8th Dec 2004, 00:33

The thunderbirds were the ones to have the blown 3.8 up until 95...cougars only used it up till 91 in the xr7 then the 302 took over.

14th Jul 2008, 15:27

I just scrapped my 3.8 v6 Cougar XR7 (96). I thought it was a piece of junk - but I drove the life out of it!

It was my first car, and I bought it after it had been sitting for 13 months. I didn't know to change the fuel system after that, so maybe that's why my fuel injector was always hesitant.

I blew a water pump and a radiator before I realized that the previous owner installed the thermostat backwards (I thought the gauge was broken for the coolant temp.).

I know it had lots of power - I loved that about it. I went through six rear tires in the first few months of owning it, because I thought doing donuts and peeling out were really cool.

I had electric problems with the ECT sensor, and pretty much anything to do with the cooling system.

My cruise control never worked.

The brake calipers are incredibly hard to recompress without draining the brake system and relieving all the pressure.

I ruined my rear suspension (ball joints) because I learned to drift in this car.

A/C got a pinhole leak.

Idle air control valve went out, causing idling to be very rough, and on one occasion the car died on me.

I had to shift to neutral at every light.

Paint corroded in the shape of racing stripes as I've seen so many alike.

Driver's side window never went up straight.

The link between the lock and tumbler to the ignition switch broke, so I rigged the ignition switch up to the frame below the steering wheel, so everyone thought my car was stolen and hot-wired.

The ash-tray cover broke and slid open all the time.

Speakers were lame.

Electric problem causing many similar models back windshield to crack if the defrosters were left on for more than like five minutes; was fixed before I bought the car.

Back right speaker never worked.

The ceiling liner simply fell apart.

And the car ALWAYS needed a tune-up.

I got tired of something else breaking on the car every week so I got rid of it. It also SUUUUCKED gas down...