Here is my list from my 2004 V6 ...

Have one black door lock post and one silver (both should be black since I did not order the Interior Upgrade Package). I've left this ... it's kind of a coversation item !!

Have a 5 Speed car but an Automatic steering collum. First indication was that there is no "idiot lever" to press when turning key off as my previous '94 & '98 had. I figured Ford finally eliminated this, but then found the cable from the collum under the console that would normally connect to the Auto Trans shifter. I certainly am not complaining ... I hated that stupid lever !!

There was a whole pile of nuts for mounting the door window tracks under the carpet beneath the passenger seat.

My upper passenger side oxygen sensor was loosely threaded into the y-pipe. Was taping off the pipe so I could undercoat when I bumped my hand into it and it wiggled. Sure enough it was loose and to tighten I had to pull the hole cat assembly out. However having it out did made undercoating much easier !!

The following has been a standard defect since '94 and possibly before ...
There are 4 holes in the floor, two under the front seats below the front mounting risers and two in the trunk floor above the axle tubes. Instead of using body plugs, Ford covers these 4 holes with squares of "Black Duct Tape". The two under the seats are covered from the outside and the two in the trunk are covered from the inside. With all the carpet out of the car and these squares of tape removed, you can see the ground though all 4 holes !! Just a couple of trips though a car wash with an undercarage sprayer is all it takes to knock this tape off, and once gone you will get moisture accumulating under your carpet.

There was also a puddle of water under the carpet in the front passenger side footwell. The car was an order-out that I picked up the day after it arrived ... it had not been washed or even seen rain yet (March in Wisconsin) and the puddle was no where near any possible place of entry. The carpet was dry and the padding was just damp (not soaked) above where the water was. I'm guessing a line worker accidentally knocked over a water bottle and did not wipe it up before the carpet went in. After a few thousand miles (plenty of rain and washings), I pulled the carpet back and found no moisture.

That's all I can think of at the moment !!

 

moving to v6 forum for ya

 

I am still contemplating buying a new 05 GT or grabbing one of the few remaining 04 Cobra's, so I was at my local SVT dealer looking at a Black Cobra when I noticed that the passenger side door didn't close all the way. It wasn't sticking way out or anything but enough that it was noticeable. This thing was in the showroom and had NOT been driven yet. Thought it was a little strange and scary. It made me think twice about purchasing it. B)

 

Now I'm not upset or bashing Ford, I've driven/owned mostly Fords all my life. I just thought I'd start this thread to see what kind of things others have experienced. The build quality of the SN-95's is / was the best of any american-made vehicle I've owned and the 2005 should be even better.

A V6 / 5-Speed Mustang is a pretty cheap and reliable vehicle ... I put 89k problem free miles on a '94, then 131k on a '98, and will probably put between 100-150k on this 2004. All three were order-outs. The '94 was left stock (not much available at that time), the '98 was lightly modded, and the same basic mods have been applied to the 2004. Since my car arrived in March, I continued to drive my '98 until May when the snow and salt was completely gone. Not only is this a dumb time to start driving a brand new car, it is also a horrible time to try to sell a Sporty Performance car !!

This gave me 6 weeks to do things I never had the time to do to other new cars. I took out the seats & carpet and seam sealed all the seams Ford missed or does not do. I also took the axle out and sent to a friend to add Traction-Lok. When he was done I welded on a pair of quad-shock brackets and primed & painted it as well as the driveshaft. Exhaust system came out to be replaced by Magnaflow duals. While the axle & exhaust was out, I seam sealed all the seams Ford missed or does not do and then completely undercoated with 5 qts. of 3M Body Shultz. Once that was dry, I sprayed some rust preventer stuff on inner pinch type seams (inner door bottoms, etc.). This stuff does not harden, it leaches through these rust vulnerable seams.

With the '98, all I did was yank the carpet and do the additional seam sealing on the inside. I drove that '98 through 6 winters and the only ugly spots were the door bottoms, undercarrage, and some pinch-welded seams under the hood (this led to the extra effort applied to the '04). I spent a week cleaning and detailing it and sold it within a week for a fair amount above blue-book. The guy who bought it has been babying it and keeping it clean ... he even got a 3rd place trophy at a car show this summer !! Interior is like new, everything works and fuctions like new and there are no rattles after 131k miles. Like to see this with a GM built Camaro or Firebird !!

 

wow, now that is called attention to detail.

never know, I might go just as crazy on the '05 to keep it going

 

Factory defects... lets see. First there's the obvious parking brake recall. Then there's the seatbelts being twisted problem that is so common. One I've noticed that just about everyone with a 99+ Mustang I know is the liscense plate lights. The lights burn too hot for the little clear plastic covers to handle and they crack and turn black and the lights burn out. Also the rubber? (not 100% on the material) grommet the light sits in melts due to high temps of the bulb. Also there's the PCV system on the 99-00 V6 inhaling oil. My personal pet peeve is the stupid EGR tube that runs from the header to the EGR valve. That thing is a spark plug wire murderer. That's why I'm in the process of deleting the EGR.
Don't get me wrong, I love my car. I don't think you could find something else with that amount of power that is that fun to drive for $14000 brand new.

 

I hadn't realised that the license plate lamp problem was a design defect, but sure enough, both of mine are discoloured and cracked!

You learn something new everyday!

But what is this about the PCV system eating oil? Is this something I should get checked out? The car is going to an American car specialist to have a full service soon. It is running rich and I might as well get anything else checked while it is in the shop.

Thanks

 

The "Cracking License Plate Light Housing" issue was a problem on my '94. I ordered a pair of replacements and there was less black paint and more clear lenz showing than the originals. Never had the problem on my '98. These are the same lamp housings Ford has used since '79.

