Considering 99-01 4.6 Opinions from owners?

the 4.6's are pretty damm reliable. I would not back away from a 100k mile well maintained car if the price was right.

one thing the late 01's had the t-3650 trans before they fixed them. so you may have shift fork problems. but the T-45's also have a similar problem just in reverse.

My best advice is, pretty much this. If the exterior and interior are in good shape, then the previous owner probably cared for the car, atleast at a minimum he changed the oil on time, and occasionally had it checked out.

But if the exterior or interior, or both, are in bad shape, showing alot of neglect, dont buy it, People that are that careless dont change oil when they should, dont care what kind of oil they use, it's just...enough to make "me" nervous.

When I say exterior condition, I mean, broken mirrors, mix/matched tires/rims, molds falling off, missing tail pipes etc etc. Interior wise, it's tough to say, but if it's kept really dirty well, obvious. Prob is a person will clean a car up before selling it.

One last thing, NEVER, under any circumstances, buy a car without having a mechanic look at it. "their" mechanic does'nt count, get it looked at. Not even just mustangs, but any car, it's lazy and ignorant and impacient not to have it checked out. Like compression test, oil leaks, checks for accidents, people will try to hide welds. I'm very carefull when buying a car so, I guess almost paranoid. But, I have 160k on my Capri, redid the top end at 147 when I did the cam and all, but it ran perfect then. I've had two mecury grand marquis that both went over 200k, one hit 337 before cracking a head, casue I didnt have enough antifreeze in it, the plug popped but so did the head.
K enough i'll keep typing for hours.

Just get it checked out, if there's a stang shop in town, golden, if not, a trusty mechanic will know what to look for. For me, I can tell just by driving it.

In my history, 5 5.0's and my new 35th anny. I've test drove many, owned a few, so. For me, it's been the tranny. It's easy to tell if a tranny is abused. If you feel any teath or any griding at all during normal driving, dont buy it, especially if downshifting. Go to 50 mph and try to downshift to second, if it does without a problem, the tranny is good, very good....usually.




:SNSign:

My 2000 GT has for the most part been great. The engine runs VERY strong and the tranny doesnt slip (T45). Only prob I have really been having with it is the throwout bearing, but so have alot of other stang owners. Its a well known and somewhat common problem. Some people go alot of miles without it going bad, others quite the opposite.

Just for reference, approx 70,600 on the odometer. And gas mileage wise, I usually average prob 220-240 tank when mostly city driving, sometimes less than 200 with alot of "spirited" driving. On a long highway drive, I see close to 30mpg.

hmm...i own a 00 stang gt and i pull just under 200 miles per tank. is there something wrong with that?! i know i drive a little too harsh but not all the time. i usually only pull over 200 when i drive all freeway miles. its basically stock with the exception of magnaflow mufflers with the stock piping. oh yea and the 275/35/18s might be a factor. but i dont see why mine is running pretty bad gas mileage. fuel filter maybe?

rgeeezy said:

hmm...i own a 00 stang gt and i pull just under 200 miles per tank. is there something wrong with that?! i know i drive a little too harsh but not all the time. i usually only pull over 200 when i drive all freeway miles. its basically stock with the exception of magnaflow mufflers with the stock piping. oh yea and the 275/35/18s might be a factor. but i dont see why mine is running pretty bad gas mileage. fuel filter maybe?

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Yea change the filter and put 5w-30 oil in it if it doesn't already...

Patrol cars have the 4.6 SOHC engine in them, they are known to go over 200k with never even having the cam covers removed.

I had a 01 GT that basically gave me nothing but problems. Lost the synchronizers in third gear, drivers window wouldn't roll up if it was hot out check engine light came on and stayed on even after the motor was replaced after 5000 miles because of two nicks in the block. The one good thing about that was the motor they replaced it with was an absolutly factory freak. It would smoke the tires all the way through first smoke them up to 4500 in second and lay a 12 foot patch in third. The end of it was when it snapped a support off the rear end housing that was welded to the frame. They didn't have a repair plan to fix it at the dealer ship and had engineers come down from Dearborn to look at it. They ended up replacing it with the 02 I have now and crushed the 01. There was a couple of guys at the dealership that wanted to buy it as salvage(they drove it and wanted the motor....lol) and Ford refused to sell it even to them and went ahead and crushed it. The word I got on it unofficially was that they had a batch of bad metal come in and that was what caused the problem.

