My 2004 Aftermarket List | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models
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My 2004 Aftermarket List

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tnargrant
  • Start date Start date
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Thunderbird Year
2004
2004 Ford Thunderbird. Bought off a used car dealer in 2024 for 12.5 @ 53k miles. Silver, convertible with hard top. Hard top was immediately removed and posted up in the garage. 85lbs, I believe. I will also endeavor to reduce weight of this 4000lb slab.

Exterior decent, with negligible sun damage to the paint on the front fenders. No scratches, dents, etc.

Interior is understandable. Minor wear to the leather seats, missing the little triangular vent on the passenger side, which was fixed for 12 bucks on Amazon. E brake boot doesn't stay connected at the base. Volume knob only turns the volume to max, which is amusing and will be left as is. Use of steering wheel controls can adjust volume without issue.

I intend to document a chronological timeline of my 04 Tbird. I would offer a frank and realistic assessment of upgrades and repairs along the way.

Currently,

K&N CAI: I am absolutely positive this system draws in hotter air than the stock setup. But car goes whoosh, can now whistle, and growls when you temporarily reduce your gas mileage.
The underhood temps are pretty wild for the 11gen Tbirds, and there's little to nothing you can do about it, which makes this system relatively pointless. That said, the new sfx and how it looks underhood make this system worth the purchase. The two hoses that come with the kit required much trimming, and were absolutely murder to affix to the intake body. The rest of the install was cake.

Magical clear sunblocking film for windshield. Just go find a good tint shop that uses Llumar and get their best ceramic clear film. 200ish bucks @2ish hours for install. It absolutely defeats the heat pouring in through your windshield. You and your dash will no longer be nuked by the sun. Driving with the top up and windows down under the dead eyed new mexican sun is now more than tolerable. You will find youself holding your hand out towards your widshield feeling little to no heat, which is just one of those most perfectly satisfying things.

R1 Concepts slotted and drilled ceramic carbon fiber brakes. Replaced all 4 rotors and pads with all the fixins for just under 200 bucks on amazon. Installing them is pretty dumb and easy. Hardest part is the masochistic process of cranking down those brake pistons. Car stopped before, but rotors were a bit rusty and pads were less than 40%. They look good, though not very noticeable behind the stock rims. No noticeable improvement to braking. I'm sure the drilled and slotted rotors are slightly lighter than stock, and I'm sure they handle the removal of dust and whatnot better... But these notions are irrelevant unless you're driving your asses off at the track, there's no justification for these brakes. You should still get them. They do look cool, and that's 90% why you drive an 11th gen Tbird.

Little 12 dollar bluetooth FM radio emitter that plugs into the passenger side outlet. It works. It's cheap. Gives you access to USB ports. It lets your play your music from your phone and phone calls through the speakers. It saves you 350+ bucks off converting your 6 disc cd player to a touchscreen.
Still, upgrade the cd player to a touchscreen. This isn't actually 2004 anymore, unless you're giving your giant zip up CD organizer a last hurrah.

Replaced serpentine belt. The engineers of this vehicle had a real hate in their hearts when they engineered the engine bay. Almost zero airflow and good luck getting to this belt. Had to pull the fan assembly out, but once you can actually get to it, it's an easy job.

Plugs and boots. Replace these as you like. Every 30k whether you need to or not isn't a bad plan, considering. It's time consuming and the screw for the cover on the right side by a dipstick is just an absolute nightmare to get back down. Could have just moved the screw or dipstick a quarter inch when they designed this, but nope. Enjoy that one.

I'll post pics soon enough and continue chronicling the fixes and upgrades to this bird.

This page contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated. As an eBay Partner, and Amazon Associate I may be compensated if you make a purchase at no cost to you.

 
2004 Ford Thunderbird. Bought off a used car dealer in 2024 for 12.5 @ 53k miles. Silver, convertible with hard top. Hard top was immediately removed and posted up in the garage. 85lbs, I believe. I will also endeavor to reduce weight of this 4000lb slab.

Exterior decent, with negligible sun damage to the paint on the front fenders. No scratches, dents, etc.

Interior is understandable. Minor wear to the leather seats, missing the little triangular vent on the passenger side, which was fixed for 12 bucks on Amazon. E brake boot doesn't stay connected at the base. Volume knob only turns the volume to max, which is amusing and will be left as is. Use of steering wheel controls can adjust volume without issue.

I intend to document a chronological timeline of my 04 Tbird. I would offer a frank and realistic assessment of upgrades and repairs along the way.

Currently,

K&N CAI: I am absolutely positive this system draws in hotter air than the stock setup. But car goes whoosh, can now whistle, and growls when you temporarily reduce your gas mileage.
The underhood temps are pretty wild for the 11gen Tbirds, and there's little to nothing you can do about it, which makes this system relatively pointless. That said, the new sfx and how it looks underhood make this system worth the purchase. The two hoses that come with the kit required much trimming, and were absolutely murder to affix to the intake body. The rest of the install was cake.

Magical clear sunblocking film for windshield. Just go find a good tint shop that uses Llumar and get their best ceramic clear film. 200ish bucks @2ish hours for install. It absolutely defeats the heat pouring in through your windshield. You and your dash will no longer be nuked by the sun. Driving with the top up and windows down under the dead eyed new mexican sun is now more than tolerable. You will find youself holding your hand out towards your widshield feeling little to no heat, which is just one of those most perfectly satisfying things.

