I have a 97 Ford Contour. The other day, while driving, the car overheated. I thought I noticed a little smoke from the exhaust, but it could have just been dry salt on the road from the wonderful Ohio weather... anyhow, the car overheats and I don't have any hot air when the heater is on, it constantly blows out cold.

We changed the thermostat and now thinking it might be water pump. I did some research on here and the water pumps are known to go bad after 65,000 miles.

My car has 98,000 miles on it.

I'm having someone look at my car and I was told that it has white smoke out the exhaust. They can't look at my car for a few days... so I was wondering if anyone had any input on if they think it's my water pump, or some other problem.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

Several Ford engines are notorious head gasket blowers, too. How badly did it get overheated, because if the overheating wasn't CAUSED by a blown head gasket it can CAUSE a blown head gasket. White smoke (after engine is completely warmed up) from the exhaust usually points that direction. Does the exhaust smell a sickly sweet odor?

How does the oil appear; normal or milky tan color?

Heater not working could be air bubble in the system from running low on coolant/water.

 

It had the steam under the hood when I shut it off. I don't smell a sickly odor and the oil on the dip stick looks fine.(I had just had it changed about 500 miles ago and it looked clean) I didn't run it too long here, to notice if the white smoke from exhaust stopped after it warmed up. And I'm not too sure how long the man who looked at it today, left it run either.

I'm hoping it's not a head casket... and that it's the water pump! We shall see though!

The Fords are not the greatest to deal with though, everything is so conjested.

Thanks for your comment back to me!

 

One more thing..... after the fan kicks on, it's okay at first, but after a few minutes of running, it gets kinda loud!

 

I got my car back today... it was the water pump. There wasn't any part of the plastic perpeller left. At least it's fixed and it wasn't the head gasket!