1994 Ford Tempo GL review from North America

This is an account of around a combined 3,000,000- miles of driving our family Tempo/Topaz cars. 15-cars at an average of 200,000-miles each.

We got all the cars cheap ($7-$12K) as my grandmother let us buy them almost new for a huge discount through her car rental agency. We got most of them with only 800-10,000-miles on them.

We have owned at least 15-Tempos/Topaz cars over the last 15-years. 15-sounds like a lot, but this includes a Mom, Dad, me, my sister, brother, and best friend.

We have all owned several of these cars.

This is a description of all the cars..

1988-1994 A/C suction line on A/C system is placed low under the engine. This allows it to strike animals and form leaks or rupture==solution-try to hit dead road kill on the left side of the car.

Another design problem with all the 1988-1994 tempos, with the exception of the V-6 or AWD models is the "Weak" transmission mounts. They tend to snap around 80,000-miles or 8-years of age. Starting in 1992 Ford reengineered the front trans mount and it will not break, but the same weak one is still on the rear. Solution=try not to be extra ruff with the drive train assembly as you drive.

1988-1991 and even earlier models of Tempo/Topaz, Taurus, and many other ford products employed an alternator that had a "wax-like" plug in that was plugged into the alternators voltage regulator which is on the alternator. This plug in tends to melt and fail around 80,000-miles or 8-years of age. Ford had the after marketers of the OEM part redesign the part to make it better. So if it "Melts" once, it should be OK once it has been replaced. It is very easy to fix. You can do it yourself. Note- not all cars had this type of plug in. Starting in all 1992-1994 models of Tempo/Topaz ford employed a new design that will not fail. It is a direct screw on type, which cannot fail.

Most of our Tempos/Topazs have show signs of minor transmission problems. This problem consist of the car not wanting to shift out of 1st gear when it is cold or first driven in the morning. They told us "Rebuild", but we found that when the transmission sticks, all one has to do is pull over and put the car in park, kill it and re-start it and back to drive and it is fine and will not do it again that day or anytime soon. See they only do it like once every 3,000-miles. Usually on a cold day and only one time at a time. Not all of our cars have done this. None of the 1992-1994's have, only the 88-91's. Ours have started to do this around 80,000-miles.. We know lots of people that upon their tempo doing this they paid for an un-needed trans overhaul. My blue 90 has done this every 3,000-miles or so since 80,000-miles-today the car has over 214,000-miles on the same trans. This is typical of all of ours.

A problem that only the 1992-1994's have is the harmonic balancer. This is the main crankshaft pulley. See starting in 1992 ford went to a cheap rubber and metal pulley to cut down on vibrations. The rubber dries out due to engine oil on it and the elements and age. Once the rubber dries out it can crack and cause the pulley to slip and make loud noise when the car is at an idle. The cost of this repair is around $350.00 and the new OEM parts are much better then the OEMs that were put in the cars in 1992-1994's. The pre 1992 tempo/topazs used a solid metal pulley that never failed. Some, but not all of ours have went bad. Most went bad around 90,000-miles. I have seen people drive these cars for years with the harmonic balancer out of wack. They should be fixed real quick, but you don't have to. Some of our 92-94's have over 170,000-miles and never went bad yet. Solution=only have a certified name-brand shop do this repair and only use a new harmonic balancer or you will be paying for it again real soon.

In all the Ford factory radios of that generation, "the black plastic face ones", used in all 1986-94 Tempos and topazs and most all ford/Lincoln/mercury cars, trucks, and vans, the radio bulb tends to burn out after 10-years of use or around 100,000-miles. It is only the main bulb, that lights up the digital display from the back. They are easy to fix. Use 4-nails to pull the whole radio out and take the face off and put a new bulb in. "Notice-on a lot of these cars, the radio's 2-retaining clamps tend to bend out of place over time and this makes it almost impossible to remove the radio. Keep trying, don't break the face off".

Also these cars exhibit early signs of exhaust failure. The pipes tend to rust out in as few as 5-years. If they were stainless steel they would not do this. Solution=drive the car for at lest 30-miles or so to let it fully warm up sometimes and this will cut back on residual moisture in the system which causes rust, also get the premium life time muffler and pipe. That way you will never have to pay for it again. Lifetime warranty. And don't lose the paper work.

