yet, another overheating story.

[juanmiguel]

Hi, i just bought a 95 3.8L Ford Mustang, this was 2 weeks ago, i bought it trough a dealer, the dealer has a 3 months warranty policy.

Well, since i bough the car, i have noticed tha it likes to run hot, it would go from cold to hot randomly in short terms of time.
I also notice an antifrezee odor coming out from the AC when the gauge is in hot.
Also, when the car gets the gauge in hot and i stop the car, if i leave it siting for some time, the inside of the windshield starts fogging up.

I took it to the dealer and they chaged the little AC radiator, but that didn't fix the problem.

They say that its normal that the car runs hot as long as don't red lines, but the gauge sometimes gets pretty close to redline.
I have been doing some research and found out about the headgasket recall on this kind of cars, and i'm pretty positive that the car has a faulty headgasket.
I still have 2 1/2 months of warranty, so i would like to find out if the car, indeed has a gasket problem or not, so i can retur the car to the dealer so they fix it(i've heard is kind of expensive).

So my question is, what kind of test do i need to do to check if the car has a gasket problem or not?

if i get the dealer to fix it, is the problem going to come back?, and if so, how long am i going to have peace on my mind before the problem apears again?

Thank you everyone.

[97Stallion]

The best and easiest way is to do a compression check. Normal compreesion should be around 150, anything less means that the compressed air is escaping the cylinder prematurely. The way you do this is to remove a spark plug and screw in this line connected to a gauge and disconnect your coil pack. Have some attempt to start the car and the compression will build. Do this for each cylinder and compare them. They should all be around the same number I would say +/- 10. use this when doing the compression check just so you can keep track:

Cylinder
1...
2...
3...
4...
5...
6...

If you have something that looks like this:

Cylinder
1...145
2...139
3...144
4...110
5...123
6...151

This would indicate that you have a crack in your gasket between the #4 and #5 cylinders. Hopefully this helps.

[juanmiguel]

Thank you for the quick and helpful response.
In case the headgasket is going bad, and i have the dealer replace it for me, for how long is the new gasket last before i run into the same problem again?
thank you.

PS Happy new year everyone

[SpectorV]

since you have a 95 sounds like a head gasket issue... but thats just me, notice any oil in your coolant?

[97Stallion]

Hell a new gasket could possibly out last your car. I went to a ford dealer and they said they don't bother doing the work any more, they just replace the engine, so you might get a new engine if you're lucky to have lazy people like I do. But anyways a new gasket will last you forever if done correctly.

[SpectorV]

i think they only have a 7 year time limit, thus its all over now.

[97Stallion]

But his car is under warrenty

[juanmiguel]

Hey, thank you every one for al your help, i'll check if it's the gasket, if it is, i'll take the car to the dealer and tell them to fix it.

If i have 2 and a half months left of warranty, they have to do the job, right?
I mean i have been driving this car for a little bit over 15 days.
I'ts not a Ford dealer, it's a private dealer.

I hope they don't get dificult on this.

[Monkey]

yes, they have to fix it. If they don't, take them to court. You have 3mos of warrenty. Chances are they will make you take it to a mechanic to get it fixed and then they will pay the bill (if they odnt have a garage of their own). If that is the case, make the mechanic put a new engine in there. That will be the best solution for everything and all at the cost of the dealership.

[juanmiguel]

Greate, thankyou everyone, i'll keep you guys updated on the end of all this.

[89'FIVE-O]

definately your head gasket

[juanmiguel]

Ok, please tell me if this makes sense to you guys:

I got a tool for testing the pression on the engine, so when i was taking the spark plugs out of the sockets, when i pulled the sparkplug wire on pistons 2 and 5, the wires were lose, so i checked and the metal piece that makes contact with the spark plug, was broken from the wire.
The other wires were fine.
Then when I pulled the spark plugs out, the 2 an 5,(where the wires were broken), were a little wet.
then i started the pression test and these were the numbers i got:

1 180
2 174
3 179
4 172
5 178
6 174

So i had to replace the broken wires for new ones, and replaced new spark plugs.

Well, to make long story short, the car is not overheating anymore, and it use to have a little shake when i was at stop lights that's almost gone.
No more fogging on my front windshield,( this use to happen when the car was hot.

So what do you think about the readings on the pressure tester?
Do you think that the overheating problem was caused by the broken sparkplug wires?
Thanks everyone.

[Monkey]

appears to be that then. The compression test looks good.

As long as you drove the car and it all feels good now and doesnt do what it did, then you're good to go.

[juanmiguel]

Good news for me, i told the owner of the dealer where i bought the car all the story about the gasket recall on my mustang, and he said that to be on the safe side, he's going to call a friend that he has working on Ford, and try to make ford either do the gasket job or changue the motor.
If he can't make Ford do that, he'll do the gasket job uot of the dealeres pocket.
So either way i'm covered.
thank you guys.

[WhiteStang99]

Good luck with gettin the work done man.

[97Stallion]

See I told ya, but people never listen, either way you're going to come out on top.