Comments: 1-15, 16-30, 31-45, 46-53
Very informative site! I have been reading up on Tempos to try to get some ideas for my Mercury Topaz, since they are so similar...there's much more info out there on the Tempo!
I love my Topaz, but recently it has started stalling. It tends to happen after the car warms up, though it does not overheat. Oddly enough, it dies primarily when I am making right hand turns, changing into the right lane of the freeway... anytime I turn the steering wheel right! It stalls occasionally in a straight line, but almost always when turning right! It is sometimes stalling at red lights now too! Putting it in neutral helps, but turning it off and restarting it on the green, is even better! Any ideas? I am stumped! Thanks for the input!
I own a 94 tempo myself that I just love, before that I had a 89 topaz that I loved as well. they are great cars, and as long as you take care of them, they last forever. thank you for setting up this web page, I have learned a lot about my car from it. thank you.
I have a 93 Ford Tempo GL with auto transmission. The car has 33969.6 miles on it and was driven easy. The problem is that the car was not ran for a month or so then driven for a mile or 2, then parked for 4 or 5 days. Now when I start the car it has a very high idle. All the hoses that I can see are in good condition and are connected. I've looked at linkages and cables, but everything seems fine. Can you help?
Hello,
I have a 92 Ford Tempo, it was given to me from my aunt and drives well, is very dependable and easy to work on. I do have a problem though, I have a 4-door Tempo and the 2 back doors won't open up. No matter what I try to do (open from the inside or try to physically pull the back locks up) it won't budge. On the driver & pass. side rear windows it says "Child Lock. When Equipped can Only be opened from the Outside. See Owner's Manual." I've misplaced the manual and am totally at a loss of what to do. I've looked for any kind of switches, gizmo's or contraptions on the outside to no avail. If anyone has any information on this I would love to know what to do. Thank you.
I bought my Tempo for $100! It had a bad head gasket, bad
tie rods and cracked up bumper. My "fixes" were as follows:
Removed the thermostat. Added 1 bottle of that silver powdered stop-leak. Still had slight water out of the tailpipe, so I added another. Completely sealed for 15,000 miles so far... After a few thousand miles, I changed the antifreeze and put a good-quality thermostat back in. (I removed it for the powder because it can clog a thermostat opening-it thinks it's filling a leak! Had that happen once-nasty!) But it all works great now and you need the thermostat for emissions, heat and all that. Outer tie-rod ends were $5 each at Auto Zone. My exhaust is screwed together in 4 places and rigged with wire and aluminum sheet from old gutters, and a $6 flex-pipe. Did a tune-up, and change the oil every 4,500 miles. I know it should be more often, but it holds 5 quarts and just doesn't look very dirty before that! Really work that 89-cent Wal-Mart oil! I did various vacuum hose replacements, lubrications and stuff because the car was pretty neglected before. I spray painted the worn out carpet (yes you heard right) lightly to put back the color. That cost one dollar!...Does make the carpet feel like astroturf, but looks great! Made floor mats out of a free rubber/carpet mat from where I work. Copied the shape from my Mustang's mats... Badly faded red paint looked pink. A LOT of buffing with Meguiar's wax put a good shine and makes it look red again! My rims are all bent, but they were able to balance the tires anyway. Speedometer ends at 85, but felt like it passed that way up... Found a rear bumper, (the outer plastic) on the road and cut it to fit over the broken one on mine! It was from a Nissan, but painted up it looked okay. You can't really tell, except my radiator air hole is an oval - I had to cut it myself. (It was a rear bumper and didn't have one!) Vaguely resembles a Subaru in the front now. So it may be an old beater, but you can't beat $135 for a car in which everything works! Thanks for hearing me ramble...Not sure what all that green writing in here is- It came up when i submitted. Crazy. Later!
I just stumbled on this site. It's the best! A lot of the problems I have had over the years with my tempo, I now understand. Thank you so much for your detailed information. You have saved me a lot of time and money with the information I am now armed with.
I aquired my 1991 tempo through a auction here in Michigan. She was beautiful! She only had 30,000 miles on her and just as pretty as she wanted to be. But that was five years ago. Although she is still riding smooth she is getting up there. She currently has 90,000 miles on her and is taking on some rust. I almost thought I had to let her go when she was having the minor transmission problem this site mentioned. But I'm too loyal to her to let her go. She been good to me and I am surely going to be good to her. Again I just wanted to say thank you and...I love you. And my baby loves you too.
Hi I'm glad to see a lot of tempo lovers. I use to own a 1990 tempo great car the transmission went out at 185,000 miles. So i'v just recently bout a 1989 tempo, but I have a question. Is the exhaust suppose to leak out a tiny hole in the egr valve? Your comments would be appreciated email at co7332 at wmconnect.com. Thank You.
