Chris writes:
Hi! I really enjoy TTAC and especially the Piston Slap feature. I have a 2005 Ford Mustang Convertible with the V-6/Automatic “poseur” package (super optioned out with a lame ass driveline). Despite the slushbox, I really enjoy this car. It’s been 100% problem free.
I work from home, so the car only has 23,400 miles on it. Most maintenance schedules are stated by mileage, but my car is driven so little, it has original brakes, tires, etc. To my credit, I have been religious about oil changes every 3 months (regardless of mileage).
Now that the car is nearing 6 years of age, do you have any recommendations on maintenance I should perform based on age as opposed to mileage? I’m getting ready to drive from Florida to California, so this seems like good timing to be pro-active to avoid any breakdowns.
Sajeev Answers:
First off, 3 month oil changes aren’t even recommended for cars that see brutal daily commutes. FoMoCo uses a synthetic blend oil, plus its hard to find pure dino oil anywhere: the 3 month oil change interval is far from relevant to just about every circumstance. Including yours. But enough wrist slapping, let’s answer the question.
First, kudos to you for being so forward thinking: other fluids can be changed proactively. A coolant flush is a good idea and there’s a (slim) chance that water has contaminated the brake fluid too. But the rubber on your Mustang is the big problem. Check the serpentine belt for cracking or glazing. Vacuum lines can be on their way out, but it’s not terribly likely. The big problem are your ancient tires. Not only are they hard and slippery after that many years on the road, they are noisier and tougher on your car’s ride too.
My advice? Flush the cooling system and get new shoes for your ‘lil Pony. Those are timely and necessary upgrades. Enjoy your poseur ‘stang and don’t let us catch you slapping 5.0 badges on its fenders.
Send your queries to mehta@ttac.com
Get your tranny serviced. And not just a pan drop, drain that torque converter too. There’s a drain plug on your converter. New filter, of course. Don’t do one of those line flush jobs where they don’t take your pan off.
Here’s a nice tip – Make sure that your (doughnut) spare actually has air pressure before you take your trip.
Change the brake fluid. Countries that have real safety inspections effectively require this every 2 years. Six years in humid Florida is too long for brake fluid, especially when you’re going to likely be coming down some mountains on your trip. That would be a bad time to learn that the boiling point of your brake fluid had dropped precipitously. (Pun intended.)
You didn’t mention filters, so you might want a fresh air filter before heading across the southwest.
Future tip: Next oil change use a full synthetic, then change after 12 months instead of 3 months. (Assuming similar number of miles per year.)
All of the above, but check your serpentine belt, In my climate {southern ontario} five year old tire can be suspect.
BTW A low miler 6cyl,auto Mustang rag? Very rare in my part of the world. I’m currently going through drop top withdrawal, and I would very much love to have that car sitting in my garage.
Have a great trip.
My wife has the same car with 69000 miles and it has been pretty much trouble free. Changed the brake pads at 53000 and flushed out the cooling system, replaced air filter,battery etc. She’s on her second set of tires and I change oil and filter every 5000 miles with full synthetic. I wouldn’t worry about taking a trip with your car.
Don’t try changing the trans fluid yourself unless you have the specialized tools to fill the trans through the drain plug in the pan. There’s no dipstick, so you can’t fill it through the dipstick tube.
Ford’s not the only car like this.
My friends at the Lincoln dealer tell me that a couple of times a month a car comes in on a tow truck when a quick oil change place sells the customer a trans fluid change, drains the pan, then discovers that there is no dipstick.
Bob
Another vote for coolant and brake fluid, maybe tranny too. If your car has a cabin air filter, look into changing that too. Just did that in one of my cars and the AC is much more effective now.
OK, here’s the biblical version…
1) Change the oil once a year. Dino oil is perfectly fine. You’re wasting oil and money at this point.
2) Air filter should be changed. Air filter’s are actually more important to your car than the oil filters. I would opt for a Fram or a factory filter.
3) Transmission can be a drain and fill. The brake fluid should be replaced. I see more older cars with brake issues in my line of work than anything else… and the humidity in our neck of the woods can be a real pain.
NOTE: Use a Mityvac with a hand pump to replace the brake and coolant fluids. It will suck out virtually all the old stuff. Then just add the new coolant and brake fluid. Cost will be far less than going to a garage and there’s absolutely no mess. I swear by it.
4) Check the level of dry rot on the sides of the tires. Florida and my home state of Georgia aren’t nearly as brutal as the Midwest. I think you’re more than likely still good here.
5) Change the coolant. You can also get a coolant measurer from a parts store for less than $10 that will tell you how good the coolant is.
6) Check the spare tire.
7) Battery should be checked at a discount parts store. Same with the alternator. Both of these can be done for free.
