Gus, yeah the fan in my 03 is electric. I should have left well enough alone. I only drive the thing maybe a max of 5 miles away from home, then it sits while I play golf or get something to eat then back home. Been putting a 16oz glass of water into it about once every 10 days or so, but with winter coming on I thought I would try and stop the leak with "stop/leak", so I wouldn't have to go through so much antifreeze.
Now I'm guessing - "stop/leak" clogged something up, that wasn't suppose to be clogged. The fans never ran until I put in the stop/leak.
Had this Tbird for over 6 years and every time I've ever got more than 5 miles from home it has broke down.
Thanks for the input.
Elsie, I feel for you. I had my 2002 for almost six years, putting only 5K miles on it, but spending $5,135 (the receipts I can find). Mind you, I did inherit the car with 150K miles on it from my dad who bought it new, and took it in for every scheduled maintenance, to the dealer, and also spent money on non-scheduled maintenance/repairs. But, when I got it at 150K miles, it seemed to fall apart even more, all of a sudden. What was the most frustrating, though, was the cooling issues. Temperature gauge showing 50% then escalating to 100%, when engine not hot. Fan coming on in winter. Leaky cheap bakelite
thermostat housing. Failed heater/
A/C coolant control valve...here's some of the repairs in the last 5K miles:
A/C new
A/C manifold hose assy
thermostat
thermostat housing
coolant temp sensor in
intake manifold
radiator
Ignitions
coils
upper/lower
radiator hoses
hydraulic pump solenoid
power steering switch/actuator
coolant control valve
Because of the above, I was going to put it up for sale at the end of August, but a few weeks ago, the hydraulic pump solenoid and the
power steering switch/actuator went out again. The dealer cannot find the
parts, which are 'national backorder'. I found one of the
parts on eBay, and as an aftermarket
part, and showed my mechanic, but he said he still needed an other
part which none of us can find, anywhere. The dealer told me that many of the
parts for this generation of Thunderbirds, especialy the '02s, are harder and harder, and if found, expensive. If the
part was found for my '02, cost to repair would be another $1000 or so. My issue was that if it went out again, or if anything else went out, it may be unrepairable due to availability of
parts.
I looked online to see what I could get for this car, if fixed. Prices weren't all that great, especially since I'd have to hope to get the
parts, and pay for the repair. But what I found most interesting was that for all the 2002 - 2005 Thunderbirds I found for sale within 250 miles of me, even with below suggested prices being asked, the average time on the market was many, many months, to a year and more. I thought, even if fixed, it would be difficult to sell my Thunderbird. Darn, I'd just paid $191 registration for the year, but I knew what I had to do.
I sold it to an auction company two days ago. I hated to, because the engine was still very strong, it ran great (but for the cooling issues), it was fun to drive, it was a convertible, it was in otherwise good shape, no dents/dings...and it was my dad's baby. But late Friday night, they came and took it away.
I'd like to get a newer Thunderbird, but I'm afraid to do so.
Good luck to you.
