving me right to buy the contour.
Thanks for all your help again. really cleared a lot up for me and gave me confidence in buying a new car. ill be sure to post pics and all.
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Old 02-05-2012, 11:44 AM   #11
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Re: Buying a Contour SVT

Congrats on finding one. Come over and join us on contour.org. The forums are back up over there.
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www.contour.org
1996 Ford Contour SE - Sold
3.0L V6 and Arizona Dyno Chip Turbo Kit
364 whp, 410 wtq @ 16 psi and only 4,700 rpms.
1999 Tropic Green SVT Contour - Bone stock and MINT
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