So I was looking over my car recently and was looking at the tags on the car (engine compartment, wiring harness tag, etc) and after cross-referencing these pieces of info. I found out that they do not match with the VIN on the dashboard, which would lead one to believe by the dash the car is an '88....

....the reason I looked this over is because I have a 25th anniversary emblem on my dash, and the car had red LX seats, which had led me to think something was up....I think more likely than not the car was stolen at some point in time because the VIN plaque on the dash has bare spots surrounding the rivets, leading me to believe that someone swap dash plaques.

This revelation is kind of weird since I have never ran into anything like this before. I talked to the last owner (who is a friend of my fathers and I am 100% positive has owned this car since the mid 90's) and he got up in a tizzy when I told him this. He strongly denied this, and actually got angry. I told him just for the hell of it, its not like I am dissatisfied with the car, and I know he wasn't the one that switched the VINs or anything.

I just found this interesting because what makes it even weirder is the fact that my registration says it's a 1988...But despite the registration, the car has mass-air, so I just figured the car was an '89.

 

You should run a CarFax on the other serial no(s) you've found.

Keep your fingers crossed...

 

I smell something fishy. Better look into it. Ill bet the car was stolen and or totalled..

 

Weird.

 

yeah I thought it was odd...the last owner insists that it's an '88, but if that were the case it wouldn't have an airbag, and it would be an air density car, and I am sure it wasn't converted to mass air because when I got the car it was completely stock, with only routine maintenance being done by a local shop - with documentation of maintenance from as far back as 1998....

 

I am going to try to do one tomorrow....my car stays in a bay at my dads machine shop during the winter, so I will try to make a stop over there tomorrow...I did have the VINs around here, but I misplaced them.

The thing that made me notice this dilemma is the fact that one VIN tag has a F code in it, while the other has an E, and this differentiates the car from being built in the 80's versus the 90's....upon further review, finding out it was a 1990.

I talked to the owner of the performance shop I take my car to, and he said this is a pretty significant deal because of the difference in the front brake system and the pistons used in the motors in that model year as opposed to years earlier.... has anyone ever heard of that?

 

I think he's mistaken, the 10.84" front brakes are the same on all 87-93 5.0s as long as its a true factory 5.0 car. '93 had hypereutectic pistons but 87-92 were all forged pistons.

'90 was the first year for airbags, I really doubt someone would retrofit an earlier model with an airbag...

Also, '90-'93 HVAC controls look like this (minus the white face of course);


'87-'89 controls look like this, although this is something the earlier owners could have changed;

 

Thanks for the info! I looked at some of my recognition guides I have bought over the past few years....My mustang has the identical interior as the first picture, while the second is identical to my last Mustang, my '88 with an AOD...

...When I looked in my books the only info about the pistons I saw was like you said with the hypereutectic pistons only being in the '93 models...but I could not find anything about the brakes...so they're sure to be the same throughout the model years. I knew from the start that it wasn't an 88 like my registration said because I am certain the car wasn't a conversion from a 4 cyl and it is mass air, so everything seems to add up now...I just find it odd, I guess...

 

The early '90 model year run of Mustangs did not come with the console armrest(as I call it), later in the year they re-added it because of complaints of it not being there

 

yep, mines got the armrest delete plate. And it also doesn't have tilt-wheel...

 

If it has an airbag then it would not have tilt. That was why in the summer of '89 I baought an '89 LX 5.0 instead of a '90. I wanted tilt and the armrest.

 

oh....touche'...my car also had turbines on it...what year did the five star ponies become standard....1991?

 

I just received a Mustang 'encyclopedia' as a gift today, so digging into it I found:

- '88 California Emissions HO cars had a Mass airflow sensor, the rest of the '88's didn't.
- MAF became standard for all models in '89
- '88's LX/HO was renamed LX 5.0 Sport in '89
- midway thru the '89 year, the speedo went from 85mph to 140mph.
- apparently there were no emblems or treatments to celebrate the 25th anniversary on the '89 models (since the anniversary was technically in '89)

'90 models:
- there were 4301 25th Anniversary Emerald Green convertibles with white interiors made
- rear seat shoulder belts and driver's side airbags became standard
- center console's armrest and storage compartment deleted
- door mounted map pockets added.

 

Yep!

 

+1 on the '88 "California models" having mass-air. What about the VIN# on the driver's side door area?
I dunno, maybe someone didn't like the 2 spoke steering wheel (LOL, I sure as heck don't) and went a little overboard and switched steering columns, wheel and all with a later car along with the dash to get the 140 MPH speedo as well? I've got one of those anniversary "dash ponys" sitting around somewhere - it sure looks nicer than the plain one. Who knows? I guess that's the good and bad thing about these cars - able to mix and match parts with earlier and later models. FWIW, as long as it's not the result of being in an undisclosed accident or theft recovery, it should be fine although there is the niggling issue of the possible VIN mis-match...

 

Very weird stuff. Puzzling to say the least.

 

my 88 is all factory, purchased new in NC, and it has mass air...

 

which model is it?

 

a 88 LX 5.0

 

hmmm...interesting.