R1 Concepts slotted and drilled ceramic carbon fiber brakes. Replaced all 4 rotors and pads with all the fixins for just under 200 bucks on amazon. Installing them is pretty dumb and easy. Hardest part is the masochistic process of cranking down those brake pistons. Car stopped before, but rotors were a bit rusty and pads were less than 40%. They look good, though not very noticeable behind the stock rims. No noticeable improvement to braking. I'm sure the drilled and slotted rotors are slightly lighter than stock, and I'm sure they handle the removal of dust and whatnot better... But these notions are irrelevant unless you're driving your asses off at the track, there's no justification for these brakes. You should still get them. They do look cool, and that's 90% why you drive an 11th gen Tbird.

Little 12 dollar bluetooth FM radio emitter that plugs into the passenger side outlet. It works. It's cheap. Gives you access to USB ports. It lets your play your music from your phone and phone calls through the speakers. It saves you 350+ bucks off converting your 6 disc cd player to a touchscreen.
Still, upgrade the cd player to a touchscreen. This isn't actually 2004 anymore, unless you're giving your giant zip up CD organizer a last hurrah.

Replaced serpentine belt. The engineers of this vehicle had a real hate in their hearts when they engineered the engine bay. Almost zero airflow and good luck getting to this belt. Had to pull the fan assembly out, but once you can actually get to it, it's an easy job.

Plugs and boots. Replace these as you like. Every 30k whether you need to or not isn't a bad plan, considering. It's time consuming and the screw for the cover on the right side by a dipstick is just an absolute nightmare to get back down. Could have just moved the screw or dipstick a quarter inch when they designed this, but nope. Enjoy that one.

I'll post pics soon enough and continue chronicling the fixes and upgrades to this bird.
Very nice mods. The Borla exhaust system makes for sweet tunes and a bit more power.
 
A backup camera is essential. With either hard or soft top I could not see out the rear window where the rear deck ended on my 2004 PCR. I bought a 2012 Subaru back up camera/rear view mirror and had it installed it on my Tbird at BestBuy. In appearance it is virtually indistinguishable from the original equipment. In reverse the camera image shows on the left side of the mirror, and though small it is still very effective. I recall that this same mirror was used by different makes as well as different Ford motels back in the 2010’s. My 1999 Expedition had a similar factory installed backup camera/mirror. At one time this setup was even available from Crutchfield.
 
I put a high end Kenwood audio system in my 2002 WITH a backup camera but I wouldn't call it essential...
I never had one in any car until i bought my 2016 Durango..

And THIS car has a body strip down the back window and doesn't even have a RH side view mirror from the factory.
IMG_0499.jpg
 
If all you looking for is a backup camera, the least intrusive one I found was the wireless backup camera from Audo-Vox. The camera mounts to the license plate bolt and you can run the wires into the trunk through the grommet behind the bumper cover.

IMG_9277.jpg

There is a small transmitter that I mounted in the trunk that sends a signal to the 5" monitor inside the car.

IMG_9283.jpg

Since there is always power to the rear lights and the Rear Electronic Module supplies the ground to light the lights, I had to install a relay near the battery to power the transmitter when the car is shifted into reverse.

IMG_9279.jpg

Since I want to keep my Thunderbird as original as possible, I opted for the 5" dash mounted moniitor.

IMG_9278.jpg

IMG_9285.jpg

If you do not like the suction cup 5" dash mounted monitor, Audo-Vox also sells a wireless backup camera with a rear view mirror monitor.

doug7740
1955 Thunderbird Blue
 
Recently changed the ignition coils with TRQ Performance ones. Cheap, at under 70 bucks on Amazon. Gave them some NGK iridium plugs. Find a shop that can buy at the manufacturer's cost, and they'll only be like 2 bucks a plug. Typically, the shop will just go get them for you or offer to put them in for like 100 bucks. Not a bad deal, but I don't trust anyone enough to do the driver's side plugs and coils. It's a huge pain in the ass, and nobody wants to mess with those screws. High probability they'll just tell you they did it after being defeated by frustration and time.

The coil packs were red, irrelevant under the cover but fun to look at during install, and I don't buy into the performance bit, but I figure they're maybe built a little better than their base coils. Car starts up and every cylinder is going, so so far so good.

The driver's side ignition coil cover is a nightmare. Good luck. Get yourself a tiny 7mm ratcheting wrench and use the ratchet end. The back bottom screw is absolutely blocked by the brake booster. I essentially had to crawl up onto the motor, shove my hand through the little gap, and barely ratchet 1/16th at a time until the 1.5in~ screw came out. And the screw blocked by the dip stick is a pain... But just ever so carefully move the stick guide tube thing out of the way, and you'll do alright. You will be sacrificing an ounce of flesh to your gearhead ancestors, unless you're weird and wear gloves.

Next up... Cutting the mufflers off and putting a couple Cherry Bombs in. Will post video of that.
 
Very nice mods. The Borla exhaust system makes for sweet tunes and a bit more power.
If you really want a power increase replace the old California cats (if you live in a state where you can).
Biggest problem with these cars is the cat converters. A borla (I own one) simply won't fix the major restriction.

Guess what that is? Older California cats. Unlike what many will tell you I'll tell you that these cats are foolish and restrict flow create poor mileage and kill power when new so you can imagine how bad it is after 20+ years. And I like a quiet car but darn the lack of power and the problems (and heat) they cause.

The moral of the story is this. Don't do half the job.

Replace the converters and bite the bullet on cost.

If the California emission systems actually worked they would be working in LA.

Smog? Still there everyday?? There ya go.

So the only way to actually fix the problem is to completely fix the problem.

That's a borla exhaust, magnaflow cats and a cold air intake (remove the airbox).

May not be popular and will cost money (around 2K).

A engine is a simply a air pump powered by a fuel (gasoline in this case). Any restriction produces more pollution and eats more fuel.

And firing the cats off everywhere you go is a danger to not only you and the car, it causes undue damage to the car and to the atmosphere and excess heat to the environment.

Global warming? Making more heat and pollution while using more fuel is not the answer 🙂
 
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