I seriously doubt that the serpentine belt or any of the hoses will need to be replaced. Oh, and give it a very good wax before going on the road trip. Enjoy!
New tires
Change fluids
replace serp belt
check brakes
check balance and alignment if not perfectly already
Check AC if you have it. You’ll need it out west.
Anf yeah, it sounds like oil may be the one thing you don’t need to change before leaving ;-)
New tires? After five years? That sounds awfully early to me, unless they do not have sufficient thread.
At 5 years tires can start to get hard and lose friction coefficient even if thsay have lots of tread left. In that way, tires are a bit like oil: miles AND age need to be taken into account.
Plus, I guess the tires I use only last about 25-30k, so that may be some of my persective ;-)
Simply put, tires degrade due to age, usage and UV exposure.
When the Firestone/Ford Explorer fiasco went down, several manufacturers publicly admitted that tires should be replaced every 5 years…no matter what.
I realize that age is a factor for tires. I just thought that five years is a little short, when even my Porsche’s owners manual says six years for tire replacement. For what it’s worth, the ADAC recommends to replace tires after eight years (link: http://www1.adac.de/Auto_Motorrad/reifen/Allgemeine_Informationen/default.asp?ComponentID=4773&SourcePageID=8763#atcm:8-123389), and that is for people who drive on the Autobahn. Therefore, I remain a little sceptic that five year old tires need replacement. Since we are talking about a Ford, I’d be curious what the owner’s manual of Chris says. I’d imagine that they are the most cautious car company in this regard.
Yes, 5 years seems a bit early. I use 8 years unless the tread is worn.
John
Wow!!! What Porsche is this? I expect that from a Toyota, but what Porker has tires with a tread life good enough for 6 years? Wait…it sounds like you don’t live in the US: you probably cover far fewer miles/kms in a year.
FWIW, many German cities are closer to each other than the suburbs in Houston. Hence my bias in this matter.
this is why i always check the date stamp code on the sidewall when i buy tires. “new” tires that have been sitting on a rack (esp in the sun/heat) for a couple years are not “new”.
From Consumer Reports, regarding tire aging: “Chrysler, Ford, and Volkswagen are just a few of the companies that recommend removing tires older than six years.” from: http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2009/05/tire-aging-when-to-buying-new-car-tires-based-on-age.html
The article doesn’t clarify if that’s six years in service, meaning the tire was installed on a rim and inflated to the recommended pressure (so that includes a spare tire that is sitting in the trunk) or six years from the date of manufacture.
Also see: “Tires speak, and they are aging” at http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2006/10/tires_speak_and.html
If you want the peace of mind, buy new tires. However, I agree with other the others here who say that you are probably going to be just fine driving on the tires you have.
If you do buy tires, I recommend tirerack.com. I’ve purchased three sets of tires from them, had them shipped and then installed and each time the cost (including shipping and installation) was significantly cheaper than buying the tires from any local tire store. Example: Audi A6 wagon – $450 using tire rack (that price includes the shipping and paying the local installer) vs. $600 from the local Firestone/Bridgestone dealer. You can pick a local installer during checkout (based on other customer reviews and closeness to you) and have the tires shipped directly to the installer.
My friend is a compound engineer at Bridgestone. She is comments often that 5 years the time to change based on age.
Actually driving on the tires seems to keep them more pliable. I’ve seen tires go bad within two years on the lot if a car is just sitting on them never moving for a year at a time, but if you are driving this car on a regular basis, that helps.
Plus, unless you live north of Orlando, it’s likely that these tires have never had a hard freeze, which certainly seems to accelerate degradation.
It’s a 993. I have a set of wheels where the front tires are six years old, with still about 4mms of thread left. When cold, they feel kind of hard but I just had the car on the track with those wheels on and once the tires are up to temperature, they are still soft and sticky.
@Sajeev, Chris explicitly states his mileage is low (23,400 in 5 years – almost absurdly low) so the knee-jerk “oh but you Europeans all live right on top of each other and America is just so so big” guff doesn’t apply here does it?
FWIW I live in Scotland, one of the smaller countries in Europe, where I’ve regularly clocked more than Chris’ total mileage in a single year without blinking.
That being said, I read 5 years and thought it sounded a bit long for a tire change interval… IMO there too many factors to tire wear (type of driving, quality of road surface, UV exposure, annual temperature range, have the tires always been correctly inflated, have the wheels always been correctly balanced… etc.) to offer a hard-and-fast “X years” rule for changing them?
A smarter approach might be to look at the tread and the condition of the rubber and change them based on that?
@splateagle: agreed on the incorrect knee-jerk reaction this time ’round. That’s precisely why TTAC has a comments section. :)
Also agree (again) on using a visual inspection to assess the tread’s condition. The only concern is that the metrics aren’t easy to assess for most folks, unless you can actually see the dry rot. Even then, I’ve had people tell me tires are fine if they still pass the depth test.
