Something a little different for this forum. Since I've had a thread for every car I've owned, why break the trend now.
Picked this up about a month ago after selling my '04 Jeep TJ. Seems like I'm going backwards, as this means the newest car I have now is from 1999!
Owned for most of it's life by an older lady and then her family. I bought it from a young fellow who owned it for only a year.
Low mileage car, had only 41,000km (25,000mi) on it when I bought.
It was down almost 2 qts of oil when I picked it up, but hasn't burned any since then. Brake fluid res was low enough to throw on the dash light. I think the last owner just had zero mechanical knowledge.
Interior cleaned up very well. Still may go at the driver's seat with my pet stain cleaning machine.
My first ever experience with a mechanic on my own vehicle, as I've always done all work myself. I just had surgery a few days after I picked up the car, so the push for roadworthiness to get a Safety inspection had to be done by someone else.
He did front brakes, front balljoints, airbag module, and RH cat converter.
Otherwise the car looks very well maintained. Found a receipt for over $4000 of repairs done about 5 years ago.
Quite a few firsts for me with this car, having never owned a ford product, a V8, or something with a bench seat.
Just had it undercoated with Krown for the first time on Tuesday.
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Like any 30+ year old car there are still many small items to address:
1. Driver's side wiper arm doesn't put enough pressure on the center of the blade, and doesn't even touch the glass. Cannot see anything in the rain or snow. Looks like the splines on the arm are pretty loose. Temporary solution for this is to run a significantly smaller blade on the driver's side.
I've already purchased a replacement arm but it didn't slide onto the splines. Will need to revisit this when it's not freezing outside.
2. There is water pooling in passenger side rear floor board. Haven't determined the cause of this yet. Doesn't look like it's coming from the door or window. Surprisingly enough (because there is no water in the front floor pan) searching the relevant forums suggests a plugged drain in the HVAC box. I still need a few more weeks of healing before I'm going to be tackling this one.
3. Doesn't start on the first crank. Also loud buzzing/rattling coming from engine bay that corresponds with a higher idle speed. Suspect the idle air control valve is in rough shape from "easy" driving and is the cause of both of these issues.
4. Was pinging audibly at heavier loads, and won't accelerate at WOT. 93 octane gas has been an effective band-aid for the pinging, but I suspect a fuel delivery issue.
Previous owner had coils, plugs, and wires replaced in the last year. I'll start with a fuel filter and then go from there.
5. Airbag code 42 was resolved with the replacement (used) airbag module as new ones are NLA. Then had an intermittent code 41. Now have a constant code 51.
6. All tint has turned purple. But the worst offender is the rear glass where someone tried to peel off the old tint. It left a mess of glue and old tint that is near impossible to see out of.
7. Pulls noticeably to the right, I hope an alignment will take care of this one.
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All in all a comfortable car, and very chill to drive.
This was before the Aero model was refreshed so it still has many 80s feeling touches compared to the later panther chassis cars.
It's absolutely huge inside-and-out. Looks hilarious beside the Miata.
Will be able to tow as much (or more) then my Jeep did when I install a hitch.
Hoping to get 10-15 years of daily duty out of it with regular undercoating.
I normally hate an Automatic trans, but the mechanical four speed in this isn't so bad with the electronic O/D lockout.
Still wish it was manual, but that's likely out-of-scope on this one. Still have four manual cars plus the motorcycle to get my fix.
Picked this up about a month ago after selling my '04 Jeep TJ. Seems like I'm going backwards, as this means the newest car I have now is from 1999!
Owned for most of it's life by an older lady and then her family. I bought it from a young fellow who owned it for only a year.
Low mileage car, had only 41,000km (25,000mi) on it when I bought.
It was down almost 2 qts of oil when I picked it up, but hasn't burned any since then. Brake fluid res was low enough to throw on the dash light. I think the last owner just had zero mechanical knowledge.
Interior cleaned up very well. Still may go at the driver's seat with my pet stain cleaning machine.
My first ever experience with a mechanic on my own vehicle, as I've always done all work myself. I just had surgery a few days after I picked up the car, so the push for roadworthiness to get a Safety inspection had to be done by someone else.
He did front brakes, front balljoints, airbag module, and RH cat converter.
Otherwise the car looks very well maintained. Found a receipt for over $4000 of repairs done about 5 years ago.
Quite a few firsts for me with this car, having never owned a ford product, a V8, or something with a bench seat.
Just had it undercoated with Krown for the first time on Tuesday.
---------------------------
Like any 30+ year old car there are still many small items to address:
1. Driver's side wiper arm doesn't put enough pressure on the center of the blade, and doesn't even touch the glass. Cannot see anything in the rain or snow. Looks like the splines on the arm are pretty loose. Temporary solution for this is to run a significantly smaller blade on the driver's side.
I've already purchased a replacement arm but it didn't slide onto the splines. Will need to revisit this when it's not freezing outside.
2. There is water pooling in passenger side rear floor board. Haven't determined the cause of this yet. Doesn't look like it's coming from the door or window. Surprisingly enough (because there is no water in the front floor pan) searching the relevant forums suggests a plugged drain in the HVAC box. I still need a few more weeks of healing before I'm going to be tackling this one.
3. Doesn't start on the first crank. Also loud buzzing/rattling coming from engine bay that corresponds with a higher idle speed. Suspect the idle air control valve is in rough shape from "easy" driving and is the cause of both of these issues.
4. Was pinging audibly at heavier loads, and won't accelerate at WOT. 93 octane gas has been an effective band-aid for the pinging, but I suspect a fuel delivery issue.
Previous owner had coils, plugs, and wires replaced in the last year. I'll start with a fuel filter and then go from there.
5. Airbag code 42 was resolved with the replacement (used) airbag module as new ones are NLA. Then had an intermittent code 41. Now have a constant code 51.
6. All tint has turned purple. But the worst offender is the rear glass where someone tried to peel off the old tint. It left a mess of glue and old tint that is near impossible to see out of.
7. Pulls noticeably to the right, I hope an alignment will take care of this one.
---------------------------
All in all a comfortable car, and very chill to drive.
This was before the Aero model was refreshed so it still has many 80s feeling touches compared to the later panther chassis cars.
It's absolutely huge inside-and-out. Looks hilarious beside the Miata.
Will be able to tow as much (or more) then my Jeep did when I install a hitch.
Hoping to get 10-15 years of daily duty out of it with regular undercoating.
I normally hate an Automatic trans, but the mechanical four speed in this isn't so bad with the electronic O/D lockout.
Still wish it was manual, but that's likely out-of-scope on this one. Still have four manual cars plus the motorcycle to get my fix.
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