Various Problems with contour

I just picked up this 96 contour with to many problems to explain but one thats stumping me is the engin temp guage when the car is driving the needle is between A and lI in normal and when it sits running it may creep up as high as the last normal mark warm weather is coming scares me the fan cuts in but the temp doesnt seem to drop but as soon as you drive it goes back down to A in normal I already changed the thermostat any ideas would be great

You might want to check out your water pump. My pump impeller broke. Why they make em out of plastic....God Knows.

When the car is running just squeeze the rad hoses and then let it go. You should feel a rush through the hose if your pump is working properly. if not take the pump apart and check it out.

engine type would certainly help diagnose the problem.

btw, ford revised the waterpump to a metal impellar in the later models.

The engine is a 2.0 Ztech with 191000 km I am not sure if it makes a diffferance but I do see flow back in to the overflow tank are those water pumps ran by the timing belt and very hard to do? What temp do most of your cars temp run at normaly.

Does timing belt on 2L Zetech need to be removed to do the water pump

The engine is a 2.0 Ztech with 191000 km I am not sure if it makes a diffferance but I do see flow back in to the overflow tank are those water pumps ran by the timing belt and very hard to do? What temp do most of your cars temp run at normaly.

To sum it all up, the coolant temp sensor is usually the culprit. This problem has been discussed 'ad nausem' on CEG so if you still have question, run a search in the troubleshooting. Replace the sensor and see if that helps.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=trouble&Number=1171029&Forum=trouble&Words=running%20hot&Match=And&Searchpage=0&Limit=3000&Old=allposts&Main=1171029&Search=true#Post1171029

Does timing belt on 2L Zetech need to be removed to do the water pump

yes. Btw, its zetec. :wink:

The engine is a 2.0 Ztech with 191000 km I am not sure if it makes a diffferance but I do see flow back in to the overflow tank are those water pumps ran by the timing belt and very hard to do? What temp do most of your cars temp run at normaly. No, the timing belt does not run the water pump. However, If you own a pre 98 you have to remove the timing belt to remove the waterpump.

my car runs at the n/o in normal, the o/r if i wromp on it.


change your thermostat.

Thanks I will stsrt to rule out the cheep stuff first

ck to see if cooling fan is running on low speed should have 6 volts when temp is at about 180 or half way in normal then 12 volts at about 195 if at no time is there 6 volts suspect the low speed cooling fan relay but there is also a resistor that you can ck to see if it has voltage coming to it