1996 Ford Contour oil and information

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Planning on picking this thing up next week as a commuter car to work. I drive 60 miles a day for work and my 15mpg truck isn't exactly cost effective for this. Anyone have any input/experience with these? It has the 2.5 V6 and auto transmission, what kind of oil do they like? Planning on using conventional and 5k OCI's either way I go with it. No need to get all fancy on a beater car! I test drove it today and it handles and drives nicely on the road with nothing abnormal about it that I can feel yet. 145k miles on the odometer.



 
I had a 95 a while ago. That car does look like a beater. The gas mileage isn't as good as you think though. Had the same engine, it was around 20-22. Maybe 25 or more with pure highway, but I think back when I had it, E10 wasn't really around so it might be worse. I think the oil on that was 5w30 but with Duratec lots of cars were back speced to 5w20. I think I always did around 5-7.5k on the oil, Motorcraft was synthetic blend.
 
We fill them with 5w30 Motorcraft syn blend at the Ford dealer i work at. The older techs say we never backspecced anything. We figured the engineers knew better than the bean counters. Either way it seems the cars other bits become too expensive to justify fixing long before the engine goes.
 
Weak points on these are water pumps and transmission.

Also, if you are aggressive storming the on ramps make sure the oil level is full. These cars with the V6 can suffer oil starvation in long right hand curves awith Lowe oil levels. So if you drive it in anger, overfilling is the cheap fix. I think they hold over 5 quarts based on the Owner’s manual, so topping up to 6 quarts doesn’t hurt.

Any good 5w30 and the Motorcraft FL820S Filter will serve you well.
 
Seeing it all beat up, I don't think it matters what you put in it as long as you change it once in a while..
 
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If you're seeking a transportation appliance that needs to reliably get you to work, there are much better choices.

The Ford Contour ranks just about at the bottom of the reliability list in it's segment. Horrible power train issues and transmission issues also.

See link here:
Ford Contour quality evaluation

How about a Pontiac Vibe or Toyota Matrix from the same era?
Built at the NUMMI facility and badge engineered twins.

These darn things will just start every day and need very little love.

What's important here is that you don't experience Contour buyer's remorse on the side of the highway early one morning on your way to work.
 
What kind of deal are you getting? The 2.0L i4 Zetec is a more reliable engine than the v6. This was also a period where FOrd Auto's were not of the best quality.
 
Curious also what your spending on that beater? How long of test drive did you take it for and did you get the oil up to temp? Whenever I bought a beater in the past -- I took atleast a good half hour drive.
 
I had a 96 Contour, drove it for 10 years put 180k on it. As i remember it was Valvoline Conventional 5w30 with a MC filter. Never had an issue.
 
The more I look at it -- that car is used and abused and I cant fathom "any" decent maintenance was performed on that thing either. HATE the color -- you need a reliable car for your daily commute. I personally -- WOULD RUN from that beater.


Dale
 
It looks like it would be okay for a cheap grocery getter but if you are commuting 60 miles a day I would think about it some more. It could easily end up being a money pit.
 
I have a well cared for 1996 Contour, it has the 2.0L Zetec and 5 speed manual. It's spend most of it's heavily salted NJ winters not driven but parked in a garage. It's been a great car all these years and still looks great. It has about 113,000 miles on it and still going strong. However the 2.5 V-6 has a history of spun bearings. And that poor Contour does not look well cared for so I'd be leary of the maintenance done to avoid the spun bearing problem. Also the auto transmissions in those cars were of questionable relability.

Whimsey
 
Originally Posted By: Sticks
I had a 96 Contour, drove it for 10 years put 180k on it. As i remember it was Valvoline Conventional 5w30 with a MC filter. Never had an issue.

And

Originally Posted By: Whimsey
I have a well cared for 1996 Contour, it has the 2.0L Zetec and 5 speed manual. It's spend most of it's heavily salted NJ winters not driven but parked in a garage. It's been a great car all these years and still looks great.

Glad to see you both had good experiences but let us also remember that anecdotes are not data!
 
Originally Posted By: Imp4
Originally Posted By: Sticks
I had a 96 Contour, drove it for 10 years put 180k on it. As i remember it was Valvoline Conventional 5w30 with a MC filter. Never had an issue.

And

Originally Posted By: Whimsey
I have a well cared for 1996 Contour, it has the 2.0L Zetec and 5 speed manual. It's spend most of it's heavily salted NJ winters not driven but parked in a garage. It's been a great car all these years and still looks great.

Glad to see you both had good experiences but let us also remember that anecdotes are not data!


Just asking, what "data" do you expect from somebody answering a question about a 21+ year old car? Let's see you joined BITOG on 4/6/18. So either you're a newly joined experienced technician or an old troller who keeps trolling. But I don't believe an experienced technician would be asking for data in this case. If I'm wrong please accept my apologizes.

Whimsey
 
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Originally Posted By: Whimsey
Just asking, what "data" do you expect from somebody answering a question about a 21+ year old car?


Well we can start with the link that I already posted in an earlier comment on this thread.

Here it is again for your convenience.
Ford Contour quality evaluation

The evaluation of the reported reliability information is the data set that I alluded to. In the case if my referenced data, it is 751 owner reports.

In this case for a Ford Contour, it's pretty terrible. That's why I recommended two reasonable alternatives that are great transportation appliances from the same market segment and same approximate year of manufacture.

Please note, I didn't say to the OP 'your car choice stinks' and leave it at that.

Another reasonable place to look is Consumer Reports, although some people frown on their evaluation of their dataset.

The thing to be cognizant of here is that both of the sources I referenced are based on self reported databases from vehicle owners.
It is not that the data isn't valuable, it is that typical self report data comes from motivated users, both positive and negative.

I'm neither a troll nor an auto technician.

I simply stated that their are better choices out there, I provided a link to data to demonstrate my claim, I offered a few reasonable alternatives, and I cautioned the OP to not to take anecdotal info as the complete picture.

I thought that is what a place like BITOG is for.

Seems pretty reasonable to me, but maybe I'm missing something......

Looking forward to your response!
 
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Not sure how relevant the link is. Didn’t even refer to the biggest enthusiast site for the car, www.contour.org

Not to say that a 22 year old Contiur is going to be more reliable than a similar vintage Toyota. But it will probably be more fun to drive. Not to mention the known issues are likely worked out by now.

But unless this is a $500 car, there may be better examples for better value out there.
 
Originally Posted By: javacontour
Not to say that a 22 year old Contiur is going to be more reliable than a similar vintage Toyota. But it will probably be more fun to drive.

Fun to drive when referring to a 22 year old Ford Contour?!?

Erm?!? OK.

On a totally separate issue, what good is fun to drive when you are broken down on the side of the road?

Here's some of the data from Dashboard Light (formerly Long Term Quality Index).



 
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