1994 Ford Thunderbird LX from North America - Comments

Brakes/Rotors at 125,000.

Thermostat at 126,000.

Fuel Pump/Strainer/Fuel Filter at 136,000.

Transmission developed a shudder at 90,000 miles. It is starting to hang at 137,000.

Paint was oxidized when I bought it. Paint faded.

Power Antennq doesn't go down.

Cruise Control & Horn fuse blew constantly.

I bought this car at 80,000 miles for 1600 and drove it back and forth to Lancaster, PA from Sunbury, PA every week for two years. As well as driving to work. Now I drive it to work and around.

Car has exceptional handling for such a large car. The car is extremely driver comfortable and the seats rock. Extremely comfortable car, if you are the driver. It sucks for a passenger though.

The 3.8L is a little bit of a gas hog for it's horsepower/torque. Car doesn't accelerate fast enough.

Engine is amazing, I never had a problem with the engine it's always been the transmission.

This has been the best car I've ever owned, and only recently have things gone wrong with it.

Could you provide details on:

"Pump/Strainer/Fuel Filter at 136,000."

I have a chronic lean condition in a 94 Thunderbird LX.

I have fixed PCV vacuum leak, changed fuel filter, cleaned MAF, cleaned/tested/inspected the entire EGR system from exhaust manifold to and including the ports in the intake manifold, inspected and tested all temp sensors, and the last time I checked the fuel pressure it was on the weak side of the spec. Also the check valve in the fuel pump seems to lose pressure on cold start up.

I talked to the parts store and they said the fuel pump is not a big seller.

Before I go through the hassle of dropping the tank, I would like to know if anybody else has had this problem.

Thank You.

Update to the chronic lean condition:

Seems the dirty MAF was the cause. Even though the Check Engine light was reset, the LT FTRM was still in the computer and was slow to gather enough data to get ST FTRM and LT FTRM back into spec. I learned that if you disconnect the battery overnight the FTRM values in the computer reset to factory defaults.

I measured the fuel pressure at the fuel rail:

KOEF 40 psi

Idle 32 psi

WOT 41 psi.

All within the low end of the spec.

I am glad that I did not go through the hassle of dropping the tank (and the exhaust system).

This was all a part of discovering chronic Lean Fuel Trim in the Freeze Frame data generated by another unrelated Check Engine Light issue that turned out to be a faulty replacement sensor that was only ten months old.

Just because a sensor has been replaced, don't think it is sending correct data to the computer.