ArmyofOne

That is the MOST uninformed comment i have EVER heard you make. the end. <_< DXT45, you have an email.

dude...DEFINATELY. B)

the road noise levels do not increase with the speed, thats the thing i liek abotu these tires. i have them in a different size, but muchthe same tire. whether you are doing 10 or 100, they sound the same. and i cant get them to squeal around corners to save my life! they hold fast.

Your 1995 Ford Contour's Z-Tec 4 cylinder engine was Designed by Ford of Europe, not by American Ford engineers http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/F/Ford-Zetec-engine.htm The hydraulic valve lifters of your engine (prior to 1998) were a source of mechanical trouble. ← first off, its Zetec, not Z-tec. secondly, it was cheifly designed there, but all major components were built here and the car was COMPLETLY assembled here. I have never heard of a hydraulic valve lifter going out on a pre 98 contour. EVER. i have been around and involved with them since the mondeo's debut. My family is friends with one of the chief designers of the CDW-27. It is the amercian version of a car that was marketed around the world, and each country that had it had different design cues. the only known/admitted mechanical trouble from this car from 1995-1997 were the chronic Auto trans failures on V6 equipped vehicles. basically a differential problem to start with. became a tranny problem almost instantly. never happened to me, i didnt have an auto trans. DO NOT lecture me on this car, i know more about it than you care to realize. oh, and the engines were assembled on site at KC. BOT, i have noticed the LS's with higher miles, tend to be more than everywhere LOL. I have also noticed that the 95's tend to be the most drvein out fo all the gens. i saw a 95 today with over 280K on it. the engines were assembled on site at KC.

camlex, that is total speculation on your part and very much not true for all notherners. I put close to 20k miles on my ES each year. The mileage is the same each month so it is not like 15k in summer and 5k in winter. Rain, snow, or shine I still got to go to work. steviej ps, and as for the roads, they are crappy the entire year. ← the rack and pinion will set you back quite a bit. If you dont have connectiosn and cant do it yourself, count on $1500 labor and $1,000 for the part. My R&P was listed $986. I have a connection at a toyota dealer and got it for $367. as for tires, i was in and out with les than $275 out of pockt. I posted a similar thread about my car, but after sitting back and weighing the options, figureing i would have to put in at least $2,000 to be able to physically sell it (ball joints and R&P were so shot it was wayy difficult to drive and wouldnt pass any inspection. in this state its illegal to see a vehcile that will not/has not passed an inspection) i decided to fix those problenms first. then i decided since i was already into it, i might as well do some more. now that i am into it for well more than what the car is worth (by almost $2,000) i just keep going, cause when i am done, i will have a car that my children can enjoy. but its all prefernce. i actually went looking for a project car. since you have spent that much, i say keep it. keep up the maintenance on your tranny and you will be fine. change your mounts and it will feel better. the tranny concern is totally unwarranted, they dont just drop. you get signs first. i have only heard of 1 toyota lexus tranny failing before 100K that wasnt due to abuse. (that doesnt mean they dont exist). with regular maintenance, and not so regular poundings, your trannywill take you well into 250K and maybe farther. and camlex, i lived in alaska for my entire life. from the time i was 16 till the time i was 18 i racked up over 200,000 miles. i now live in texas, and i hate it here. i miss my home in the north. but i havenoticed i actually drive a lot less here.

Toyota hasn't done hardly any merger / joint venture stuff, but the American car companies have. Like I'd be willing to bet the engine of ArmyofOne's 375,000 mile Ford Coutour is either Japanese (Ford owns 25% of Mazda) or European, not American which could explain why the engine held up well. ← Built right here at home in Kansas City...care to take another stab?:whistles: and it was 385,000.

I remember that vividly, as i was on the other end of the phone. we yakked for hours! LOL. at any rate, you are right. IMO verizon has the right idea, btu they need to get their heads out fo their *you know where's* or they will never be the customer friendly company that they promise.

we have misunderstandings, its not the end fo the world. alan, if there is any advice you feel you need to give me, PM it to me, while im still open to heeding it. LOL. ← Naw, no need to.....everything was aired out fully. I still respect the opinions of all involved. :) ← good idea...stay neutral...its better from the spectators standpoint anyways LOL

we have misunderstandings, its not the end fo the world. alan, if there is any advice you feel you need to give me, PM it to me, while im still open to heeding it. LOL.

