Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Anyone know anything about T-bird Super Coupes???

Hey guys! I hope all is well....Well, the SVT was sold, and I was looking for a replacement "ride"....Of all people, my Wife found a MINT 89 Super Coupe for sale:
It has 94K original miles, 5-speed, was garaged every winter(the undercarriage of the car was VERY clean; even the stock exhaust looked new!), the car itself is in mint condition, except for the normal wear on the leather interior. The car was started for me on the first try and idled smoothly, with no smoking on start-up. My only issue is that the owner reported the ABS light goes on and off; he said the brakes seem "hard' when the light is on...The car is in GREAT shape, but I don't want to even think about buying it, if I am going to have to replace the entire ABS system...thoughts anyone??? Any trouble shooting thoughts? I will test drive the car Tuesday, so I figured i would get some input before then....Thanks in advance!!

abs light could be a number of things

you hadnt mentioned the asking price of the vehicle, if the price is right, might be worth the risk

From the NE-CEG forums:

Originally posted by wontgrowup:

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...the guy wants 800 $OBO He has put on new tires, rebuilt the entire top-end of the engine (e.g. head gasket, valve seats, etc) ,put in new fuel pump and water pump.

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EDIT: Wait, the other topic mentioned a '91, and here you say '89?

They're lead sleds with tons of torque. Pretty cool car and I would definately get it for that price.

I had one for a couple of years. First things first: www.sccoa.com. Great source of info.

A few points: One, it ain't an SVT. You will be driving two tons of fun there. Two: they chug premium gas. Mustang 5.0 mileage, and it drinks premium = $$$$. And as it is supercharged, don't even THINK about running regular gas.

And about the head gaskets. They are notorious for going on regular 3.8s. These are pressurized, and it makes for a bad mix. Ask him if he knows what brand were used. Fel-pro makes a gasket that pretty much eliminates the problem. Ford used it after 94 on ALL 3.8s.

As for the ABS system, given his aking price, I would guess that it is the control unit. It's a Teves unit that costs about $1500, IIRC. Or you can go to prioreman,com, and get it WAY cheaper.

Check the shocks. They are electronically controlled Tokicos, and cost a pretty penny if you want to keep the electronic cotrol.

If you have to face winters, you will NEED snows. 315 foot/lbs of torque will do that.

If you buy, change out the resonator. It was designed to be restrictive to keep the car from waxing the Mistang on the track. Some guys claim 15 at the wheels with this simple mod.

They aren't too hard to work on if you know your stuff. Again, SCCOA is a good source. And they "fly" under the radar of the cops for the most part.

I had an 89 and loved it until my clutch hydraulics went. The shocks went soon after. It more than it was worth to fix it by that point, and now I have my SVT. But I still check the Auto Trader for them every week.

Those are very cool cars. I've owned two on that platform ('93 Cougar n/a 3.8, '93 Lincoln Mark VIII) and I liked them both. I almost bought a '89 Cougar XR7 supercharged/5-spd (RARE) but it had a leaky HG and I couldn't afford that immediately after buying the car.

My biggest beef with that platform is that it's really, really loose. It shudders on rough roads, it sounds like it's gonna break in half when you do something like make a sharp turn onto an uphill driveway, and the doors stick/jam when you jack up the front end. They do handle quite well for their size and have excellent safety ratings in spite of that, though. I especially liked how the Cougar handled-- it actually had a very stiff suspension and with the light V6, it was extremely neutral. I annoyed more than one Porsche/BMW driver on twisty roads by keeping up with them in a bigass Mercury.

The ABS problem is most likely a sticking $5 pump relay or a bad pressure accumulator (~$100, common with age/mileage), although it could also be the $1500 module itself as Phil said. When any of those fail you have no power assist and no pressure at all to the rear brakes.

One quick test is to firmly press the brake pedal repeatedly with the car running. You should be able to do this at LEAST 3 times before you hear the brake pump kick on. Any less, and the accumulator is weak/dead. If the pedal gets hard and/or any brake lights come on before the pump turns on, it's a sticking relay or the pump itself.

Ford beefed up the 3.8 and reworked it just enough that the supercharged version blows head gaskets about as often as the n/a version. I've talked to a very knowledgeable senior tech at Ford as well as the former service manager at a Lincoln Mercury dealership. They both said that the newest multi-layer steel head gasket design helps quite a bit, but the engine has a basic design flaw which means nothing is a 100% guaranteed lifetime fix.

Nonetheless, it's a cool enough car that I think it's worth pursuing. Good luck!

That basic design flaw can be partly relieved by changing out the resonator, and ensuring that the crimp in the exhaust just after the resonator is gone. it create enough backpressure that exhaust gases are pushed back intot he combustion chamber, creating problems. It would be best (although not absolutely necessary) to do this with stainless steel components as the rest of the exhaust is stainless steel.

As for the head gasket, as Rearden says, no guarantees it wont go again. IF it goes again, the head gasket he mentioned, proper machining, along with ARP head bolts should to the trick. Or, you can call Coy Miller Race engines, and REALLY have some fun.

Another thought: The seats. Apparently, the hols for the rivets that hold it together stretch on some cars (such as mine). Should you get in a crash, this is a safety issue. If the seat back feels really flexible, you will want it welded at the dealership. It only cost me $150 Cdn all in.

The Ford 3.8L is prone to blowing headgaskets and with that engine compartment and its clutter, that could/will be a HUGE repair bill if the problem rears its ugly head When I got married 8 years ago, I was looking at those cars because they are very nice, sport and luxury in one package! Take it to your mechanic and have them check it out

Wow!! Thanks for the advice guys!! I actually got an e-mail from some one on the Iowa SC forum who sent me the thread for the ENTIRE wiring scematic!! I'm a fairly intelliegent person, but, it could have been the wiring for the space shuttle for all I knew

BTW, those of you who are confused, some clarifcation:
there are two (2) T-Bird SC's for sale within (literally) 3 miles of each other:

89 SC- garaged, well mantained, maybe some issues with the ABS, needs tires badly! Asking 2500$ firm

91 SC- has been driven year round, has the upper end of the motor rebuilt, has new tires, but has a slipping AOD trans on the overdrive gear.800$ OBO

My father-in-law was a mechanic for quite awhile with the Air Force and is VERY car savvy....he feels I should hold out for something like a Lumina or a Buick as "Something like a T-Bird can come back to bite you in the a** if something breaks!" He also mentioned that why get rid of such a well-cared for car (the 89)- he feels the accumulator is probably shot and the owner doesn't want to pony up the 1500$ to replace it. Also, he pointed out that it's not the most economical car either even the 5-speed(he's like having a conscience sometimes-LOL)

My advice - stay the hell away and get something less "boat-like"