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95 contour bad buy here

i bought a contour-had low miles.200 miles later, the tie rod ends failed(not covered)car shakes bad at idle and runs at almost redline temp at normal driving.when accelerating, the engine noise is terrible-sounds like its made out of tin.my other car was a ford escort-a 93- that i sold. it had 258,000 miles on it with me replacing only the struts and the wheel bearings once in the entire time i owned it since new.repairman for contour told me the 4 cyl. engine is known for vibrations and is a bit too small for the car.shelled out 1200 bucks and fixed it then sold it for 5k.i will not be getting any more of these contours.they are scrap in my opinion.why must fords cars be a hit/miss on their quality?
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Comments
You buy a six year old used car and it is Fords fault.
I'll agree the 4 cyl has a quite a bit of vibration with an automatic in gear while stopped.
The temp gauge is a known issue. The gauge reads fine, but if you put the computer on it and watch the temperature, you would have noticed that it runs just around 200 degrees, sometimes a bit above and others a bit below. The owners manual clearly stated (because I got nervous when my 96 GL 4cyl ATX did this) that as long as the needle is in the NORMAL range, the temp is ok.
It is hard to blame Ford for worn suspension components on a 6 year old car. If it had low miles after 6 years, then it was probably driven around town in short trips. Most agree this is the hardest type of driving on a car.
I do wish you well, but I think you are being a little hard on Ford.
But then again, I really love my Contour, so you know where my bias is.
Tony [non-permissible content removed]
98 E0 SVT Contour
Most new cars run hot. In fact, the gauge's red zone is not usually 212 degrees...most modern cooling systems run at 230 or higher, since the water is under pressure and therefore does not boil over at 212 as it would in normal atmosphere.
Later,
Al
So modern cars can run 230 coolant temperatures...they don't put that on the gauges because people would freak out if they saw that. It's actually very good for an engine to run hot, within reason, of course. Let's see...if I remember, one pound of pressure raises the boiling point 2 degrees...have I got that right, guys? So a 14 lb cap gives you 212 +28 or 236.
I'm not saying that all modern engines normally run that high, but they can and will without adverse affect. This is what they are designed to do. Also, keep in mind that your external thermostat housing is usually near the cooling fan, so this won't reflect water jacket temperatures.
One thing I don't know is whether the temperature sensor for the gauge is actually measuring temperature at the hottest possible point or not.