What kind do you use? I use Meguiars Hot Shine Aerosol spray. i like it, if you let it dry for 30 mins or so before drivinganywhere, you dont have the issues of spinoff you can get with similar products...and if you wipe it off yoru wheels it wont harm those either. but im open to suggestiosn and better products. so lets hear it!

as do i steve :D as do i...you have a PM. :)

ouch steve. and it was one in 8 (i have had 8 car sin the past, a few of which i still have) that was not my goddamned fault. Im one to take responsibility when i *BLEEP* up, but that wasnt one i could even stomach half the blame for. i was puttering along at 20 mph in a school zone... completely off the subject anyways. im pretty bullheaded. what did you want me to do, sit here and take it when you nitpick my every little desicion. thats hard for me as a person steve. i simply cant sit here without trying to defend myself. you see it as advice, but i saw it differently. its the internet these mix ups happen. i will come back to this thread tomorrow and read it again, when i am more apt to take advice, cause right now im a little steamed (not much to do with anything here, just situations). yes it could have been done under better circumstances, but the only way to get better circumstances than this would be to pay to go to a track. i didnt have one nearby right at the moment. this is not about your advice not being heeded, your acting liek this is the way i drive every day...ITS NOT. im fond of you as a person steve. but you are a VERY direct person, and sometimes i have trouble stomaching the things you say. it takes me a minute. 60 years is a long time. i tried to tell you all i didnt want to soudn cocky, as its not my nature to be cocky. but there is only so much i can take. that said, all advice i get is valuable to me. but i have to see it as advice and not as a direct hit on my character, otherwise i get defnesive. i do take more advice than you will ever know. i cruise the forums and i take a little bit from nearly every meainging full post. Im sure you didnt mean the above comment to be an !Removed!, you simply feel that its the only way to get through to me, in fact it works the opposite way, i dont listen when im being "yelled" at. its a problem i have always head, though i am working on it. there are alot of thinsg you say on this forum, and not many of them go unnoticed or unheeded by me. this one in too will be heeded, it will just take a little bit to "sink in". Im still young and perhaps i dont think things through all the time as much as i should, ill admit that. but i can honestly say, that i knew the risks, and i took them. its the past and it cant be changed. i understand you say these things because you care, but being hurtful is not the way to get them across and thats how it came across to me. i used to drive like a maniac, but at the time of my accident, i was really starting to settle out of the speed demon teenage phase. i had an airbag blow up in my face, it changed my driving style permanently and is not something i will soon forget.