My '98 did have the "E-Brake Lever" problem, but I did not realize it because I had swapped in a '94 Cobra Leather-Wrapped E-Brake lever within weeks of taking delivery. With this lever assembly, I never experienced the problem. However when I swapped back in the factory lever shortly after ordering the '04, I noticed it would at times "act up". The recall went with the new owner and I explained why I had never acted upon it.

The "Twisted Seat Belt" has not been a problem on ANY of my 3 SN-95's. However I had the carpet out of both the '98 and '04 within days of taking delivery, so I guess it is possible the factory had them goofed up and I just re-installed correctly when putting them back together.

The '99-?? 3.8L "Oil Consumption" recall was due to a new for '99 re-designed PCV circuit. On the re-call (or was it just a TSB ??), Ford was replacing the Valve Cover with one revised baffling to help eliminate the oil consumption.

 

First of all, Welcome Doug. It's called quality control. The quality is bad, and they control it. Here's what I've gone through so far. Back in 1973, my wife and I bought a brand new Chevy Nova 350-4speed. Never forget it. Brought it home on a Fri.night. Sat.morning the floorpan behind both seats was filled with water.

My wife took the car back to the dealer, every day for 2 weeks trying to get it fixed. As you can imagine, where she is a female, they tried to give her the run-around. Hence, this is what happened:

I said nothing to no one, and stopped payment immediately. I knew I would hear from someone very quickly when they did'nt receive their money. Sure enough. Was'nt to long, and I was paid a visit by 2 dudes from GMAC, looking for their money. Here's what I said to them. When the windows have all new rubbers put around them, and new carpet is installed, NOT DRIED OUT, and the car is fixed properly then you will get your money. Talk about getting the red carpet treatment! No problems after that! :nono: :nono:


Will post the second one in a bit.

 

Second post!

In 2001 I bought a new Ford Ranger XLT loaded. The very first week the doors and fenders had to be re-aligned. In the 1st year the tailgate fell off twice, and the brake shoes were freezing on at about -2 degrees. The tailgate beat the paint off the back of my truck, [from falling off], and I went through 3 sets of shoes. The guy at the Ford dealership[paint shop] told me to take a paint stick, to fix my truck. GUESS WHAT! BAD REPLY! I then went to see the owner of the dealership, and after a lengthly discussion, had my truck fixed with no problems at all. paint not paintstick! and ford went to a different shoe, at no cost to me.

Then in 04 the wife bought her mustang. So far it's had to go back 3 times for paint repair, drivers side window leaking, plus the engine bonnet had to be straightened out, because it was put on crooked at the factory. I've noticed that on the passenger side the carpet was cut short, up under the dash. Still has to go back for 1 more paint spot. Believe it or not, they now know that I will be back until the car is fixed properly, and the people that work at this dealership call my wife and I by our first name. That's how many times I've been back. So when I get my 05 I will be looking it over very closely. :bang: :bang: :nono: :nono:

 

the mustang is a pretty ''cheap'' mass produced car. non of them are perfect my dads 01 cobras interior lines and dash have pretty big gaps while my machs is fine also some body moldings are put in by hand so they might be crooked

 

Ive said it before, but the headlinre in our '03 is just kinda hanging down. Its pretty hard to desribe, because it cant be pushed back up into place...the dealer wouldnt fix it, they siad it was within factory tolerances

 

All vehicles have there problems, and I've heard alot worse. Such as a 2004 Jeep Liberty needing new pads all around, and 4 new discs, WITH ONLY 13,000 KILOMETRES.

 

My old toyota has its original discs, FROM 1988.

 

Oh, and have any of you guys ever had tranny problems, auto or 5-speed??

 

no tranny problems, not yet anyway! Wife's 04 stang has 4000kms on it and the electric throttle control had to be replaced. Still having trouble with it. Hope to ship it out on an 05 stang!

 

Yeah!, you're right there Nathan. Just noticed, your a bluenoser too! Some of the gang from the mustang club were down your way about 2 weeks ago. Could'nt make it. Did you check it out? Was at the ford dealership I think! Heard there was some cool cars there! Watcha think about the 05 stang? Pretty nice car Eh! :drive:

 

You know, I always figured that the plate lamps didn't look right on my Mustangs but thought they came that way. I have only had a few problems with my last Mustang though which drove me nuts.

Convertible molding on drivers side isn't fit correctly. It's out about an inch from where it should be.

Driver's door has to be slammed to fully shut. If not it will pop back out a little.

 

I've put over 229,000 miles on SN-95 Mustang V6 T-5 5-Speeds (89k on my '94, 131k on my '98, and over 9k on my '04) and have not had ANY problems with them.

Throwout bearing started making noise on my '94 at around 60k ... but continued driving it that way until I sold it. '98 started making noise around the same time and I again put up with it until I hit around 120k. At that time, I finally broke down and swapped in a whole new Centerforce Pressure Plate, Clutch, & Throwout Bearing (that I had bought back around 60-80k miles !!). The only thing that was bad was the T-O Bearing, but did it all since I was already in there.

 

I've put over 229,000 miles on SN-95 Mustang V6 T-5 5-Speeds (89k on my '94, 131k on my '98, and over 9k on my '04) and have not had ANY problems with them.

Throwout bearings are another story ... my'94 started making noise at around 60k ... but continued driving it that way until I sold it. '98 started making noise around the same time and I again put up with it until I hit around 120k. At that time, I finally broke down and swapped in a whole new Centerforce Pressure Plate, Clutch, & Throwout Bearing (that I had bought back around 60-80k miles !!). The only thing that was bad was the T-O Bearing, but did it all since I was already in there. Wanting to be prepared for everthing, I had even bought a new Ford Cable and Fork ... they are still sitting in the Ford boxes as there was absolutley nothing wrong with the existing parts. Maybe I'll need them for the '04 later on !!