28th Jun 2001, 22:50

There is a TEMP to the 86 Ford Tempo. Temporarily working that is. I hate my life because every morning when I go to school, I pray I make it, that way I can park 3 blocks from the school. That way I don't get made fun of by not only peers; rather, teachers and administrators. Once again, I hate Henry Ford for ever being born.

7th Apr 2004, 12:28

Pimp out a tempo? Are you on crack. A guy at my school pimped out a tempo, He calls it his TempShow. He gets laughed at more now. Tempos are on of the worst cars cars ever built. The motors may last, but the rest of the cars is ugly and cheaply constructed. A Crown Vic and a tempo are quite different. Give your head a shake buddy.

7th Jun 2004, 15:41

I wanted you to know that I know exactly what you mean about "Will this car ever die?". My Tempo was an '85, was bought for about $1000 in '92. I think it had about 270,000 miles on it. Believe me I was rough on it. It was like a dream car for 2 years, I never had to fix a thing. By the time things started going wrong, it had two cracks in the head, a blown head gasket, the water pump was shot and naturally it would overheat within half a block. I decided to have the motor overhauled, however, it wasn't because it wasn't running! In fact, the night before I drove it into the garage to be overhauled, I went shopping in a town about thirty miles from where I live! Now that's performance if you ask me!

The only thing I didn't like about that year model was the two door layout. The doors were too heavy, therefore causing them to 'catch' after so long. Eventually that was the reason I sold the car.

The mistake I made was getting rid of that to buy a '92 Taurus!

21st Sep 2005, 21:50

The only reason why the engines in the 1985 Ford Tempo had minimal problems was because they were built by Mazda. That was the smartest move Ford ever made. I have a 1989 Ford Tempo with 49,570 miles on it and the engine on that is terrible. Why you may ask? Because Ford built the engine. Ford should have continued to let Mazda build the engines for the Tempo. This is why the Ford Tempo from 1986-1994 was so problematic. Ford can't build a good engine to save their life, no offense to the Ford Corporation. I think Ford realized their huge mistake and this is why they let Kia manufacture the engines for the Ford Festiva. I am a big fan of the Ford Tempo line, but facts are facts.

21st Dec 2009, 13:06

I don't mean to be insulting of course, but I do believe that Ford always built the engines for the Tempo, and that Mazda only built the diesel engine. The Tempo had a 2.3 L HSC engine (gasoline) and the diesel engine was called the Mazda Rf engine, it made only 52 hp; a little over half of what the gasoline engines produced.

22nd Dec 2009, 06:03

The post who made the claims about Mazda engines is wrong, of course. The vast majority of Tempos were equipped with the 2.3 four cylinder, made by Ford, and a very durable and reliable engine it was too.

Actually even in general most Ford engines were quite good - the main reason Fords have a terrible reputation for reliability is the transmissions and other secondary mechanisms.

2nd Apr 2010, 22:44

I have a '93 Tempo with no problems.

You don't need to hotrod it to get speed. Just let the engine do the job it was meant to, and there won't be any problems.

27th Feb 2011, 08:42

I just bought a 1992 just this past week, and I can't believe it. It has only 45,000 miles on it. An old lady had it and sold it to me for 500.00. She had it since it was new, and loved the car, but she sold it to me, due to she could not see to drive anymore, and needed money for medical reasons.

Now I have the car, it went right through emission and state inspection. Was totally impressed by that.

Also, I driven it a lot in the last 15 days since I bought it, and still on the same tank of gas. That's cool, because with the gas prices the way they are, it is dumb to get rid of this car. Gas prince are 3.47 now in Manassas, VA, and they say it will be at 5.00 by the summer.

I will keep this car, and I am redoing a couple of things. The car is in great shape for its age, and is great on gas. Love this car...

10th Aug 2011, 13:41

I just bought a Ford Tempo GL with the 2.3 liter engine and auto trans. Has 98K original miles on it and a tight powder blue paint job, new tires, and very clean engine. An old man was moving to Houston and thought it wouldn't keep up in Houston traffic. He's right of course, them folks drive 85 down there LOL.

All and all, I'm very happy with it. Hell of a fuel saver; 1st tank of gas I added, I haven't even hit half tank and I've been driving it for about a good solid week... very happy with it.

14th Aug 2011, 03:27

"...old lady had it and sold it to me for 500.00... due to she... needed money for medical reasons."

Oh my gosh. What is wrong with America that an old lady has to sell her car for medical expenses? And what medical expenses could $500 have any significant effect upon?

Sorry for the off-topic: the Tempo is a fantastic little car due to the cast-iron (instead of aluminum) push-rod (instead of overhead cam) timing chain (instead of timing belt) design. In all ways better than modern cars.