I unfortunately have to have my 1993 XR7 Special Edition Cougar hauled off - rear driver wheel hub rusting through and the shock plate broke and it cannot be welded because there is nothing to weld it to due to the rusting. According to my body shop, that particular year is notorious for rusting underneath like that (even though my car is "rustproofed").
Other than that, has run like a top and I really REALLY hate to have to get rid of it-only 105,000 miles. This is my 3rd Cougar in 28 years - the last one was an '83 with $163,000 miles.
I've got a '93 XR7 cougar, with the v-6, automatic with shift kit. I've done some very minor work to the engine so far, as of the moment I have a blown head gasket, I currently have 115734 miles on it and one of the major problems I am having is the driver-side rear bearing keeps going out on me. Other than that, I have dusted many of the new v8 mustangs with this car in the quarter mile.
I own a 1994 Mercury Courgar XR7 with 162,000+ miles (odometer stopped working four or more years ago. When I start the engine and while its sitting in park (idle) the engine revs up on its on as if I'd applied pressure to the accelerator. It idles back down to the normal range. This continues even while driving. Imagine the looks when you're in the drive thru, and you start burning rubber behind the other cars in line.
1993 5.0V8 HO.
I love this car to death! I have had to replace a heater switch, replace the lights behind the digital dash, and I have have a slight coolant leak. Other than that, there are no problems with my car. The V8 has a lot of punch... it gains steadily untill the 175km/h limit. My car only has 140,000kms on it, so it still has a great amount of life left in it. Paint is fine, interior leather trimmed seats are like new. This car won't keep up with a 5.0 mustang, but it will take many imports to the cleaners in a race. I average 25mpg on the highway. ALL the electronic options that my car came loaded with still work. I feel like I own a NEW 93 cougar, hahah.
This review for a 1993 mercury cougar XR7. This car is great, the last of a dying breed. Nobody makes big rear wheel drive cars anymore. It handles great and has a ride that you cannot duplicate (even with a bad bushing). It has sharp looks in the front (the rear could look better... but it also does not attract police attention) and it has a high "fun to drive" rating.
The bad side is the 3.8 V6 has not enough horsepower even with an intake and a chip. The torque is fine and develops very early, so normal driving is fine. But it you want to get a burst of speed you had better plan ahead. Even the transmission works against you with its slow shifting and strange gear ratios. Just leave it in drive, and accelerate from 50 mph on. The car will feel faster.
Other than that, this particular car has had many problems which may have been due to a crazy driver before I had it; HOWEVER the car will rust like crazy no matter who owns it.
I still loved this car.
I have a '93 Cougar. It is blowing cold air out of the heater. I have replaced the thermostat and added coolant. It will blow warm air for awhile, then it starts blowing cold air. Can anyone help with this problem?
Yes, your problem is more than likely a blown head gasket. Read the comments prior to this and you will see several have the same problems you have. I have a 93 Cougar given to me and doing the same as yours and I am sure I will have to replace the head gasket.
I bought a 1993 cougar from an auction, and it turned out to be a bucket...
Me being stubborn, told everyone I will not sell it..
Done many minor engine jobs, now am having the engine replaced...
Yeah, too bad for me..
Reason being, I know that when I get it over with, ama set it up, put some wheels on her, respray it, music system, and everything..
I will end up having a nice car..
And yea, am just 18, so I think its worth working on, build my knowledge on cars and will learn to appreciate it later on...
I own a 93 cougar with the 3.8L. I love her to death.
If you have time I can suggest ways to improve yours, and increase performance without doing a complete overhaul.
I read about a lot of people complaining about lack of power. Let me state this right away, that engine has more than enough power for that car.
If your concerned about power, put a fiberglass hood on her. This drastically reduces the overall weight in front and improves handling.
The biggest quark in the ford 3.8 design are the manifolds. They have a 1 3/4" primary to a 1.7" collector. This is why the engine blows head gaskets so easily. The exhaust cannot escape fast enough when the car is under load, so it backs up and will blow a weak head gasket. The easiest way to fix this problem is replacing the factory manifolds with performance headers that have 1 3/4" primaries to 2.5" collector. This will also give you about a 20hp improvement.
The factory exhaust also restricts flow with a 90 degree bend on the drivers side down tube, and pinched piping coming out of the resonator. My suggestion would be to go to a 2-1-2 high flow 3" cat-back exhaust.
By putting a shift kit in the transmission, you can choose your own shift points and bypass the sporadic shifting of the factory transmission.
And if you want better starting, performance, and increased gas mileage, slap in some Bosch platinum 4 spark plugs. Also suggest Screamin' Demon coil pack.
