^JR^

There is a 95 T-bird (4.6L, 86K miles) that I'm interested in buying.
Someone I know was telling me of an odd coincedence they had noticed a
couple of times with T-birds around that model year. It seemed that when
heater core went bad, not long after the transmissions started acting up.
Not shifting to all the gears and such. Now the one I'm thinking of buying
has a bad heater core already. Do thunderbird trannies have a documented
history of poor reliability?

TIA!!!

^JR^

T.

"^JR^" <jimrage_69@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:MpjYe.47488$ua.1601044@twister.southeast.rr.com...
> There is a 95 T-bird (4.6L, 86K miles) that I'm interested in buying.
> Someone I know was telling me of an odd coincedence they had noticed a
> couple of times with T-birds around that model year. It seemed that when
> heater core went bad, not long after the transmissions started acting up.
> Not shifting to all the gears and such. Now the one I'm thinking of
> buying has a bad heater core already. Do thunderbird trannies have a
> documented history of poor reliability?
>
> TIA!!!
>
> ^JR^
>

Things break/wear out/rust on 10 year old cars.

BudRob600

Bought mine new in 95. Trans was overhauled under extended warranty about
50K but have not had any heater core problems. The biggest problem has
been the front brake rotors are not heavy enough for the weight of this
car. Takes very little for them to warp requiring them to be turned
frequently to keep the shake out. I've had to replace front rotors twice
in 100K. Check the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website
at http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...fectsearch.cfm to
see consumer reported defects / problems on all makes and models. It's a
great resource for finding problems before you buy. Hope this helps.

lugnut

On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 21:44:04 -0400, "BudRob600"
<striperchaser@mindspring.com> wrote:

>Bought mine new in 95. Trans was overhauled under extended warranty about
>50K but have not had any heater core problems. The biggest problem has
>been the front brake rotors are not heavy enough for the weight of this
>car. Takes very little for them to warp requiring them to be turned
>frequently to keep the shake out. I've had to replace front rotors twice
>in 100K. Check the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website
>at http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...fectsearch.cfm to
>see consumer reported defects / problems on all makes and models. It's a
>great resource for finding problems before you buy. Hope this helps.
>
>


You can avoid a lot of brake rotor problems by taking your
own torque wrench with you any time the wheels have to be
removed and tightening the lugs to the correct spec before
the car hits the ground. Air wrenches do not correctly
tighten them even with the torque sticks that the tire
jockeys rely on. The quality of the torque wrench in this
case is not nearly as important as getting them torqued
evenly. You can use a $15 torque wrench from Harbor Freight
for this purpose. Your opportunity to do this ends the
first stop that heats the rotors to normal temps.

Lugnut

Backyard Mechanic

"BudRob600" <striperchaser@mindspring.com> wrote in
news:6d40bebd82497782d7b1ab1c940d942a@localhost.talkaboutautos.com:

> Bought mine new in 95. Trans was overhauled under extended warranty
> about 50K but have not had any heater core problems. The biggest
> problem has been the front brake rotors are not heavy enough for the
> weight of this car. Takes very little for them to warp requiring them
> to be turned frequently to keep the shake out. I've had to replace
> front rotors twice in 100K. Check the National Highway Traffic Safety
> Administration website at
> http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...fectsearch.cfm to
> see consumer reported defects / problems on all makes and models. It's
> a great resource for finding problems before you buy. Hope this helps.
>
>
>

Make SURE your wheels are mounted in the right rotation.

The earlier wheels that look a little like fan blades are esp contributors
to rotor heat accumulation if they are mounted backwards.

ankhe105

Don't know about the trans but can tell you this: I had a 96 that my
daughter now has and the intake manifold went on it spewing coolant all
over the place. Manifold was made of plastic and it gave out this year.
Called Ford and it had been on recall but I was never notified and recall
expired after 7 years. I fixed it myself for about $300 part. I bet
your's is plastic too.

Steve Stone

I bet
> your's is plastic too.
>
>

No , the 95LX 4.6 was last year for the metal intake. The plastic
version required a rework of the hood and added 20 foot pounds of
torque.

Steve