TSB's - Technical Service Bulletins

[George]

I read some information and thought I would pass it along.
What are TSB's?
TSB's are written to identfy common problems that occur. When you are under warrantee, TSB's will be fixed at dealer expense, ONLY, when the car exibits the problems described in the TSB.
After your warrantee expires, all TSB's are at your own expense.
Note: Only recalls are mandatory for the dealer to fix at their expense and they are usually issued only for safety related items.

Here is a web site that you can query to find out info on 2002-2005 Birds.
Click the URL below, then type in Thunderbird. Then scroll down through the years to find yours:

http://www.ford-trucks.com/tsb/search.php

Hopefully, these data will help the membership with some of the problems they have posted in the last few months

[jetbird]

George,

The rear wheel bearing problem on my 03 bird came back with a vengence. I guess wanted to ignore it. Needless to say, I'm going to purchase an extended warranty after that expenisive little event. They had to pull the Axles to get the bearings off and I'm still smarting from my screaming checkbook. There was a charge for 12 hours labor plus the parts. I went to reputable shop that specailizes in Ford repairs and I really think the dealer would have been a better option (live & learn). By the time I had the final figures, this guy was already on the ticket for around $400 bucks. So, I was reluctant to reassemble the car and go elsewhere. The total bill was over $1500 for both sides. I could have purchased a six year extended warranty for $1600 when I bought the car. Anyone who doesn't have an extended warranty should certainly get one. Incidentally, the dealer has invested over $3000 in repairs before I was out of factory warranty at less than 20,000 miles (power steering, transmission, rear suspension). I actually found several fairly good extended warranty options at between $1400- $2500 depending on coverage. I will probably go with the one recommended by my credit Union.

Hopefully, I won't need the warranty but I'm getting it next week regardless.

Have a great day,

Jim (jetbird)

[George]

Thanks Jim, and that's a wise decision

[Anezangl]

Jetbird, doesn't it bother you just a little bit that you have had to have so many expensive repairs to your car of so few miles? Some will say that its part of an experience in owning and driving this convertible American icon. It is real hard for me to buy into that type thinking when I have owned several cars over the years that I drove until the wheels fell off and had only to change the oil, put tires on them and of coarse gas. I have my wifes little 93 Mazda miata still setting in the drive, starts every time I pull the rope and takes me any where I want to go, has 250,000 and still going. The most serious repair ever performed was a clutch! Had a Bonneville SSEI 93' also that I simply tired of trying to wear it out so I sold it to have excuse to get something new. I have a 85' F250 w/ 325,000 boat pulling miles that still starts with the first yank, I did have to put a tranny in it at around 250 thousand. Point is , it seems that the newer cars w/ all the technological bells and whistles ain't worth the computer they were designed on!

Then you toss in the latest news at Ford just this week and it kinda gets under your skin. Mr. Alan R. Mulally, the new leader at Ford, after being on the job a whopping 4 months, laid of some 40,000 ford employees, closed a few plants, then gave himself a 28.2 million $ bonus for his efforts. Oh yea he also made a salary of some $ 666,000 plus during his 4 months of hard labor! Maybe if Ford would have used some of that cash for design and engineering we the customer that they have forgotten about would not be spending our hard earned cash to keep a poorly designed and built product on the road w/ their name on it as advertisement!

OK I'm done!

[yrbamje]

George,
wrt the web site. It only shows 'birds up to 1992. Did I miss sometyhing? Or are there no TSBs?
Jim

[George]

You are absolutely correct! The other day when I posted that, on the bottom, it had a place to click, "view more". Then you got another page and "view more" until you reached the 2002-2005 page. And there were a lot of TSB's listed on there.
Now I see, that is not there any longer so I'm trying to get it back for us.
Thanks for pointing that out.

[George]

yrbamje:

Okay, try this one for 2002-2005 TBird TSB's:
http://www.ford-trucks.com/tsb/tsb.p.../d-THUNDERBIRD

[MagicFen]

If you go to the top of the page that George posted, look for TSB's/Recalls and then you can get it for any year. Full text only offers this for Ford trucks.

[George]

Thanks Magic, but for TBirds this is easier:
http://www.ford-trucks.com/tsb/tsb.p.../d-THUNDERBIRD