Those are a few improvements that will increase performance, and maybe you will change your mind about this engine being gutless.
(I am not saying these enhancements will be cheap, but if you want more out of your car, and still get better gas mileage than a V8, its worth it.)
I have a 1993 cougar I bought in 1997 with 6000 miles on it. I love the car. Had no trouble till 110000 miles when the head gasket went, a couple thousand miles later the radiator. At 125000 needed a new steering box,142000 a air flow sensor idle air control valve. Now the car has 152000 miles. The paint looks like new. I really like this car so I guess I will keep it. Its been driven all over the U.S.From Pa to Cal.
I bought my 1993 Cougar XR-7 new 15 years ago. As far as general mechanical function, the car has been solid. The ride is very nice and the interior, given the car's cost, is very nice. My ride still gets me where I want to go. But, it hasn't been a journey without a few bumps in the road. Despite its age, most major parts are still original.
Starter (went out after 60,000 miles). Passive restraint on driver side no longer working (belt broke) More trouble and expense to fix it than to just leave it in retracted position and flip harness over head. If bell chime and/or panel light drive won't shut off, you can disconnect module, which is located behind glove box. You need to remove glove box to get to it. Takes about five minutes.
I'm surprised that there hasn't been mention of water collecting in the evaporator and spilling out near driver foot area. After driving my new car off the lot, I got less than 2 miles down the road before my foot got soaked with ice cold water making a right turn. I drove it immediately back to the dealership, where I was informed there was already a "Fix" that needed to be installed, so the factory already knew about the problem. Perhaps, they caught this before too many rolled off the line.
By no surprise, I have seen many blown head gaskets mentioned. I blew my first head gasket at 38,000 miles and about one month past warranty. Ford was KIND enough to split the cost, if the dealership did the job. It still cost me $800.00!
Head gaskets blew, again, at 88,000 miles! To make matters worse, by using a can of gasket sealer to attempt a temporary fix, the blown gasket allowed too much fluid in the cylinder and created a hydraulic lock, causing the piston to jam, and rod to pretzel.
My car, at that point, sat in the driveway for over a year. With nothing to lose, and more time than money, a good friend decided to mentor me and helped me tear her down, replace the piston, head gaskets and freeze plugs (several were rusted clean through). Now she's back on the road, again, and purring like a kitten.
One thing I learned early on... If you notice that your engine temp does not heat up in normal time (also will experience engine wanting to hiccup or stall on acceleration) and that your heat gauge stays on cold seemingly forever, until it rapidly rises, then settles back... you are in line for a head gasket job.
There is always a chance that it could be a thermostat, water pump, low coolant level or radiator. However, after ruling these out, don't delay checking for the head gasket. You might have some doubt, at first, but when you have antifreeze in your oil or white, sweet smelling smoke coming from your tail pipe, you better hope you are close to home.
Important note... once you experience the inevitable head gasket blowing, it is worth your while to check the fuel injector in the cylinder or cylinders that were affected or near the area where the gasket gave out. My injector was sticking (tell tale sign of carbon all over the spark plug electrode) from the contaminants that were back getting back on the pintle (tip of injector where fuel sprays out). Dealership will want $100.00 for new injector. Got one out of the auto boneyard for $6.00. Works fine!
For what it's worth, from a do it yourself standpoint, prior to this episode, I had only performed an oil change, wiper blade change, air filter (real basic stuff). If the head gasket is the only problem, the engine does not need to be removed, and doing the job is not that difficult. Quite frankly, the hardest part of the job was getting rusted bolts to come loose off of units that have to be removed to get to the heads. Once you get to the heads, it's pretty easy. Once the heads are removed, you can have them reconditioned, or swap the cores for rebuilt ones. I paid about $250.00 to have mine reconditioned and milled, to eliminate any warpage. Gasket set and bolts cost around $150.00. Make sure you have instructions (I used a Haynes manual, $20.00 at local auto parts store) a torque wrench (can be purchased for as low as $12.00) and a pivot head 3/8 or 1/2" drive ratchet (this has become my favorite tool in the entire universe!) You'll need a cheater bar or breaker bar for rusted bolts. A can of Kroil, or other high concentrated lubricant, will help too when it comes to bolts that are rusted solid.