The temptation to slap 5.0L, GT, racing stripes, or Saleen badges must be high for some owners. I must admit it was kind of fun when I riced up my Galant, but in hind sight it just meant I bought the wrong vehicle.
Lots of generally good advice above. In addition, I would make sure the work is done a week or two before the trip. Better to find problems or correct maintenance mistakes before leaving home. Remember to wash the bugs off the radiator, air conditioning condenser and transmission cooler. I also like to wash the car windows inside and out on the day before the trip. Amazing how much better the world looks when you clean that dirty film off the inside of the windshield.
Did anyone mention a new set of wiper blades? Isn’t hardly a car out there that couldn’t use a fresh set of inserts. Put a spare low beam capsule in your glove box. No reason to give Officer Friendly an excuse to include you in his or her fund raising because your headlight went out on the interstate.
Oh, good idea.
I highly recommend the RainX Latitude wipers. Are they a little pricey? Yep, but in Chicago weather they’ve lasted my brother over a year and have been fantastic on my car for 9 months with no signs of wear.
I use some cheap ones I find at the fuel station that last exactly one year. And then they’re changed accordingly
Good Advice… I’m the subject of the post and failure to change the wiper blades is my only problem at this point. I ran into several storms while crossing Texas and it was clear that I needed new blades. I’ll be doing that soon… BTW, thanks to all for the lively discussion of tires. The car sat in carports in Southern California for 3 years and Tampa Bay for 2 years. The UV damage alone was enough to dry them out. One a lift, you could see the cracks throughout the tread and sidewalls. I replaced the tires before the trip.
When cleaning the windows, use the paste meant for electric smooth top ranges. The stuff is like magic to remove road grime that will not come off any other way. Remove the residue when dry by buffing, and then clean again with stoners glass cleaner. You will think that someone stole your windshield.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with owning the V6 version of that car. The true poseurs are the dorks buying the V8 because they think their ding dong is too small and hope that having the V8 will somehow establish their manhood. You obviously don’t have that problem and are a true man among men. (To reduce flaming and freak out responses I’d like to point out that only *some* people have ding dong compensation issues and obviously not every V8 Mustang owner is one of them.)
The V8 is great and for a car meant for cruising around in the sun, so is the V6.
Isn’t the V6 in that year Mustang the rough running ‘truck’ engine sourced from the Ranger and often criticized by car mags which also herald the coming of the ecoboost V6 to finally replace it ? Nuff said !
It’s the Cologne V6, the same one used in the 2010 Explorer, yes. It’s actually not so bad in certain ways. Reliability is beyond reproach, and due to its large displacement and truckish roots the low end torque is plentiful. You don’t see too many NA V6s these days that make more torque than hp, but the 4.0 V6 from the Mustang is one – 210hp/240 lb/ft.
In around town driving you likely won’t feel like you need more than the V6. If you like to open it up on long straightaways though and see other cars just melt in your rearview mirror, the 4.0 runs out of steam pretty quick. Ford Racing does have a nice performance upgrade kit for it that switches out the ECU and gives you a new freer flowing exhaust, which makes it run pretty close to the 4.6 V8 stock, at least for short runs.
You could also bolt in a supercharger or naaaawwwwwzzzzzzzz…
I am going to disagree with the group here…
Tires tend to have a very long life in Georgia and Florida. Our roads are smoother. The weather is more temperate than most of the US. Also, I would even think that this car was garage kept which should weigh down the degradation levels of the tires.
I’ve had 8 to 10 year old tires on vehicles with no problems. Chances are if there is going to be any issues, it may be due to the tires being out of round or leaking. Both of which I doubt in their case.
Unless she drives like a maniac, those tires should have plenty of life left. If it makes them feel better they can buy a new set during Black Friday and be done with it.
Hey Y’all! I’M THE OWNER OF THE SUBJECT CAR… firstly, to those of you that assumed “Chris” with a “poseur pony” was female, um… guess again. I’m currently writing you from the planned trip – in Phoenix right this moment. I submitted the question several weeks ago but they didn’t run the response until I was already on my way. I’m happy to see such a lively discussion about the tires… just FYI, my Mechanic had the car on a lift and showed me the dry-rot on my tires. They were shot through with cracks… 3 years in southern california and two in Tampa Bay left them with great tread but lots-n-lots of cracks. All the rest of the rubber/vinyl checked out fine… I also had an oil change, air filter replacement, coolant flush and alignment before my trip. Unfortunately, I should have also gotten wipers changed… it rains ALOT in Texas. The car is awesome… looks like a million bucks (white with black top, red/black two-tone leather interior, chrome “ben-hur” wheels) but lame enough that I haven’t gotten a speeding ticket. My last car was an RX-8 and I got 3 tickets in 18 months with that!