"Glutton for punishment" 1998 SVT Contour

After this thread I started shopping on Craigslist and picked up my third SVT Contour - all black 1998's with purple (Midnight Blue) interior. This one's a little rough but it came with an LSD so I'm pretty excited about that.
My goals for it is to make it into a daily driver/track car so a mild build/resto is in the works.

I'm working on some better pics and. I'm pretty excited to back in an SVT.

Does the term "daily driver" really hold you back any?

Not really.

I wish I could think of a good reason to get back into a contour.

I've always liked these. Subscribed

moxnix wrote: I wish I could think of a good reason to get back into a contour.

I can think of many not to but overall I really missed having one. My heart won over my head in this battle, I hope I don't come to regret that decision.

Nice! I now want one of these too. What are so special about these? (suspension, styling, etc?)

Owned a '96 SE for several years and always wished I had ponied up the cash for the SVT. At the time, the local SVT dealers here were treating them like the second coming. Even for the used ones, no test drives without signed purchase agreements, etc. But the add'l 30 horses would have been appreciated, as would have the stiffer suspension.

I loved the core of that car. Engine, transmission, brakes & suspension. Free-revving 2.5 liter 24-valve V6. Nice 5-speed with cleanly-spaced ratios (although 60 mph required third gear.) Good four wheel discs with unobtrusive ABS. Stiff but not painfully sprung. I had lots of fun blasting up and down on/off-ramps, carving up corners, the occasional high-speed freeway run and relative anonymity from the local law enforcement.

It was everything else sucked. Eventually I couldn't tolerate the nickel & diming. Seat rails that didn't fit tightly to the bases, thus creating a wallowing effect that couldn't be solved without full replacement. Plastic water pump impeller disintegrating during a morning commute, thankfully I saw the temp gauge peg and rolled it off before it warped the heads. All manner of body hardware failure, terrible window seals, ground effect fastener plugs that never stayed in place, leaky trunk, et al. The final death blow was a leaky rear main seal that would have cost $800 in labor just to get at.

Sold it for what I owed, then bought a '98 Maxima SE. The Nissan was superior in almost all aspects... more horsepower, great sounds from the VQ engine, excellent transmission, more brakes, way better interior room & ergonomics. Everything except for handling. The Contour's multilink rear suspension was more planted & reliable than the Maxima's beam with trailing arms.

Anyway, sorry to clutter up. Good luck with the purchase. Get that thing tightened up and then go surprise the unsuspecting 3-series guys loafing along in the left lane.

I had a Contour for about a week before I found out about the biodegradable wiring harness. Does that happen to the SVTs as well?

I finally managed to get to snap a few pictures and I'm getting a handle on some of it's issues.
Side shot: 3/4 shot: Damn I love the lines on these cars.
Well, here's a quick, short list of what needs to be done right away:
Get rid of the silly stretched tire look
Get rid of the silly 17x9" American Racing wheels
Re-install the EGR valve
Fix the horn
Replace the drivers side rear door panel
Replace the floor mats
Passenger side front window falls off the tracks
Drivers side front window works intermittently
There's a leak underneath the front, not sure if it's a main seal yet or oil pan gasket
EGR valve because "it doesn't do anything anyway":
Dirtiness:
Insurance against the spontaneously combusting wiring harnesses:
Remote mounted battery: Door panel tear (it's a shame because the panel is otherwise in really good shape): Ignore the bunny :

So far near as I can tell the list of mods is as follows:
SVT Focus front brakes
American Racing 17x9" wheels
205/45-17 tires (blechk)
VMS removable steering wheel
Remote mount battery
Short throw shift of unknown origin
LSD of unknown origin (thinks it's a Torsen)
Escape cams (I'm actually pleasantly surprised with this mod, much more usable low- and mid-range torque)
Hood struts
wiring harness 'mod'
Greddy weld-in mufflers

Oh, and D2 coilovers.
Question: which direction is full soft, counter-clockwise or clockwise?

ScreaminE wrote: Nice! I now want one of these too. What are so special about these? (suspension, styling, etc?)

The suspension was different along with the body styling (side skirts, rear valence and front bumper). The engine was different as well as the tuning, different ECM. Or PCM, I get my engine managements mixed up. The SVT's were only offered in four colors, black, silver, red and green. All came with manual transmissions (MTX-75). My favorite mods were the ST220 suspension, Quaife and 3L swap. This will probably get a 3L swap as well, I love the torques.
All in all this is really a great chassis, Ford just bastardized it when they brought it over from Europe.

Woo hoo! Ordered some wheels and tires today, clearance prices on everything! $808 shipped to my door, mounted and balanced. 17x7.5" with 235/40's, should be here Thursday.
Also I'm headed to the local U Pull It tomorrow for some miscellaneous stuff like drivers side seat sliders and maybe a shift knob.

Excellent. I really like these cars.

Me too, this is my 5th CDW27-based vehicle I've had. I had a '99 Spruce Green autotragic Contour, then a 1998 SVTC, then a second 1998 SVTC, then a 2004 3.0 X-Type and now my third SVTC (all have three SVTs been black with Midnight Blue interior - I think I have issues). I'm hoping to pick up another X-Type, this time a wagon. This Contour will most likely end up a track hound, there's a couple cosmetic issues I'm not sure I want to deal with. Right now I'm just trying to make sure it's a reliable, fun daily driver.

Nice! Keep the wheels; just put some wider tires on them.

In reply to Sky_Render:

I would need some flares to cover the wheels they stick out so far. I possess neither the fabrication skills nor the funds required for a product of that magnitude just yet.
The wife is putting them on her '88 drag car. We just have to pick up some spacers and longer studs and it should look pretty good.

Oh, yep, now that I look close, those wheels DO stick out a good bit.

Does anybody know if the stock cougar 16" wheels fit over the SVT Focus brake setup? There's two really nice sets at Harrys UPullIt and I could use a set of winter wheels...

Nice car. I drove one for several years, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Keep the wheels, roll the fenders a little. I think they look good on there.

Fenders ARE rolled, they'd need pulled and most likely flares also. They're WIDE.

Foiled by tools all day today. I made a trip up to Harry's U Pull It in Hazleton today for a few things. I wanted a manual slider for the drivers seat and managed to find one with minimal rust (all of the drivers side windows were either blown out or just rolled down - you can imagine all of the wet dampness that greeted me in each car) and after unbolting it from the floor I found out the sliders are spot riveted onto the seat bottoms. Gaah.
I really wanted the sliders and since I didn't have anything to pop these rivets out with I decided to take the whole seat. Unfortunately the bottom ends of the seat belts are bolted to the seats with Torx bolts. Guess what I looked at in the toolbox today and said "Meh, I won't need those" before leaving for the U Pull It? Yep. So I'll be headed back there tomorrow for the seat and probably two sets of Cougar wheels - one for winter wheels and one for track tires if I get that aggressive.
Pics of my new shift knob:

I also picked up the trunk liner:

This made me sad, though. It is no longer eligible for sale, only parting out:

Interior:

In case you didn't know what it was:

I was pretty bummed I didn't get everything I wanted but I came home to my new wheels and tires from Tirerack! Woo hoo! I started to get everything ready but I cannot find my 19mm deepwell socket for swapping wheels. Grrrr.
So tomorrow I'm getting the right darn tools and getting what I need.

Those wheels will fit, I had a set on my 03' SVTF.

Thanks! I found a few other posts online saying the same thing. I think I'll pick up both sets tomorrow. They looked to be in pretty decent shape.