1988-1991 have shown signs of TPPS failure. Throttle plate position sensors as I call them, they are actually called throttle position sensors. They go bad and cause the car to die when one first pushes on the gas or as the car idles out a long drive way once it has warmed up. Test it by lightly pressing on the gas as the car idles once warm."IN PARK" Press down and release the gas as fast as you can for a bit. Only push it down like 1/10-of an inch. Keep doing this real fast, like once every 1/4th of a second. Make sure the a/c and windshield defrost are off, because with one of them on it will activate the compressor to cycle and cause the engine to rev up a bit on its own. Ford actually replaced all of them under recall, but when they did they stripped the screws that hold the sensor in place on top of the engine. The bottom screw is hard to get to so they put the screw driver in sideways and stripped out the groves that the screw driver teeth fit into. Then ford reused the stripped out screws on the cars. Keep trying. If you have to take off the valve cover or cut the sensor in half long ways down and then use vice grips to unscrew the remaining half of the screw that will be sticking out. You will have to buy new screws if you do this cutting method and the cost of a new sensor is $20.00.. If the car dies often, and the check engine light does not come on or stay on while driving, replace this sensor.

The electric seat-belts tend to fail after about 8-years or so. But the average electric seatbelt is used about 17,520 times in 8-years. They fail because the seat belt is moved by an electric motor that has a sprocket hooked to it. The plastic sprocket wears out, or the teeth/tracks in the seat belt mover track wears out. The best thing to do is un-plug the motor on the side that is failing, then twist the manual knob override to pull the seat belt back down where you need it. Put a piece of black tape over the flashing light on the dash if it bugs you. Then simply, just pull it over you every time you get in the car. They cost too much to fix. Like $500.00 each. Or get a tempo with an air-bag as all 1988-1993 Tempo/Topazs with the optional drivers air bad have the old style seat belts that are not automatic, all 94 tempos/Topaz with the drivers air/bag have the old seat belt on the drivers side, but the electric one on the passenger side. Very few tempo and topaz cars were ordered with the air bad, maybe only 5% or less.

Only on the 1992-1994's, the tail lamps tend to fill up with dust after years of use on dirt roads. Solution is to remove them and wash out. Easy and it only takes a few hours to do it all. You can even use an air hose to blow them out.

Starter motor relay tends to start to fail sometimes around 8-years of age or 150,000-miles. Replace it with a premium motorcraft one as soon as you can. they are easy to change. If yours leave you in a parking lot, jut wait a few minutes and try again, they usually work then. Or you can leave the key on the "ON" position and open the hood and take a screw driver and jump power manually over the relay by touching the 2-main bolts that come out of the relay. Note=it will spark and the screw driver will get hot. Do not let the screwdriver touch the body car when you are doing this. Buy a premium new one, or else you will get a bad one. I went through 4-of the cheap ones once and finally had to go to ford to get a factory one. The factory one has not went out yet=4-years.

On only one of ours, we keep having a failing front left wheel bearing. This was found to be caused by the shop over tightening the C/V Joint retaining nut.

Also on all 88-94's Tempo/Topaz, the climate control assembly bulbs tend to vibrate loose after about 8-years of service. Easy to fix, remove assembly and twist bulbs back in. Take about 1.5 hours.

Also the EGR valve pressure sensor hose tends to start to dry up and shrink after about 10-years of use and then it falls down off the sensor. Easy to fix, just plug back in, but best to replace the hose. If you hear an exhaust leak from under the hood or smell exhaust, this is what is most likely causing it.

The glove box light switch tends to not work all the time, just wiggle it with your hand and it will come on, caused by corrosion and dust in contact points, you can remove it and clean it out. I would not bother with it.

On all Tempo/Topaz, all years the inner and outer tie rod ends tend to wear out around 120,000-miles or less.

Cheap factory clear coated paint tends to shed/flake off the clear coat only after 7-years of being in the sun and elements. Solution is to wax all cars twice a year and try and keep them in the shade. If you ever get any car repainted, that has clear coat, make sure the shop uses high quality paint and clear coat and make sure they put it on thick.

On all cars including Tempo/Topaz, that employ plastic headlamps, the headlamps tend to fade out and glaze over after being exposed to the sun after 7-years or so. The solution is to keep them out of the sun. To make a faded out headlamp look new again, keep armorall or even W-D40 smeared over them. This is the trick that used car lots employ and once it rains or you wash the car, then the headlamps look dull again. Also some headlamps get moisture or fog in them. Is what causes this is the seals around the headlamp its self are failing or the seal around the bulb has dried up. Replace bulb on a hot day and let the lamp be in the sun for a few hours with the back open so that the evaporating moisture can escape. Then put the new bulb in while the lamp is still in the sun and hot. All cars do this with plastic head lamps.

Only one of the 14-Tempo/topaz cars had a gauge that failed. IT was the 89 and the fuel gauge wert out in 1999 with 167,000-miles on it.

With age some of the C/V boots cracked, mainly the outer ones and especially on the drivers side. Some of them never cracked. Just a few. Solution is none�one cannot stop age and the natural breakdown of materials. You can keep Armorall sprayed on them to help keep the vital moisture inside of the rubber. This goes for all cars FWD and 4X4's that use C/V assemblies.