One HUGE piece of advice to a newbie (like me) trying to fix this yourself... have a video camera rolling while you start removing and disconnecting everything, making comments about what you are doing with some detail. Mark both ends of any connection with colored tape, paint, tape flags with numbers, whatever works for you. This way, when it comes time to reconnect everything, you will know what goes back together with what. Get close ups of the area you are working on. Digital camera pictures help too. Unless you are an experienced mechanic, and know your way under the hood, you may run into some serious reconnection issues. That's when the video and pix become VERY helpful, especially when trying to figure out how to route wire harnesses through the fuel rail assembly, as well as, threading the coolant hoses back into place. When you have something to refer back to, it's a piece of cake.
Also, if you hear a sputtering coming from underneath, and you have ruled out a muffler or pipe leak, check the exhaust mounting flange brackets right where your cat. converter connects to your exhaust manifold. These have been known to rust apart. If you here sputtering from the cat. converter itself, you can remove just the section (unbolt at exhaust manifold and hacksaw pipe approx 1 foot behind the converter. The area you need to work on will drop down quite nicely and you can take it wherever you need to work on it. By sawing the two weld areas (only 1" each) on the bottom side of the converter's heat shield, you can peel back the heat shield to expose the converter case. In my case, the outer shell of the converter was rusted through where the thin metal part tag had been spot welded onto the converter. The ID tag is about the size of a standard business card and pulls off very easily if it doesn't fall off all by itself. Now, with a thin metal sheet (or take it to any muffler or welding shop) weld in a patch. Swing the heat shield back to the closed position, weld back where you had to cut it in the first place. Now all you have to do is reconnect the front part back to the exhaust manifold (two bolts), and reconnect with pipe behind the converter where you had to hacksaw. This can be done by taking it to a muffler shop and for about $20.00 they'll weld it back together. You can also buy the muffler/pipe sealing tape (not recommended), or buy a 3" length of pipe with an inner diameter slightly larger than the outer diameter of your pipe. My pipe was 2" OD, so I got section of pipe 2 1/8" ID that slid over where I cut pipe. Add a couple of clamps and you are back in business. There is a good chance that you will have a small exhaust leak unless you are able to get a real tight fit. Welding is the best way, although this is a good temporary fix to get you around until getting it welded.
Another little tendency of this car is that it EATS front disc pads. Save yourself some time and money on rotor replacement... just get yourself a set of lifetime pads and replace them every 15 to 20,000 miles. They are VERY easy to replace. Takes about 20 minutes to get them both done, once you know what you are doing.
I've also noted rust problems from other posts. Mine started on driver side kick panel, just in front of rear wheelwell. Passenger side followed soon after. Apparently, these vehicles were known for this. Also, paint peels off on hood and trunk, curiously enough, in line with windshield fluid jets. Apparently, this was a problem, too. Overspray from jets, with a little help from the wind, would leave wiper fluid on paint finish and, over time, would eat right through it. Learning how to do bodywork is my next project.
While it may have started out as only a means of transportation, it now has turned out to be my first REAL experience in learning do it yourself car repair. It's actually been a fun experience and, perhaps, a blessing in disguise. I've saved a TON of money, not just on repairing this car, but also on my other vehicles, now that I can do more than just change wiper blades.
I've decided, much to my wife's dismay, that, as long as I can keep my ride running and looking good, I'm keeping it. I just had to remind her that we've only been married 14 years, and that my red chariot has seniority by one year.
Would just like to say I also have a 93 3.8 XR7 Cougar... I love the car and it runs good.. Too bad I can't find another one like mine..
The whole undercarriage is rusted from years of driving in the snow I guess. My drums have locked up a few thousand miles ago.
It has 173k on it.. The head gasket has been replaced about 70k ago.
Rust on kick boards, but can't been seen unless you're on your knees.
Hmm the brake lines we did.. had to replace them awhile ago.
Other than that, I'm gonna drive it till it dies.. It was my Dads car and he passed away a few years ago.
I would like to keep it around forever! But with the frame rusting, I don't know what to do to keep it running.
The door handle to close the door and the button pad has fallen off both doors... LOL, other than that I love it!
I have a 1993 V6, It has 13,000 miles or so (odometer broke at 11000). It was my great-grandmas and when she passed away she gave it to me. It had about 7,000 miles when I got it. I LOVE it to death.
OK, my 93 Cougar has got 73,000 miles on it and has yet to blow the head gasket. But one thing that has been the worst for me that has not been posted was the whole door latch; it has been a little over a year and it still has not been replaced. I love the car to death but the door latch on my passenger side and the squeaky ball bearing in the front left tire. But the car is a champ, a great vehicle.
I have owned a 93 Cougar XR-7 3.8 V6 since 1994, it has over 400 thousand miles on it and runs good. I had to change the transmission once and have done the usual work like brakes, tune ups, change lights, and etc. I would not trade or sell since it has been a very dependable to me.