1994 Ford Thunderbird LX from North America - Comments

Transmission went three times. Twice under warranty. The last was my $$$.

I can't even count how many O2 sensors I had to buy.

The eternal check engine light has now been covered with tape so I don't have to see it anymore. No dealership has been able to tell me why it's on.

Power seat motors are weak.

Overall, I love my T-bird. It has power, it's comfortable, it handles great and the ride is smooth. I just wish that FORD didn't make it. The experience I have had with Ford is horrible to say the least. The reocurring problem with the transmission has been a real hassle.

It now has 140k miles on it and still gets me around in style. And yup, the check engine light has been on for 75k miles. It's a mystery!!

Hey man, I'm getting a 93 Tbird, I think it's a V8, not sure yet, but I did a lot of research on it, and I heard that the main problems, as I'm sure you know, are the starter cables (might be why the lights are on), brakes, and tranny. Some salesman, who owned one said that once he got the parts replaced by third party parts (good ones of course), they never re-occurred.

Hopefully my Tbird will get me around, the story is, it's my late uncles and he didn't get to drive it much, so it has like 10,000 miles, and they just took it to the shop and fixed it all up, so hopefully they replaced all those scary recalls I've been hearing about.

Now the tranny I think was still fine, but rest assured that once that goes I'll be getting a third party one. Hopefully that won't even happen, mainly becuase I don't have the money to fix it up.

Later man

I bought a 1994 T-Bird, 4.6 ltr V8 with 50k miles from a private party. Within one month the transmission went from vibrating as it shifts into overdrive to completely disengaging while driving on the hiway. I barely made it home one day. After numerous diagnostics I ended up having to replace the transmission with a used one from a Cougar with only 3k miles. I still have a weird vibration as it shifts into overdrive occassionally. I now have a new problem with the car but won't go into that as it pertains to fuel injection. Buyer beware...

On my T-bird the check engine light stayed on because the oxygen sensor got messed up, so you might want to get that fixed. Hope that helps.

I have recently purchased a 1994 mercury cougar XR-7 with a 4.6 litre engine. The reason I write this is to comment on the poor transmission design. My car has 33,126 original mile's was owned by my 68yr old neighbor and garage kept all of it's life. I have had the car 2wk's and I now have a major shutter in the transmission at 35-40 mph, and sometimes above that when cruising on the pkwy. I think ford should address this problem and deal with it affectively. I now have to pay $1600.00 to have the unit replaced, and lose my car for three day's. (THANK YOU FORD!)

Folks,

I'm in the same boat as you all. I purchased my 94 T-bird with 103,000. Now at 126,000 I'm having the transmission rebuilt. I love the 4.6, even though it's blowing oil past the rings. I love everything else about the car. It has power to burn. But ford didn't see fit to give it any "heart" by putting such a low grade transmission in it. It's because of this slackness by Ford that people go buy Japanese and German cars!!! Thanks for taking car of your customers Ford...

I just bought a 94 Tbird from a close friend. It has the same tranny problems that you speak of. Poor shifting response, shuttering, and dropping out of gear. I've not gotten into it yet, but I suspect a aftermarket shift kit will help. I have one on order. From what I understand about this tranny is that it has poor band actuator action. This is why I believe a shift kit will help. I'll report back how the shift kit works. A bit of advise: if your tranny does start to slip, let off the gas until it grabs or you can burn your bands or clutches. If your fluid is bright red then you can rest assure your bands and cluthes are OK.

I worked at Autozone for a while. There, I tested customer's OBDII and OBDI (engine light system). Any time I read a code that was mis-fire, O2 sensor problem, system lean. I asked them where they bought their gas. Only one time do I remember a customer saying he bought quality gas.

Gasolines such as Cheveron, Phillips 66, Mobil, and Conoco have good detergents in them that keeps your fuel systems clean and allows your injectors to mist gas into the intake instead of squirt, or worse, dribble. If your getting misfire engine codes, I recommend you change your fuel filter, plugs, and air filter, run five tanks of quality gas

before doing anything else.

With regard to the paint: one of my friends in the paint business said that in the early 90s the US auto makers used a water base primmer. If the pain job got a nick in it the primmer underneath would take on moisture and separate from the top coat. This is why you will see cars of this period with big sheets of paint missing. Also, the clear coat method was not as perfected back then. Clear coat would flake away from base coat after excessive exposure to ultraviolet sun light.

I have the same problem as you all- the trans. -i just got my 94 tbird last week, but I knew it had a bad trans.- does any of you know if which I'm sure there is a kit to switch it over to say a c4 -- and that one guy said hes getting a "shift kit" for a electronic shifted trans.??? where ya get those at??- I've changed solenoids in the trans., but I guess ill be like everyone else and just change trans. and I'm puttin some 4.11 gears and exhaust on it and maybe a little 75 shot ----have a good day.

Well folks I have a 1994 thunderbird with what all of you seem to have "the dreaded tranny problem" I'll tell you what I did to fix it. The normal tranny for this car is a A.O.D. (automatic overdrive tranny). When mine went out I simply called a company out of Peoria, Az called Performance Transmission's and for right around $800 got a trans. shipped to my office door within 8 day's. A 4R70W tranny which is a far better gearing and stronger tranny. I did all the work on taking it out and putting the new one in myself which save me a lot of $$$$$. This may seem too many as too much to do, but it's quite simple the bolt's are very easy to get too you have to drop the front 2 bolt's of the rear end to get the drive shaft out (front meaning tword the engine) and the exhaust must be dropped as well, but once again not as hard as you think. If you have minimum car experience it's not that bad. NO SPECIAL TOOL'S needed to do this either. The only problem That might happen to some is the starter bolt pattern might be diffrent. I had a 3 bolt starter already in my car, but some of the cougar's and t-birds come with a 2 bolt starter is this is the case THIS IS NOT A OPTION FOR YOU. The bolt hole's in the engine block will not allow for this swap. I have now had the 4R70W in my thunderbird for over 2 year's with NO problems what so ever. It launche's off the starting line like a mustang would. gets the same gas mileage too!!! Hope this helps some of you.