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1999 Ford Contour 1999 Contour stalls intermittently while

Tiny
TERI1954
  • MEMBER
  • 1999 FORD CONTOUR
Engine Performance problem
1999 Ford Contour Automatic

Periodically, the engine on our son's Contour dies while he's driving. It occurs only when the road is wet. The first few times happened when there was a lot of slush on the road and today he hit a pothole full of water and the car quit. After a few minutes, it starts with no trouble. The repair shop ran diagnostics on it several times. Except for one time when the cam and crank sensors showed as a problem, nothing it coming up on the diagnostic. We had the timing belt replaced about two months ago and had the cam and crank sensors replaced last week. It sounds to me as though water/slush is shorting something out. However, the mechanics don't seem to think that's the problem. Help, please! We've had it at an independent repair shop and at a dealership and no one can figure out the problem.
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Saturday, February 20th, 2010 AT 1:40 PM

9 Replies

Tiny
LEGITIMATE007
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Does this vehicle have and anti theft system?
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Monday, March 8th, 2010 AT 12:20 PM
Tiny
TERI1954
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No, there isn't an anti-theft system.
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Monday, March 8th, 2010 AT 12:39 PM
Tiny
LEGITIMATE007
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No type of alarm on this vehicle?
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Monday, March 8th, 2010 AT 12:49 PM
Tiny
TERI1954
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No, there's no type of alarm at all.
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Monday, March 8th, 2010 AT 1:23 PM
Tiny
LEGITIMATE007
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Have your son check to see if there are any splash guards missing, because obviously these items are getting wet causing the vehicle to shut off, it may be getting the ignition module wet, . That is the only explaination I can give at this point, I've checked the technical service bulletins on this vehicle and it says something about the car shutting off in damp whether due to the harnass from the intermittent wiper motor being too close the the vehicles immobilizer, this is why I asked about the alarm
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Monday, March 8th, 2010 AT 1:37 PM
Tiny
TERI1954
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The splash guards are okay. Neither repair shop has been able to figure it out. Both places drove it, trying to replicate the problem. They figured if it would die on them, they could find out what's wrong. The tech at the dealership sprayed the engine from the top and the bottom, drove it through their car wash full of slush and water and took it through every puddle he could find, but the car still wouldn't stall out.
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Friday, March 12th, 2010 AT 6:09 AM
Tiny
LEGITIMATE007
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Strange, I dont know what to say, I checked the tsb bulletins, nothing, and you know what? I garauntee it is something so simple, that we cannot fathom it being the problem so it is being overlooked, the dealer should be able to put it on their specialized scan tool and recall all of the misshaps from months back I dont know why they wont do it, that is our only chance to figure this out. Take it to another ford dealer, and see if they will put it on diagnostics and get the "freeze frame data" that is saved in the computer
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Friday, March 12th, 2010 AT 7:29 AM
Tiny
TERI1954
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My husband talked to the mechanic at the dealership today and was told that they put it on the scan tool and ran the diagnostics. It didn't show anything. No one has any idea of what's wrong with the car. It's definitely been a frustrating experience.
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Friday, March 12th, 2010 AT 8:26 PM
Tiny
LEGITIMATE007
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Did you pay for them to put it on diagnostics? I would go somewhere else, and another thing is if they cannot duplicate the problem they will not waste anytime trying to chase it. I would still try to go somewhere else and explain what happened and see if they can pull the stored information out of the computer, that is one of the purposes of the computer, to record faults, so there has got to be something there to go on!
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Saturday, March 13th, 2010 AT 8:50 AM

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