My grandson wants to buy a "very clean" 4 cyl 1998 Contour (156,000 miles) for $1000 that he says the owner says "the transmission slips in and out of high gear sometimes." The boy, using his noodle, asks his "expert" grandfather for an opinion. The not so expert grandfather hasn't a clue!

The boy drove the car and found no problems — apparently the transmission thing is intermittent. Would someone clue me in a little?

 

Try this site I think this will answer your question.
http://www.ford-forums.com/ford-cont...ge-sensor.html
read through most of the post. It talks about a range sensor, which is on top of the tranny just left or the battery. In another post I read they talked about a vss sensor, and a tss sensor. That might be another name for range sensor, but I am not positive.

 

By the way, when you click on that site scroll down. The first part of the page is not the post. It starts off by saying how do I change a range sensor.