Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

General => General Fox T-Bird/Cougar Discussion => Topic started by: Red_LX on September 06, 2007, 12:47:00 PM

Title: Ugh my car is falling apart...
Post by: Red_LX on September 06, 2007, 12:47:00 PM
Man, it's a good thing I'm only driving this thing a couple more weeks.

The smoking at idle has seemed to increase in frequency and/or gotten worse over the past couple months.

Lately I've noticed this weird surging feeling at light throttle and during deceleration, that seems to come and go.

2 weeks ago the rubber lip seal on the inside of the window on the driver's side tore from the back of the door about 8 inches in, and now it's hanging down inside the door.

This morning I think my passenger side window may have partially fallen off its track because when I went to open it a bit (to vent the car during the day) it opened all crooked.

:disappoin

I'm going to look at a truck saturday and hopefully parking the bird for awhile...before anything really big goes wrong.
Title: Ugh my car is falling apart...
Post by: stuntmannick on September 06, 2007, 01:38:42 PM
Welcome to the wonderful world of 20+ year old maintenance ws.  Still love 'em though!
Title: Ugh my car is falling apart...
Post by: Red_LX on September 06, 2007, 05:04:46 PM
It was doing good til this year!

It seems like this year, it's going downhill fast. Clearcoat peeling, the bondo cracked (and is loose) on the rear quarter panel that I fixed almost 3 years ago. Engine burning oil (I think the valve stem seals bit the dust), etc, etc. Poor car.

Thing needs some major TLC. I wish I had a garage so I could really go through it properly.
Title: Ugh my car is falling apart...
Post by: mercury-man on September 06, 2007, 09:26:48 PM
:welder: Sounds like its bird season again don't give up the fight just yet :birdsmily:
Title: Ugh my car is falling apart...
Post by: vinnietbird on September 07, 2007, 10:49:48 AM
Valve guide seals,a new dew wipe,and some good adhesive for the window.Nothing too awful hard about any of it.
Title: Ugh my car is falling apart...
Post by: Red_LX on September 07, 2007, 12:29:22 PM
The passenger side window officially fell off its track.

I got it work OK after I got off work last night, closed the window when I went back to my apartment, and now it won't open anymore. I can hear the track moving up and down but the window won't open.

Valve stem seals are a more involved job than I want to do on a car I have to depend on to get me to work every day (especially when I can only do said job at my parent's house, 40 minutes from town).

Maybe I'll see if I can do it after I take it off the road...I'd be doing that pretty soon anyway, I usually have it off by october.
Title: Ugh my car is falling apart...
Post by: JKATHRE on September 07, 2007, 09:20:02 PM
Window off track?  Happened to us twice over 10 years ago.  It was painless and not a big deal for our cirspoogestances.  Be glad it was not the middle of winter while you are driving at highway speed and 20 miles from home.  I can think of countless times being in that position with the TB.  In fact, our fuel pump failed in our driveway after we returned from a 30 mile trip on a nasty rainy day.  I do not understand why Ford would slide a piece of glass into a plastic sleeve and expect it to stay there--called built in failure.  Our other Ford has holes in the glass and the glass is bolted onto the window travel mechanism.
Title: Ugh my car is falling apart...
Post by: Red_LX on September 10, 2007, 10:37:43 AM
Son of a bitch.

I was home Saturday so I figured I'd fix the window while I was there. The clips had pulled off the bottom of the glass, so I thought, I'll fix it good, and put some JB Kwik in the clips. I let it set for 30 minutes or so and it worked good so I figured I was alright.

Came back into town and after I made it back in, I parked the car for a minute and closed the window, and when I came back and opened it again, one of the clips had already pulled off again. On top of that the window doesn't close all the way for some reason (there's a small gap at the top near the rear). Grrrrrrrrrr.....
Title: Ugh my car is falling apart...
Post by: CougarSE on September 10, 2007, 10:53:57 AM
I used jbweld to hold the window clips to the window on my 88 Cougar over two years ago.  Still holding fine.  Hell one of them is only half there and its fine.  I scratched the glass with sandpaper to get some grip though.
Title: Ugh my car is falling apart...
Post by: vinnietbird on September 10, 2007, 11:25:46 AM
I used a Marine epoxy stick for my windows.Waterproof,temperature doesn't seem to bother it either.Just break a piece off,knead it and apply it.I also scuffed up the window surface and the clip surface where the epoxy stick would bond to.No worries after 2 years.I even pulled the repaired window from my Blue Bird and used it in my Sport because the Sport had the "off track" window problem.I bought the epoxy at wal-Mart for about $5.00.
Title: Ugh my car is falling apart...
Post by: Dogcharmer on September 10, 2007, 03:09:47 PM
Sounds like Vinnie has the right idea. At least the plastic tabs didnt break off of the glass like mine did. I had to buy a new (wrecking yard) window.
Title: Ugh my car is falling apart...
Post by: vinnietbird on September 10, 2007, 04:44:35 PM
I figured any strong epoxy that's made to spend it's life in cold water should hold my window pretty easily.