1996 Ford Contour

DELANG

MEMBER
1996 FORD CONTOUR

1996 Ford Contour

I have a 1996 Ford Contour 6. Two days ago the transmission went out sporadically. It will run for a half block and not work and the engine just races. When I turn off the engine and wait a 10-15 seconds, then restart, the transmission works for another half block. It jerks when I put it in gear. What is going on here?

3 Replies

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,758 POSTS

Have you checked the fluid level?

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Friday, September 3rd, 2010 AT 10:38 AM

DELANG

MEMBER
2 POSTS

I opened the auto manual and it said to start the engine, put the transmsiion through all of the automatic gears, put it in neutral, set the parking brake and check the fluid while the enigine was still running. I did all of that routine and when I pulled the stick the fluid was all the way up the stick, way past the marker where it was supposed to be, but a very, very thin film. It didn't look like fluid is supposed to look.

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Friday, September 3rd, 2010 AT 4:00 PM

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,758 POSTS

That doesn't sound good. If the engine wasn't hot, it will just go higher on the stick. My concern now is why is it so high. My first concern is that the radiator, which the trans is cooled through too, may have an internal leak allowing coolant to mix with the trans fluid. Have you noticed if the coolant has gone down at all?

Also, at this point if the ATF doesn't look right and is that high, I would service the transmission and get new fluid and the correct amount in the system.

Let me know what you find with the radiator.

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Friday, September 3rd, 2010 AT 11:29 PM