The 02 I have has been fine with only the drivers side window notwanting to roll up on hot days so I just don't roll it all the down till it seats I leave it about an 1/2" up from the bottom. My grandfather always told me if you buy a car always look at the condition of the motor and if it is well kept and clean then the car was probably taken care of.

too slow

02mingryGT said:

I had a 01 GT that basically gave me nothing but problems. Lost the synchronizers in third gear, drivers window wouldn't roll up if it was hot out check engine light came on and stayed on even after the motor was replaced after 5000 miles because of two nicks in the block. The one good thing about that was the motor they replaced it with was an absolutly factory freak. It would smoke the tires all the way through first smoke them up to 4500 in second and lay a 12 foot patch in third. The end of it was when it snapped a support off the rear end housing that was welded to the frame. They didn't have a repair plan to fix it at the dealer ship and had engineers come down from Dearborn to look at it. They ended up replacing it with the 02 I have now and crushed the 01. There was a couple of guys at the dealership that wanted to buy it as salvage(they drove it and wanted the motor....lol) and Ford refused to sell it even to them and went ahead and crushed it. The word I got on it unofficially was that they had a batch of bad metal come in and that was what caused the problem.

The 02 I have has been fine with only the drivers side window notwanting to roll up on hot days so I just don't roll it all the down till it seats I leave it about an 1/2" up from the bottom. My grandfather always told me if you buy a car always look at the condition of the motor and if it is well kept and clean then the car was probably taken care of.

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they crushed the car for a failed tourqe box? ( thats what your calling a support for the rear end. there is four of them one for each rear control arm)

that is almost comical if they crushed the car for that. those tourqe boxes rip all the time and it's not hard to fix them at all. a little bit of welding and it's better than new. in fact any stang run on sticky tires should weld them up before they rip.


so are you sure they crushed it? I have seen a few cars get shiped to dearborn then back to the customer all welded up. maybe they figured you had so many problems they would give you another car to keep you as a customer. they probally rewelded your old car and resold it with a buyback title.

manufactuer buy back are resold after they are fixed. my 87 turbo regal was a GM buyback

rgeeezy said:

hmm...i own a 00 stang gt and i pull just under 200 miles per tank. is there something wrong with that?! i know i drive a little too harsh but not all the time. i usually only pull over 200 when i drive all freeway miles. its basically stock with the exception of magnaflow mufflers with the stock piping. oh yea and the 275/35/18s might be a factor. but i dont see why mine is running pretty bad gas mileage. fuel filter maybe?

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My all stock 1999 GT has never gotten below 260 per tank. If it did I'd freak. In the summer I get close to 300 per tank, but it probably needs a tune, but overall, I take good care of it.

102k on my 99, has been very reliable, just keep up with the maintenance.

102k on my '99 also...nice. No problems that I didn't cause myself.

112k on my '99 and she's still rollin!!

rgeeezy said:

hmm...i own a 00 stang gt and i pull just under 200 miles per tank. is there something wrong with that?! i know i drive a little too harsh but not all the time. i usually only pull over 200 when i drive all freeway miles. its basically stock with the exception of magnaflow mufflers with the stock piping. oh yea and the 275/35/18s might be a factor. but i dont see why mine is running pretty bad gas mileage. fuel filter maybe?

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I get 175-185 out of a tank, I drive with over drive off and get on it hard at stop sings and stop lights.

Very reliable, except for anything brought on by myself. Mix of highway and city I get about 200 miles to a tank, mostly all highway with cruise on I've gotten over 300...


On a side note...it only took me 2 years and a month....I've got 200 posts!!!!!

svttech76 said:

they crushed the car for a failed tourqe box? ( thats what your calling a support for the rear end. there is four of them one for each rear control arm)

that is almost comical if they crushed the car for that. those tourqe boxes rip all the time and it's not hard to fix them at all. a little bit of welding and it's better than new. in fact any stang run on sticky tires should weld them up before they rip.


so are you sure they crushed it? I have seen a few cars get shiped to dearborn then back to the customer all welded up. maybe they figured you had so many problems they would give you another car to keep you as a customer. they probally rewelded your old car and resold it with a buyback title.

manufactuer buy back are resold after they are fixed. my 87 turbo regal was a GM buyback

Click to expand...

Sorry about such a long time to reply. Yes I'm sure they crushed it. My cousin's husband worked at the dealership that it was taken to be inspected. I don't think the issue was the torque box but rather the metal welds failing indicating metal fatigue. A couple mechanics even wanted to buy the car but they wouldn't even issue a salvage title. Awful suspicious that they would replace a car if it was a fixable problem. I think they were concerned about a metal issue and thus got rid of any evidence.