Just because I don't test the limits of my car on the highway doesn't mean I drive like a grandma. I'm a fairly aggressive driver and I drive over the speed limit. What you have to realize is driving is not a game, you don't drive in such a way that "excites" people you're with. You drive to get to a destination and get there safely. If you want to have fun, then thats what one of the many avenues of driving fun exist for, drag strips, autocross, tracks. Plenty of avenues for outlet of a desire for speed and fun. The highway is not one of them. Thats part of being an adult, the things you do have consequences. Driving people in your car is a responsibility, had you had an accident and killed him nobody would care if he gave you his consent, you'd be before a judge in a wrongful death suit before you were out of traction. Thats how America works. Again, you don't need to get defensive. You know me, when have you ever known me to hold back how I feel about anything? You haven't. That may make people uncomfortable at times and it may make people angry, but I've found in the long run people appreciate it because you always know where you stand with me. This is something that I feel is very important, I've seen people I know die, their lives get ruined, and their and other's property destroyed all because they're overconfident in their driving skill. Most people think they're the best driver on the road thats common, well you add a little training to that and suddenly that tendency towards personal fable turns dangerous. I had a friend in high school, on his 17th birthday he got a brand new BMW 323 coupe. I rode with him one time, around the block and never have since. I gave him 3 months before he totalled it, he surprised me and did it in 2. Go to an autocross event and ask the facillitators what they think about doing high speed lane changes on a public highway in a 15 year old car with leaky power steering and a shot suspension. They won't be as kind as I was. I'm not overreacting at all, I'm giving you advice. You should welcome the addition of other people more experienced than you that bring their advice. There will always be people in your life that have advice to give you, take all of it its free. You know me well enough to know I won't let anyone get away with a statement like "I'm a better driver than 90% of the people on the road". ← true steve, very true. but you arent hearing me, THERE WAS NOONE AROUND!!! i can and frequently do visit and drive the autx track at my school. almost every weekend. and i do it in my leaky ES250. the only things the shocks are affecting currently is body roll. yeah, it could be better, but its not so horrbly bad that im gonna flip. I understand also that you are giving me advice. but im not one to take it when its presneted this way. i pretty much have to be nugded in one direction slowly, or i likely wont accept it. now that we know we arent mad at each other, i admit, perhaps it was an error in judgement on my part, however...do you call the CL memebr that took me from 0-100 in a 45mph zone in less than 2 city blocks responsible? if we had crashed, i would have died, so would he. i had nothing to gain by asking the driver to do that except the thrill. and i asked him what it felt like to take a 700 HP IS300 to full throttle. (FWIW, you would be surprised at how well this car autx's even in its current state. i dont compete, because thats not what the car was made for, but i do enjoy some fun every now and then). Look at it this way, would you rather me test the abilities of the tires now and know what they are cabable of? or would you rather me never know until i need them and they arent what i expected. now i know the limits of the tires, and i can react accordingly. not that i will be anywhere near those limits again. and you still cant tell me you have never broken 100 mph in your ES. ;) My point to all this is, there are people out there doing MUCH worse thinsg in a car than someone testing thier new tires at 1am on an empty freeway. just today i saw a car darting in and out, tailgating and flashing hsi high beams in peoples mirrors, passing on the shoulder, cutting off person andter person... thats exactly what i dont drive like. im very calm, cool and collected when driving. if i am not in the position to pay attention to all things at once, then someone else drives. I have other cars i drvie when i want to go fast, but i woudl rather drive my ES fast once or twice and know what its capable of should i ever need it. there was no showing off involved here. i had a passenger because he wanted to come along, knwoing full well what i was about to do. sorry if you dont agree with it, but seeing as i dont do this usually anywhere except a track, i see no reason to change my driving style, as there is nothing wrong with it. im very calm when behind the wheel of a car. that said, i wish i had a 5 speed so i could feel more tuned in to the car. this is exactly what i was trying to avoid when i said " i dont mean to sound cocky". you are acting liek thats my everyday driving style. that couldnt be farther from the truth.

you have your opinion, and you are entitled to it. :D im sorry you feel that way. i didnt endanger anyone, gato and i did this all in good fun. i had his consent. if he had asked me not to do it, i woudlnt have. and i told him what i was going to do before i did it. FWIW, i was only doing 5 over the speed limit. it wasnt like i was booking along at triple digit speeds and darting in and out of traffic, there wasnt a vehcile for 100 yards in any direction. you and everyone else here are going to have there opinions. I chalk it up to the way thing work. its america, and if its not, its the internet at least. you are just as much entitled to your opinion as i am to mine. as i said before, i dont tailgate, i dont dart in and out of traffic unexpectedly and i dont cut people off on purpose. that said, if i may be so bold, i wouldnt enjoy riding with you in your calm manner as much as i would if you took a chance every now and then, but that is the kind of person i am. accept it or dont, makes no difference to me. I have been driving for 6 years. you are allowed a provisional licsnece at 14 in alaska (AKA Learners permit). do your math again steve LOL. im 20. ;) I do go to autoX tracks frequently and practice (they do accept me), they have a course setup at my local college thats quite a blast, so my track skills get honed there, and my street skills are honed on the street, where there are MANY different distractions. but rest assured, driving down a freeway in the middle of the night (i dont know if you have ever been to Ft worth, but it isnt a nighttime city) and having a little fun on my new tires HARDLY qualifies me as an irresponsible driver. Becuase you cant tell me you have never done something similar, if you do, i wont buy it, not for a minute. Texas motor speedway will not allow ANY CAR that is leaking ANYTHING to get on the track. you arent even allowed to use the same tires that you do on the street, nor are you allowed to run your A/C while on the track. thats how strict they are. as for my car, everything else except the struts are fine. the leak in the powersteering doesnt affect the way the car drives. i wish you could drive it, its quite incredible. Umm and i dont think i made myself clear, Gato wa only around for the test of the 50 mph curve. i was alone in the car the rest of the time. may or may not make a difference in your opinion. error in jundgemnt or not, you are judging me by what you state now. and as for steves input, i knwo there are people out there that can drive circles around me, and im not aguing that, but there really isnt any need to bring them in here. you are severly overreacting (not that i can fault you)...you dont know the conditions and you dont know my skills/the condition of my automobile well enogh to judge.

