Throttle Body Pandemic of Ford Makes

[york]

I am the original owner of a 2003 Thunderbird. I have had 5 coils go so far. In December of 2010 the car started running rough and the infamous wrench light came on. Due to my experience I immediately thought Coil.

I took it to a dealer in Troy MI and told them it was a coil (BTW I had 97K on the car!) They tested it add said the Coils were fine and that I had a throttle body problem P2107 and P2110. It cost $1000. The Service guy at the dealership said this was a BS problem and that Ford has had a lot issues with the 'throttle body' and it should have been recalled. He suggest I call Ford and complain.

I got two miles from the dealer when the car started running poorly and the 'wrench' light came back on. Back to the same dealer and now I have 07M07! Another coil. So after suspecting I had a coil problem, being told I didn't have a coil problem, I now have a coil problem! Ford was kind enough to fix the coil for free, but I don't think I had a 'throttle body'.

I called Ford and got nowhere. I am out $1000. I found this forum yesterday and I hope this information helps someone else.

[George]

First of all, WELCOME York Glad you joined us
If you have replaced any coils, Ford was giving rebates at one time but you had to produce the paid slips.
At the same time, FORD extended the warranty on all 2003-2005's TBirds, for COILS, for 10 years or 100,000 miles. So, the dealer or Ford was NOT being kind to you by fixing it for free. In fact, you are still covered for the next 3000miles.
The 07M07 is the letter that extended your coil warranty There is a copy on site if you use the search function above.
You may want top ask that dealer for your old parts back....just in case you really didn't need tha new parts

You may also want to buy an extended warranty, which is still available. Again, use the search and you'll find my recent posts.
Keep us tuned in please

[Quickdraw]

York,
That was a painful lesson but the thing to rememebr is it was the dealer, and not Ford, that messed up on the diagnostics and caused you to sink $1000 into the throttle body. I too dont believe in "coincidences" where they say its TWO major items causing a problem.

[BlueC5Kitten]

Wow...new to all of this T-bird stuff (my parents have an '03 that they love dearly, but don't drive nearly often enough...only 38K miles!), and was shocked when my dad tried telling me that his throttle body needed to be replaced becase it was messing up his carburetor. I know a little something about cars and am pretty sure that his 2003 T-bird, being OEM would not have a carburetor problem.

Needless to say, my Dad is not terribly mechanically inclined, so I started poking around online to see what I could find regarding throttle body problems. He just told me that they fixed it and it was only $600 for parts and another $175 for labour. That also didn't sound right for an entire throttle body assembly.

I'm concerned he's had the wool pulled over his eyes, though I know he has had 5 plugs replaced on COPs TSB, so should I just wait and see if it happens to him again before I confront the Ford dealership? He has a "road trip" to Austin from San Antonio coming up, and I really don't relish the idea of them having this limp mode kick in on I-35...the traffic there is bad on a good day and horrid on bad days...and my folks are in their 60s. Suggestions?

[George]

WELCOME to the forum Blue!
If you did enough searching, by now you know that your 2003 has a COPS warranty extension to 10 years or 100,000 miles. If not see this thread:
http://forums.thunderbirdforum.com/s...S+warranty.htm

I also believe you can get refunded for the past coils bought, if you have receipts, and had the work done by Ford or Lincoln dealers. In that warranty there is a fix as well, to stop water and/or oil from getting in the plug well which damages the coils. So if that has not been done, it should be.

You'll also find lots of data on Throttle bodies here by searching

Finally, I would urge them to use a Lincoln dealer as opposed to a Ford dealer, since the entire drive train is Lincoln LS. There are no other Ford products that use this drive train so the knowledge at those dealers is very low. Whereas, Lincoln dealers have seen these issues on TBirds and LS's over the years
Keep us tuned in to your results

[Phillip]

Sorry that I am posting so late on this thread, but I had the same thing occur on my 2005 T-Bird, and I had the Wrench appear, and I was certain it was a COPs problem, and the Ford dealership insisted it was a Throttle body problem. I was under an extended warranty, so I had them replace the Throttle body (with a $100 deductible, I think), and it was been working fine since then. My T-Bird had 43,000 miles on it at the time.

The dealership said that if I had the Engine Light come on, that would signify a COPs problem, and I never did get the Engine Light to come on.

Soooo, to make a long post shorter, the Ford dealership was correct in my case, in that it was not a COPs problem but rather was a Throttle Body problem.

[George]

That's good to know Phillip, thanks for posting that. BTW, did they have the throttle body in stock or did you have to wait like others?

[Phillip]

It was in stock, George, so I did not have to wait at all.

Also, to be precise, based on earlier posts by you and others, I went to a Ford dealership that also sold Lincolns (I say "sold", since they recently stopped their relationship with Lincoln and Mercury), given the T-Bird engine's similarity to Lincoln engines.

[George]

Phillip:
Glad the posts were of help to you. I have read where Ford is eliminating a lot of Lincoln dealerships and combining them with Ford dealerships, to cut costs.