1989 Ford Mustang LX hatchback from North America - Comments

Headlight switch and harness melted.

Charging sys. fusable link blew.

Thermostat replaced (aftermarket,

poor quality)

The headlamp housings had faded (a fact of life) so I replaced them.

Super reliable.

Not overly quick.

Plenty of aftermarket parts.

Handles and brakes very well.

Excellent first car with 2.3L.

Rear is too light, (almost got me in trouble) slides too easy

sandbags would fix it.

I would find it embarrassing to drive a 4 cylinder mustang. But its good on gas I suppose. I really don't think a mustang would be a good first car.

Do not listen to the first comment. It should be restated to read he is not secure enough in himself to drive a 4 cylinder Mustang.

I would much rather drive a rear wheel drive 4 cylinder Mustang than anything front wheel drive. Actually, I do not know of any other rear wheel drive 4 cylinder car, except for the Nissan 240. But, I have no interest in an imported car.

The nice thing about the Mustang, is that you can in fact get one set up as an economical daily driver, or a tire smoking V8. I do not see a thing wrong with that. Each has its purpose. In fact, I would not mind having one of each variety.

I would lay odds that melted wiring harness and fusible link are related. It is a very good thing that the fusible link was installed, or your whole car would have become a fusible link (i.e. burned up).

I would have expected the headlight fuse to blow before you ever melted a fusible link. I believe there is a possibility that somebody incorrectly wired your headlight circuit, bypassing its fuse. If this is the case, it is a very unsafe situation and should be corrected.

An easy check would be to turn on your headlights and pull the headlight fuse. If the headlights go out, you know they are wired safely through the fuse panel. If they do not go out, they are wired incorrectly and should be fixed (all easy stuff).

If the headlights do go out, just be sure to turn the headlight switch off before reinserting the fuse. Otherwise you will generate a spark and/or voltage spike, which is potentially damaging to any adjacent solid state circuitry connected on the fuse bus.