steve, i told you, i dont mean to be cocky...but when it comes to driving, im NOT inexperienced. experience doesnt nessecarily have to do with age, but moreso with the ampount of time/distance you have behind the wheel in real life situations. I hope you arent suggesting that i would do these things in traffic? because that is the total opposite of what im saying. i dont condone this kind of behaivour on streets period, but i have nowhere else to do this i cant get on texas motor speedway with this car, it leaks power steering fluid, and even if i could, i still would be restricted behind the pace car at 80 mph. on a freeway at 1am with minimal traffic, the only person im going to take out is myself. I understand very much that confidence is the key to driving well, knowing your limits and what your vehcile can do, but OVERconfidence is where people get into trouble. i really was trying to be careful how i worded that...because i was afraid someone would say something to that effect. there really isnt anything i can say now that would make me sound NOT overconfident, you see what im getting at? Im sorry if you arent confident in my abilites, but if i couldnt do it, i wouldnt. i have been trained well enough to know that much. there is one thing that no driving school in the world can even come close to approximating, and thats experience, and i have more of that than i care to.

Any driving instructor will tell you to be careful with that one... ← yes, but when you have spent thousands fo dollars to learn from the best, you usually pick something up. ;) i know, i try to refrain from sounding like that. it really isnt my nature.

you knwo what, its a long shot, but give the switch a hit or 2. when the window switches on my ES stopped working, I hit them fairly hard and they all went back to normal. worth a shot. its already not working, so it cant get much worse right?

yes it is :D No serriously, all tests were performed inthe clear with minimal traffic. Not to sound cocky, but i have had LOTS of driver training and logged well over 500,000 miles total in my short driving life, and i have been to Skip Barber. I drive better than 90% of drivers on the road. I never outdrive my car or its/my abilities. take it to the limit? definately...Do it all the time? no...Push the limits? possibly...but not usually. But i would NEVER endanger the life of another human being. Ask anyone who has seen me drive on a track, or late at night on the interstate. I might do 100+ at times, but i dont tailgate, and i usually avoid sudden manuevers (except for the sake of these tests), i ALWAYS signal, and i nevr purposely cut people off unless i have to to avoid an accident, which doesnt happen because i dont do these things in traffic. The Hairpin was done on a back road, no traffic, duringh the middle of the day when everyone is at work. there was not a single car on the road other than myself. the swift lane changes were done this morning at 1 am. not a soul there either. Thank you for your concern :) , i do appreciate it, but it isnt warranted. :)

where is the fuse located? The car is still under warranty, whould i just fix it myself or send it to the dealer? which is lest costly (dah) LOL and less work? ← Take ti to the dealer if still under warranty. i say dont mess with it if you dont have to.

Help me out here... ← oops, i meant 1600...oops..

Well, i put the tires to the ultimate dry traction test today. took a 90 degree curve (nto a sharp corner, but a curve) at about 50. car tracked right through it. it was a right hand turn, and even with massive body roll (worn struts...remeber ), she never once lost her grip. I had CL member "GATO" along for the ride. he was scared! on the way home from irving this morning, i was changing lanes sharply a few times, tracked quite well. im overly impressed. usually performance tires are noiser/stiffer, but these are by far, the best. i cant wait for the rain so i can do a wet turn traction test. it rained a little this morning so did a start/stop wet traction test. not bad. so on a scale with 1 bing worst and 10 being best Dry traction-Start: 10 Dry traction-Stop: 10 Dry Traction: S-curve-10 Dry Traction- Hairpin-9.8 (they werent completely silent, had a little squeal) Dry traction- Rapid Lane Change (performed at 75 mph): 10 Wet Traction-Start: 9.8 (some slip initailly, but i hit the gas too hard) Wet Traction-Stop: 8.5 (due partially to worn struts) More tests to come!

be nearly 16k when you come for the meet wont it? the LS's specialty is cruising. I will bet money on the fact that if its maintained, you will not have an issue.

ah, see...there i go again, completely missing your point LOL . that was my concern, will the tire end up lik the yokohama i had and nearly fly apart?

Man, we are cool, steve B) , i was trying my best not to be defensive. i appreciate the info and i had no idea about alot of the things in the autopia site. thanks! you were being as tactful as possible (i can be quite thickheaded sometimes) and i appreciate it. :)