Overheating Problems

[DavidB]

A friend of mine told me that the 2002 Thunderbirds were delayed for quite some time due to a defect that caused overheating. Anyone know any details about this if it is true.

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[jodrod]

Sure is, my car was on the production line when the quality hold took effect and was delayed by about 1 month. It was the fan module that was causing problems. This happened in mid-August.

My car was delivered 9/28 and around 12/16, when sitting at a light, my car overheated. Took it to the dealer the next day and it was diagnosed as the fan module. They were able to replace it that day and I have since had no problems.

There are quite a few on the board that almost had their cars in hand but Ford recalled them before they got to the dealerships.

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[Birdbrain]

jodrod - My understanding is that the quality hold was for a pump impeller problem, manufactured out of tolerance. The impeller would bind sometimes, therefore not supplying pressure to the hydraulic fan, causing intermittant overheating. The supplier was manufaturing on a machine that was defective, but they were trying to "nurse it along" for the balance of the model year, since electric fans are going to be used on the 2003's. This is the story I got from a Ford plant employee at the time.

If that story is correct, I suspect the control module you had replaced was not part of the original "quality hold" issue.

 

[FDCAPTAIN]

Overheating was one of the holds and some cars were sent back to Roush to have this problem corected.
My car was delivered in August and sent back with many others.
The founder of one Colorado Ford dealership told me that the engine plant cast bad heads and the expensive recall to Roush was needed to rebuild these defective engines.
Any truth? I don't know for sure, but a bolt on repair could have been done at the local dealerships.
Has anyone else heard somthing like this for the recall to Michigan of many TBirds in August?

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'56 TBird '02 NM Bird
'98 F250 4X4 SCab
'68 AMC AMX
'73 Volvo 1800ES
'01 Olds Aurora 4.0

 

[DavidB]

Jodrod,

Since your car overheated at such an early time, did they offer you anything as far as a complimentary extended warranty on the engine to 100k miles or something. I've always been told that once you overheat, the engine is never the same. If they didn't offer you anything you may want to ask since the overheating hold seemed to be a pretty big issue.

 

[jodrod]

DavidB,

No they didn't but that does sound like a good thing for me to do. Fortunately, it was only hot for about 1 to 2 minutes before I shut if off.

 

[LON O'CONNELL]

Mine was one of the cars that had to be shipped back to Wixom also. My understanding was also that the pump impellar shaft bore was out of tolerance binding the pump up some. Was also told that the pump must maintain a minimum pressure of 30 psi to keep the fan running. The out of tolerance problem was dropping the pump output pressure to 25 psi and less allowing the fan to stall & quit cooling. I also don't know if this was fact or fiction, but it sounded good.

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Yellow/Yellow Prem. 02 Bird w/full accent
1999 F150 Super Cab 4x4 Off Road
1998 Taurus SE Sport 24V

 

[Gobird]

Well I'm no expert but I have worked in the machine shop almost all my life. From what I've heard here there could have been one of two problems with this.

#1. The casting was machined wrong.This can happen if they use a fixture to mount the casting on and the fixture was indicated in wrong or the boring bar or reamer was bent just a little and made the hole a few thousand's over size. Or egg shaped. This is not too hard to do but should have been picked up on after the first few pieces ran.

#2 Another reason, what I think it could be, is in recent years companies started doing what is called hard turning. This is when they take a part that use to be ground and is now turned on a CNC lathe. It does work most of the time and is very cost efficient but it doesn't always work. Some times you just have to take the time and grind the part. I have not seen anything that was hard turned that had the same finish as a ground part. It comes down to the point ,is it good enough to pass this way. (Money is everything)

Just my opinion after working in a machine shop for almost 25 years.

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02 T-Bird 9293
69 Vette
73 MGB
97 F-150 4x4
2-Seadoo Jet Skies
a dog a cat and a couple hundred fish in my pond

 

[tbird]

Originally posted by jodrod:
DavidB,

No they didn't but that does sound like a good thing for me to do. Fortunately, it was only hot for about 1 to 2 minutes before I shut if off.

It does not take long to damage a part! Just think what would happen to a plastic pen if it was put under heat for two minutes.