Most of these items are normal wear and tear items that tend to fail on any vehicle with time. These are great cars that are cheap to operate and easy to work on. Most people who now own a Tempo/Topaz tends to neglect the cars and not service them. It is very important to service any vehicle on a regular basis if it is to last. The transmission fluid and filter should be changed every 50,000-miles or less. The fuel filter should be changed no less than every 50,000-miles. The oil should be changed every 3,000-miles on the dot, especially in a high mileage car. The anti-freeze should be drained every 2-to3-years and refilled with the approximate strength. The thermostat should be changed every 3-years along with the Anti-Freeze. The air-filter should be changed every 2-years or 30,000-miles or less. The spark plugs should be changed every 45,000-miles or less. The plug wires and rotor bug and cap should be changed every 100,000-miles or less. The accessory belts or belt (92-94) should be changed 5-years�Do not over tighten the water pump or alternator belts. If you keep all your fluids full and changed on a reasonable basis you should be able to make almost any car last 200,000-miles or more. Remember one needs to drive the car reasonably as well and take it easy.

None of our starters have failed. Even after 242,000-miles.

We got over 140,000-miles out of each alternator.

Only one water pump failed, I think it is because the belt was put on too tight. It started to leak at 150,000-miles.

No fuel pump problems or fuel system problems at all out of any of the cars. Keep clean fuel filters and the fuel pumps will last forever.

No-internal Engine problems at all or major leaks.

None of our Tempos or Topaz cars ever had the timing chain replaced and none have failed. Most all have over 200,000-miles on them. One with almost 300K.

Not one of the cars has ever had to be towed or left one of us stranded away from home.

None of the cars has had any type of body hardware failure except for glazing over headlamps and power door locks going out and a total of 2-power window failures out of all of them. Secret is once you roll the electric window up, then let it back down about 1/16th of an inch to release stress from the internal gears and regulator track because the window is up tight in a bind if you don't let off the button as soon as the window touches the top of the door, or the bottom.

Basically the only problems that we have had are mentioned above and most of the items above were caused by age, rather then mechanical defect.

None of the cars have very comfortable front seats. No lower back support.

These cars make great cheap transportation if you get one that has been cared for. You can feel safe having teens with no driving skills start out in a tempo or topaz because these cars handle well and do not hot rod, which means no real speeding tickets. If fact I never got my first ticket as a teen, it was not until I was 24yrs old and in my new V-8 powered car that I got my first ticket. 77-in a 55.

They are great cars, I have listed the things that have happened to ours, which seems to be common to most.

These are solid little cars that offer tons of use for someone and cheap upkeep.

I would buy a new one today if ford keep on building them.

All of ours was assembled in America except one 1990, it was assembled in Canada.

Only 2-had the drivers side air bag, and only one was AWD.

We still own all of them, (except the AWD-it got into a wreck and sent to Tempo heaven.,) (one of the 1990's got flipped over, but we still have it for parts) but most are parked and we do not drive them as we have all updated to newer cars. I still start and drive each one of them up the road once a month or more. My mom still drives hers everyday and my dad and sister still drives theirs everyday as well. How do we do it, we live on an 40+ Acer farm in rural Arkansas.

All were automatics except 2. All had/have the 2.3 L 4-cylinder engine.

All have had to have the A/C recharged over the years, except the 92-and newer ones.

One 1990 had a small power steering fluid leak, one 1990 had a minor oil leak (1-quart every 6-months)

One 1990 got a transmission fluid leak last summer and the leak "Healed" itself and stopped and has not leaked a drop since.

Most all the tempos have the original OEM struts on them and they still perform like new, even after 200,000-miles.

All tempos have the original radiators in them and heater cores.

All tempos have all the original electrical electronic modules except one 1990, which had to have a new Thick Film ignition modules put in it. It died as mother was leaving the drive way one day. She just walked back and got into another tempo. Our drive way is 1-mile long. It failed at 122,000-miles. It was one of the 5-speed ones.

All the Tempos/Topazs have been very reliable and solid.

All of the cars started to consume some engine oil around 150,000-170,000-miles. None of them smoke, but most use up to 1, or 1.5 quarts of oil every 3,000-miles.

All of the tempos could have benefited from an overdrive transmission as the cars with the automatic seem wound up around 60mph, but they will run around 100mph if you keep on the gas and look for cops. Maybe it was best for ford to stick to the 3speeds as they have less parts to fail.

Great cars. I'd sure buy one if it was clean and taken care of. You can get a real nice 94 with only 80,000-miles for around $1500 cash.