I think it depends what you mean by leak out. I don't think any EGR valve is supposed to let exhaust just jet into open air in the engine compartment. On the other hand, the EGR valve does permit the passage of exhaust (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) through it, but the gas stays within the engine. The EGR valve is part of a system that reburns some of your exhaust, to sort of scavenge any unburned gasoline. If you ever unbolt one from the manifold, the underside is usually coated with black carbon, so it does come in contact with exhaust gas.
I got a '92 Tempo from my older brother as a hand-me-down for a mere $100. The engine is fine, but the Tie Rods and Ball Joints are both shot and cause the car to drift erratically and steer itself. I can leave the ball joints to the professionals and wait on them, but I hear that I can repair the Tie Rods myself, but I really don't even know where to start. Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks!
You can do all of that stuff your self and best with a friend who is into car repairs.
The worn front end suspension components will very quickly cause you to go through tires which will cost more than you paid for the car. Also it reduces your gas mileage big time.
You can;
1. Get yourself a Chilton's Car repair book for 1992 Ford Tempo.
Or
2 Go to the library - any good public library will have the generally accepted complete sets of Professional Automotive Repair Manuals for all makes of domestic and imports back to about 1950 at least. These are the same as the grease covered manuals you see in Automotive Repair Shops.
Go to the manuals (You only need grade 6 reading skills - like readers digest) Select the vehicle type - in your case "1993" Ford Tempo and photocopy the applicable pages so you will have something to work from. It is not hard. Libraries charge 10 to 20 cents a page - it's worth it.
You will need a jack and safety stand to support the car from the frame - you have to take all the weight from the front wheels.
It is actually more than your ball joints and tie rod ends. ON your Tempo Mcpherson strut front suspension you do not have ball joints in the old sense. You do have however pitman arms on each side - these are around $50.00 each and should be new not used. Ask the Parts supplier for the made in Taiwan version they are the same quality as Ford OEM and better than the FORD OEM of $ 90.00+.
Your tie rod ends are threaded to the rods that extend from the rack and pinion steering. Mark the position of the old tie rod end with “White paint” un-thread the old tie rod ends and thread in the new ones to the marked positions of the old tie rod ends.
If you have access to tools you should not have any problems. You will have to obtain a ball joint removal tool to pop the tie rod ends from the steering - a good one is worth the investment and beats any alignment shop charges. $10- $20 dollars at good automotive tool stores.
Ensure you have a torque wrench to tighten any bolts to spec - those specs are in the manuals in the same articles that describe in fine detail how to remove and install the parts.
Unless the car has been in damaged and the frame bent in a collision all of the replaced parts should pull the vehicle into its original factory alignment.
A garage would want $500 to $600 dollars to do this work.
You should be able to do it for less than $150.00.
It is a good car, lots of parts still available and economical in todays world. The Tempo is known to used car dealers as the cheapest to repair of any North American vehicles out there.
For peace of mind after it is all done take it to a wheel alignment shop for a check.. If you do it correctly no alignment should be required.
I purchased a new Tempo in 94. I have owned it for 12 years and have just a little over 100,000 miles on it. It has been a great little car with no major problems until recently. I have had the car in for repair 3 times to different mechanics for overheating in the last 6 months. I have had it flushed, pressure tested, the thermostat changed twice and the hoses replaced. It will be fine for a few months and then overheat no matter how vigilant I am about checking the coolant levels. Do you have any suggestions?
Have you checked out the cooling fan? Mine comes on when the temp needle reaches the "A" in Normal, when I don't have the A/C on and am sitting in traffic. You will hear it cycle on and then off once the engine cools down some, or on my car, when it reached the "R" in Normal. Hope this helps!
I have a 1994 ford tempo. I have had this car for 3 years and it has a chronic stalling problem. the car has had more work done it than I care to say. the engine light comes on if I drive over 4 miles and the computer says it is fine. I need to find out why my car stalls out. it usually happens when I am at a red light or in heavy stop and go traffic. other than this problem the car is excellent. please can anyone help me please.
Possibly a bad EGR valve or an 02 sensor. My tempo randomly stalls, but usually after a short drive when stopped at an intersection. Once it is restarted, it is fine.
A Tempo forum!!! I am thrilled. We had a 1992 that we sold when it had 202K on it. We only let it go because we put 1000 miles a week on our cars. Now we have a 1994 with 87K (75K when we got it 3 months ago), and it does not seem nearly as sturdy as the 1992. We also have a chronic stalling problem. Generally it happens at high speed, but occasionally when stopped at a traffic light. Usually we are going down the highway at 65 and the power just shuts off. It takes several minutes before it will go again, although the engine turns and WANTS to start. We have had a new fuel tank, fuel pump, fuel filter, distributor ignition module, water pump, tune-up (plugs and wires). We are faithful about oil changes (every 3000). This terrifies me. Does anyone have any ideas?