Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

Plans have changed, and this car is not going to be very practical for what I know need it for. What do you guys think it's worth? honestly, I have no idea.

Good:
New transmission with shift kit
new heater core
new battery
new plugs and wires
came from the west coast, the is NO major rust on this car, even underneath, it is amazingly clean!!
117K original miles

Bad:
needs a wheel cylinder on the right rear
Needs rear shocks, maybe front too, not sure
front rotors are warped
A/C has been partially removed
driver's windows needs new nylon motor bushings
Chrome bumper strip both front and rear missing

So so:

Tires are good, but not great

I'd at least ask 2500 for it. Clean 4 eye cars are getting really scarce. If it truly has no rust under, probably even more.

The mechanicals aren't that big of a thing, at least for most of us here, as a lot of us would probably upgrade the front brakes to at least the 11", if not a 5 lug swap and some truly good brakes.

Myself, if I had the better part of 3K, I could see myself handing it over in exchange for the title and keys...I kinda dig it, and I'm not a huge fan of the Cougar's C pillar :)

I constantly get compliments on it :D

all the brake lines look new, so they might have been replaced, but yeah, what rust there is underneath is surface rust. It's also optioned weird (what 83-86 isn't? lol) power mirrors and windows, but manual locks, seats, no cruise, no delay wipers, no light group, no trunk release & buttstuffog clock (I put the digital one in). And the stuff mentioned in my sig, lol. Obviously, those rims are from a T-Bird, no idea what it originally had, my guess is steel w/ wire covers.

If I could my hands on a 91-93 Mustang HATCHBACK w/ the 2.3 and MANUAL trans, I'd be happier than a pig in shiznit!!

I've got a 90 hb. 2.3/T5. I pulled the engine harness in antition of a 460 swap, but otherwise it's still complete. Has a couple of rust spots and a salvage title due to being pulled by the radiator support and thus popping the airbag.

The hatch is rusty, and the engine needs replaced....

But Wisconsin is too far to make a trip here and back for a so-so Mustang lol.

But, if you have the means, it's here. I'm probably going to take the glass out and junk the rest come spring. I'm tired of modding these things...

Yeah, that's probably not going to work, but I do appreciate the offer .

BUMP I'd also be willing trade for a turbo Bird/Cat up to '86 (or a 87-88 converted to hydraulically boosted, non-abs brakes) and it would HAVE to be manual trans.

Another bump!

I need to get something more efficient since I now have a job. Any reasonable offer will not be refused, I love this car, but I just can't afford to keep gas in it. :(

I seriously doubt a turbo coupe would be any better.

my dad bought a 2010 Mazda wagon with the 2.5 i-4. best he has averaged out of it is 28mpg so far. I pull those numbers down with my 87 bird quite often.

This last tank I averaged 12.x :'( Yes, new plugs, wires, air filter, good tires and all 4 are @ 30psi

Something's wrong if you're only getting 12 MPG. It might  be cheaper to figure out why that is, rather than buying a new car, paying to have it registered, insured, etc. Even my dilapidated 5.0 CFI managed to get 18 MPG in the city and 22+ highway when it had the original AOD. Got even better after swapping in the T5. When was the last time you tried pulling codes?

Original rating for an '85 5.0 was 16/24, revised is 15/22. This is of course, 90% city, in Wisconsin, with the winter mix gasoline, and I can kinda have heavy foot at times (it's hard not to w/ a 5.0, lol). I don't have a CEL so I can't pull codes, several shops have told me that it wouldn't tell me much anyway.

I'm not sure if the 5.0 has it but my 88 TC has 2 temp senors. One fed the gague & the other fed the computer to tell it the engine was at operating temp....my sensor that fed the computer went out and it ran in warm up mode (rich) all the time.  That can kill your MPG.

codes should always be pulled. the can tell you what's wrong with the car. just because a light isn't on, does not mean everything is running fine. I've never noticed a difference between winter and summer grade gas.

driving delivery, worst I could get out of my cars was 14. I generally averaged 16-19. but we are talking 2-5 minute trips on a cold car, almost never warming up or hitting 35mph.

I do have a high idle... of course when first started, or with the a/c or defroster on, but after the warm up and with the a/c or defroster off, it's still higher than it should be (it creeps up to 15 mph under it's own power) that one drives me nuts too, I don't know if its the coolant sensor, the TPS, a vacuum leak, or any other thing that could cause it!!!

Here in central Maryland, probably $800 to $1300.  Some of those things needing attention would be required for regular driving registration coupled with the severe lack of appeal for these cars in this area.  Since low rust or no rust cars aren't as hard to find here, that aspect has less influence on the value than maybe it would where you are.

yep,, suckin too much gas..

if your making a habit of driving in D instead of OD on faster roads... that wont help.

you want to sell it, use a paperclip to pull your codes after its warm.
With CFI, its pretty much the same various parts that fail on SEFI.  The ECT / TPS /ACT & MAP all get involved in dumping the signal to to the EEC to supply a ground to your two injectors.

this way you can sell a car that you know is working right.

my full size bronco 351 gets 12mpg and thats normal for the 6800lb hulk.

It's not that the cel is burnt out, there simply is no cel on this car!

Purchase a cheap code scanner for obd-1. The connector port is under the hood. If ya don't wanna spend the $20 you can use an anlog voltmeter to read codes

I ran out to AZ and got a cheap $4 test light, it did the job! It looks like ECT AND TPS are the issue (if i read them right)

could have pulled codes with a test light or a cheap digital multi meter.

replace the tps for sure.

did you run the test when the car was warm? if not that could be a false code.

oops, misread your post, thought you bought an actual scanner. fix the tps and let us know.

Bear with me, because I'm not sure I counted them right, but I got these from the scan: 14, 15, 18, 21, 31, 53, 61, 83.

Not sure how to get the TPS off, the fast idle cam assembly interferes with removal of the TPS. http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?36574-High-idle&p=422976#post422976

reference codes here.

 http://oldfuelinjection.com/index.php?p=14

are you running codes with the car on? all the codes I saw referenced to continuous memory codes. double check the codes. if you want, make a video and upload it, that way you can re check, and everyone else can.verify.

I got these KOEO

after looking at your codes, you have an erratic pipe sensor code. generally this means the pip in the dizzy or the ignition module (on the distributor) is bad, causing a loss of spark or intermittent miss. there are actually a few sensors not working that you really should replace.

yep, the pick up module in the dizzy is not hard but can be hard if you have not done it before.

I pulled the neg cable to clear the codes, now the only one coming up is 83

continuous memory codes are only stored for 20 key cycles. if you had those codes, you had those problems.

Bump - might be interested if you're still considering selling.

He already sold it.