Cooling system

[George]

Thanks Traci for the update. I'm sure they'll find your problem.
I thought that the "burping" of the system in post number 5 may be it, but with some of these cars having repeated coil issues, it's worth having them look there as well.
At least it's into service and you have a service order, in the event you have repeat issues, which I hope you do not
Keep us posted, please

[Traci818]

It's been almost 2 weeks, they replaced the heat sensor, the foreman took it home for a test drive and is now back on the phone with the Ford Tech's to see what else it may be... meanwhile they have me in a rental car... which beats picking it up and dropping it off each time it breaks down... hopefully they find it soon!!!!!

[George]

Thanks for keeping us in the loop. The longer it takes the more curious I am as to what the problem is...

[Traci818]

They originally thought it was the heat sensor... pulled the manifold out replaced it and it was still not working, they removed the radiator and flushed and clean it... still no luck, ran it with and without the themostate and still the fan was getting false reads when monitored with a laptop. The fan was running a full power without shutting off. The filed service engineer came back out and took a look and said that the heat sensor is very sensitive and malfunctions if it is touching metal. So they removed the manifold again and trimed the ends of the sensor so it would not hit the board. They say it is not running up to 204 without the fan kicking on light fan on at 215 which goes down to 199 when the airconditioner is on. after 3 weeks in the shop I picked it up yesterday and so far it's quiet. I smell a little hot plastic off the engine but have drivin it about 30 miles so far without issue. Hopefully this is it. Thanks for all your help!

[George]

That is great news Traci....Maybe in a few weeks get back to us to tell us that, that was the final solution.
Best of luck!!

[Traci818]

Car ran very smoothly for almost a month and now... it feels like the coils are misbehaving again... running rough, feels like it's in the wrong gear... loses power and has trouble making it up hills. not sure if that's what it is... either way something's wrong. No engine light on just a shakey car...

[George]

Traci:
That certainly sounds like COPS failure to me. I believe you have a 2003. If so, you should have received a letter about 6 months ago extending your warranty (ON COPS ONLY) up to 100,000 miles. So you should drop it off on them again. Be sure to have them write up the service order that says what you are experiencing.
If you are unsure of your dealer, see if there is a Lincoln dealer close by. The Lincoln LS cars have had real issues with COPS as well and that dealer may be more familaiar with the problem - There are so few TBirds the Ford dealers, for the most part, don't have a clue.

[George]

Traci818:

Any more on your problems? I'd be interested on what they did for you and how the Bird runs now.

[Traci818]

The coils were again soaked with oil. This is the second time I've had this repair done. It ran ok for a while but is still rough so I'm taking it back in again. Not sure they know what they are doing and how to fix it...

Is there something I should be telling them to do other than replace the coils and plugs?

[George]

Yes, so far everyone that has had oil soaked COPS has had to have their valve cover gaskets replaced. That's where the oil is coming from. Hope this helps

[dchamb]

I read the posts on the overheating issues with tbirds, and can't help commenting as to the similarity to a Taurus I once owned. The temp was up and down and mostly up, and many mechanics tried various remedies, none of which worked. I never solved the problem, so I can't pretend to have any answers, but I do have a couple of observations; 1-very small radiator, 2-(this ones really a question) why does a car need a fan going 60 miles an hr.? A fan doesn't produce that much air flow, and seems to me if its running, would actually block off much of the air flow generated by highway speed air flow. Used to be, fans were on a clutch which had the fan run in slow traffic and go off at highway speed. I guess that was to successful a system and had to be changed.