1993 Ford Thunderbird Supercoupe from North America - Comments

This should surprise no one, but my head gasket blew at 98,000 miles.

Rear-end replaced around 90,000 miles.

The shift linkage was overhauled with the transmission when the engine was re-built at 98,000 miles.

If you can work on it yourself or have a good and caring mechanic, this is a world-class car. My experience with Ford dealers has been nothing, but one disaster after another. When the head gasket went, my dealer refused to work on the car at all and advised me to purchase a new car. I spoke to Ford and learned there was a recall on 1994 and 1995 3.8 liter engines for bad head-gaskets, but that the recall was "vehicle-specific" and did not apply to 1993 cars. My car was towed out of the dealer's lot and re-built by the best mechanic I've ever known. He loves the car and it has run better than ever for the last 20,000 miles.

Having experienced the same problem, except earlier than that at 50,000 miles then at 72,000 miles and then for the third time at 93,000 miles.

Ford doesn't seem to care about the problem on the 1993 Ford Thunderbird even though it has the same engine as the rest of the vehicles with that problem.

I would recommend that you get a full inspection of the engine compartment. (That includes a cylinder pressure test and to see if there are combustion gases in you cooling system.)

I had the same problem with my 3.8.at roughly 65,000 miles. It didn't qualify for warranty (what luck huh?!) and the dealer wanted $1600 to repair it. I replaced the gaskets and head-bolts myself for about $200 and it ran well for another 12,000 miles before the problem returned. I suspect the problem was the heads were slightly warped from the first go through as the overheating only happened in extreme cold temperatures (below -20. If I could have afforded to have had the heads machined at the time I redid the gaskets the engine would have probably been fine for another 50 or 60,000 miles.

Not wanting to spend another 3 weekends in the garage I had the thermaweld guy come and do his thing to the motor. It worked for about 6,000 miles before crapping out, but at the same time the trans started acting up (cracked valve they tell me) so I gave up and dumped the car.

No satisfaction from Ford for either the engine or the trans,,, they don't want you to keep a car longer than 3 years,,, bad for the economy,,, (theirs anyway,,,).

Dave.

My head gasket blew at 136000 and I still love the car. it is like new, given that it has rusted rockers.