1996 Ford Contour SE V6 2.5L Automatic: Overheating Issues

[Newguy]

We just bought the car 4 days ago, "As is" from a dealer, And we're having a bit of trouble Identifying the cause of our overheating problems.


Symptom 1 : We are not getting any heat from the heater inside the car. (its 14 degrees out right now brrr)
We get heat sometimes, but mostly its just cold-luke warm air coming out of the vents.


Symptom 2:While the car Idles the Temp gauge stays in the middle of the Normal range, However when driving the Temp gauge after about 10 mins its reading that the car is In the Red Zone, and today while driving the car, the raditator boiled over into the overflow tank.
No service engine light has came on yet,

Now we have tried to remedy the problem, We first replaced the radiator hoses that were leaking (two hoses had visible leaks).
And replaced the thermostat thinking that it was stuck closed. It was slightly visibly damaged , Had what looked like a rip in the rim-side, Like it had been cut. Replaced that with one from autozone. we then put everything back together (had a terrible time reaching the Pipes) And idled the car to test the heating, and to see if it over heats, We idled the car for 35 mins, and the temp gauge stayed within normal range (the Temp outside was 20 degrees at the time), and we got a little heat in the car. when I reved the engine, Really hot air came from heater vents in the car. Thinking that it was just luke warm because we were idling. We thought it was fixed. And today it over heated again. and no hot air came from the vents, even while driving.

one thing that has happened is twice now is that when nearing the high temp range the sound of the engine will change, Like it gets quieter, or something turns on And then heat will come out of the heating fan, and the engine temp will return to mid normal range, it just shoots back down to normal

Our conclusions are
We are first going to Bleed the raditator, just found out about this today, we are going to see if that works other wise

were planning to replace the water pump as some books and internet sites suggest that is whats causing it to not heat up inside the car. and we will flush the radiator.



What is everyone elses thoughts

are the two symptoms connected?

overeheating seems to be the only problem with the car as its body looks great and has plenty of power to give, Rides smooth, changes Gears smoothly, has no trouble starting in below freezing weather (first crank starts right up)
we are getting flustrated having been able to enjoy the car sense we got it.
Thanks for any help or ideas you may provide
J

[mdshunk]

Everything in me wants to say "water pump", but I havn't heard of an intermittant water pump (not to say that it can't happen). The water pump looks like it would be a real "treat" to change on this car. It seems that the timing belt turns it.

[rlfrazee]

Newguy many things can cause and engine to overheat. You have eliminated one of them in the thermostat. Some others are poor coolant condition or improper mix ratio, low coolant level. pressure cap, water pump, fan/fan clutch, air flow obstruction, blocking cooling air from moving thru cooling fins of radiator, radiator leak to internal part of engine, airlock in radiator system, and heator core blocked. To check the heator core find the two hoses that carry water to the core and water away from core. Start the engine wait till vehicle temp guage begins to warm up. Feel the inlet hose and outlet hose they should feel the same . If outlet hose is cold afer engine warms up and inlet hose is warm you have bad heater core. Look at radiator and claer any obstructions from the coils, might be blocked by leaves or something at a/c condenser. Fan/Fan clutch not working. If it is mechanical spin the fan blade if it free wheels with little or no resistance replace it. If it is electrical then have it checked by repair shop. It must work properly or engine will overheat, especially after you start driving it. If your upper radiator hose gets hot when engine is operating at normal temp. then odds are your water pump is working and your thermostat is good. Pull dipstick to transmission and check for contamination from anti-freeze , do the same with engine oil. Your radiator operates under pressure have it checked for proper pressure. Air lock perform radiator bleed and fill.
BEST GUESS: You have an improperly working cooling fan
or fan clutch.
GL....RL

[Wgoodrich]

My guess in order is improper antifreeze mix or you have opened your radiater cap and reinstalled it after the engine has warmed up causing a vapor lock, improper electric radiater fan operation [may be fan switch bad or bad wiring connection, most common here, plugged radiater needing flushed or replaced, have radiater company check for plugged radiater, not expensive and often your problem. Could be you installed your themostat backwards or not lined up the pilot hole properly or thermostat not lined up with hole partially locking the stat from opening.

Sounds like a repeat of what Rl said, huh.

Wg

[Johnny]

You just bought that car right? Well, the dealership most likely fixed a leaky radiator with radiator stop leak...a product that is much more trouble than it is worth. Anyway, the product has partially blocked your heater core and therefore the heater core must be backflushed. Do this by reversing the inlet and outlet hoses that go from the thermostat housing and the bottom of the radiator to the firewall. Run the car for 15 min. If you have heat, do a complete coolant system flush and refill and the blockage should be gone and the overheating ended. I just got this problem myself when I added radiator stop leak to my 1990 civic and pretty much took the whole coolant system apart to find the cause of engine overheating and interior heater not working. Finally figured it out. Good luck to you on resolving this problem.

[Unregistered]

I have the same problem. I hear the vanes on the waterpump are plastic, and sometimes disentigrate. I have no heat, and the car rapidly heats into the red zone. I bought a new waterpump and will probably change it tommorow. I will let you know. The waterpump is driven by a pulley on the backside of the cylinder head closest to the front of the car. It is not too bad to access once you remove the plastic shield. I have not opened the overflow tank, drained any water, or changed anything yet. The upper rad hose is hot, and both fans are working fine. However, they are not helping if the water isnt circulating!! You will get a small amount of cooling through convection, like a model T ford, but not enough. The temperature here is about 50 degrees farenheit. My car is a 98 I have had since new, and has about 80000 miles on it.

[Unregistered]

Yes, my waterpump plastic vane had disentegrated into about 6 pieces!! Sure enough, when I got it off, all the broken pieces were laying inside the waterpump housing. After installing a new pump and adding coolant, the car is running normally again, with the temperature in the middle of the gauge. What a stupid design for a water pump. Of course the new one is plastic too, although I hear you can get one with a metal vane somewhere. So if your engine is overheating, and there is no heat from the heater...check your waterpump!!!

[Unregistered]

We finally got our car back today. after a month in the shop! the heads were warped, I believe the mechanic said the front head was out 5000 and the back 3000, not sure of the exact details.
It took the guy a month to tear it down as he didn't know what he was doing totally, as he had never worked on that model of car and their extremely hard to get done. the good news it only cost $500 for the head's to be planed and cleaned, and replaced the head gaskets (they are really expensive $200+ ) and $790 for labor althought with the cost of new oil,tranny fluid, and other things, he didn't get that much I think he wanted to charge more to bad he gave the final price before he did the work.
He gave us the run around the entire time, telling us 6 times it would be done tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow etc..

I drove it around 80 miles today and it didn't leave the middle of the temp gauge, to which I am overjoyed, I am still leary of it tho and will be watching Another month like this one and I'll probably die lol


Unregistered you can buy aftermarket water pump it has a metel impeller on it I believe its a durapro 1910 or something alone those lines you can get one at www.napaonline.com that water pump with the metel impeller is actually cheaper then the plastic one!

But check on this site first www.contour.org because a 98 contour's water may be different also theforums there extremely infomative as there is a lot of hobbiest there that give great advice on fixing these cars :)

Good luck everyone
Newguy (Josiah)

[Newguy]

oops thought I was logged in,
Also thoguht I'd mention the heater is working great now its almost too hot!
Newguy