Anyone have any experience with 89-97 Thunderbirds?

Hello guys!!

Does anyone here have any experience with the 89-97 Ford Thunderbirds?

Im looking to buy a new, more comfortable car with a bit more power since i have a new job further away from home.

And i got an offer to trade in my old saab for a 1996 Ford Thunderbird 4.6.

How good are these cars? Reliability, mpg, speed, comfort etc?

Is there enough room for lets say me driving (6'5" tall), a rear facing childrens seat in the passenger seat, my other child (7 years old, about 3'11" tall as well as my wife about 5'11") in the back seat to ride in decent comfort?

Now that would rarely happen, but if?

My boss who has worked with selling parts for american cars since the 1970s claims the 4.6 is a bulletproof engine, and this generation t-birds are good cars.

The only faults with the car is that the fuel gauge shows full until there is about 3 gallons left in the tank and then it drops.

And also the lambda light is on.

But i need more opinions, mostly because my wife is against it haha!

Thanks in advance!

I had the same car- from 35,000- 110,000 miles. Other than brakes, all I ever had to do to it was replace a single blown fuse.

Comfortable car-I got 18 in normal driving but as much as 28 on the road.

Leather seats tend to crack. It is a little underpowered, but for a daily driver it is fine. It is top speed limited to 108 miles per hour.

Suspension is a little soft and not well supported by the aftermarket. (Pun intended)

I found my Mom a '97 T-Bird LX some time around 2006 or 2007, and aside from normal maintenance, it's been a good car. She's crashed it a few times, and I've repaired it rather inexpensively.

The biggest things I wouldn't care for, being 6'5" myself, are pretty much in the category of "typical American car - looks pretty big from the outside, but almost seems a little cramped inside." Getting in and out of the back seats

I just replaced the factory sealed lower ball joints after they finally just gave up. That might be something you'd want to change rather quickly just so you'd know when they were done for sure. They're mounted on top of the lower control arm, so when it fails, the spindle separates from the lower control arm as that corner of the car drops to the ground - not a good thing to happen at speed. It's not the greatest design, but I'm sure it's not the only car out there like that, either.

Everything else seems fairly solid, though.

My wife had a new '96 V8. We loved it. Wished they had kept making the final iteration for another decade. Sold it at around 70K miles so can't comment on how they've held together.

A safe dependable car! Had I depended on this car to make a living by selling a ton of parts, I would have starved to death. Other than ordering parts for body jobs and normal maintenance we did very little to these cars. All the salesmen and shop techs were speechless when we heard about Ford's plans to make 97 the final year for the T-Bird. They claimed the car had gotten away from the original ideal/concept of the 55,56,57 Bird's!!!?? They had been doing that since the 58 4 seater came out!

The 4.6 will live forever if you keep the oil changed. We had cars come in with over 200,000 miles on them and running fine with normal maintenance. Others that thought changing oil was a waste of time and money had knocking sludged engines with as little as 50-60,000 miles.

You will find that the 4.6 is speed limited through the PCM from 98-108 MPH. There are programs that you can purchase to reflash/program the Pcm to get rid of the fuel cut off.

They have an IRS rear end that makes for a pretty good handling car while still delivering a nice ride. A lot of owners I talked to felt that the 4.6 highway mileage was as good as the 3.8 V6.

If the price is right I would snap it up!!

My brother bought a 94 4.6 new. He had a hour and half commute one way. He would say how much he liked that car with his long commute to the OC. I know it had well over 100k on it when my sister in law was T boned in it. He was bummed that ford stopped building them and replaced it with a Super Crew.

A few years ago I bought a VERY clean, loaded '93 LX with a 3.8 that was missing overdrive, for scrap value ($200). First through third worked flawlessly, but overdrive was like neutral. It is a common problem regarding the AOD trans with the nylon grommet falling apart at the throttle body where the TV cable attaches. When it fails, the trans no longer receives info from throttle position, and will not direct proper pressure for the trans fluid, thus cooking OD. Major destruction from a 5 cent part, and not pulling over and checking the issue when it happens. I'm pretty sure the later years went to electronic control though.

Otherwise, the aforementioned ball joint/control arms had already been replaced. Car was completely rust free, had one repaint. It drove very well, was very roomy, and had excellent suspension compliance if not a bit too mushy for my taste.

The cars are built on the MN12 platform that came after the venerable Fox platform. Never heard of the MN12? That's ok, nobody else has either, LOL.

Aftermarket support is near - if not zero (I work for a very large aftermarket body parts company)... no headlights, taillights, sheetmetal... you're up to the junkyard dogs if it gets crashed.

Speaking of taillights, the trunk mounted running lights are LED and NOT repairable. They are very often non functional, leaving only the small quarter panel turn signals for lighting.

I really liked it, despite lack of parts availability. I struggled to sell it after driving it for a year, and only mustered 600 bucks out of it to a friend. I was looking for 1200, and had zero bites on it at that. He drove it for another year, put zero dollars into it, and resold it for 600.

Actually, I think Rock Auto has some things like the headlights, taillights, mirrors, etc. - that's where the local 'yards order from, last I heard.

But, you're right - there isn't much available in the way of aftermarket replacement parts.

Dad's 93 had over 200k when he got rid of it. Only issue was that POS 3.8 and head gaskets. The auto seatbelts would try to behead you and the sway bar rusted in half. The car you are looking at no longer had the auto seatbelts. The 4.6 better than 3.8 so go for it. Only thing is at your height my leg was rested against the center dash stack all the time at 6 foot tall.

My Mom's '96 is still running like a champ... and it's only a 3.8L :whistling:

Here's her crash pic:



Mom wasn't paying attention and pulled out in front of an F-350 with a Ranch Hand bumper guard rolling around 35 mph. Bent the spindle, strut rod, lower control arm, upper control arm, and tie rod end. Also took a chunk out of the rim, destroyed the plastic vacuum can inside the upper fender well area, and blew up the strut... but fortunately, didn't mess up anything 'important.' The fender and suspension took pretty much all the damage.

Repaired (not washed, though):



Got a new fender, turn signal light, rim, mirror, and all the suspension components necessary to get the car back together - even a whole new set of tires - for 1/3 of the adjustor's claim amount (he hooked me up and decided not to total it after I told him what I'd be able to do to repair the car, and he inspected the shop as well).

I rattle-canned the color and clear on the fender, used a heat gun to pop the bumper cover back into shape, replaced the suspension/steering components, polished the headlights, threw on some new tires, and put the car back together over 2 weekends.

Then a few months later, she crunched the driver side fender and ripped off the driver side mirror backing out of her apartment parking car port slot - right into one of the columns supporting the roof. :shootself: