Faults:
I really haven't had anything go wrong with this car.
Braking at high speeds causes a shimmy in the steering column and the car in general. This is because Ford decided to use brake rotors from the Taurus on the T-Bird. As the bird is 500-600 lbs heavier than the Taurus, the rotors are easily bent and need to be replaced often. Give your dealer the 3rd degree on it and they will eventually admit this and just might offer to fix it for free from now on.
Hope that helps anyone who has the same minor brake problem I do. Besides this small setback the car has had no problems whatsoever.
General Comments:
I absolutely love this car. I'm 17 and feel very lucky to get a near perfect '95 T-Bird with a V8 no less. This car is a blast to drive ALL of the time. The torquey V8 is amazingly quiet at low rpm, but just push the pedal a bit and not only does the engine start to roar, but everyone (with the exception of an occasional Camaro or Mustang) becomes just a speck in your rearview mirror.
Interestingly enough I have never floored the accelerator, mostly because I've never had to. I drag raced many a Mustang (not the GT) before and won. They pull away... until my baby hits 3 grand on the tach. Then I can push the pedal down aways and ride 1st gear all the way to a blazing 53 mph. After that it's off to the races as 2nd gear has ample torque all the way through its powerband. I also love the rear wheel drive. It feels great to have the very occasional hard slide around a wide corner and then straighten her out and take off.
The comfort of the car is great. Seats are soft and low, like they should be. The dash is well organized and everything is very accessible to the driver as the dash is decidedly oriented towards the driver. Wind noise is minimal until you hit 110 mph... or so I hear. :)
My ONLY complaint would be to have more horsepower and torque. Since under my hood is the Ford modular V8, I know they would have had no problems bumping it up to 250 or 260 horses and well over 300 ft lbs of torque. I understand this would have caused the Bird to outrun the Mustangs of the day, and they want to keep the Mustang as the Ford "speed machine". but it sure would be nice to have a (somewhat) unassuming 2-door coupe that could go nose to nose with a Camaro Z28. And let's face it, with a hood THAT big, they could have fitted just about anything under there.
On a final note, girls just love these cars. It's great. All hail the T-Bird!
24th Feb 2001, 11:02
Hell yes, exact same thing I did to mine, you might also want to see about redoing the vacuum system to keep more pressure on the engine. I'm getting about 6.5 0-60 with just those two changes.