A friend asked me to go look at an 04 Mach I. What "problem areas" should I be looking for? I'm not familiar with the 4.6 or the newer SN95 running gear. Any pointers, things to watch for, etc, would be appreciated!
Ask them if the engine ever had the head tick on the driver's side head, or any synchro problems on the 5 speed with being locked out of gear during hard shifting, or had any rough shifting. Stock gears are 3.55's, but alot use the 4.10's, and even 4.30's. The paint can sometimes be iffy. Some have been sent back to the dealer for too thin of paint on certain areas when they were new (check in trunk too). Is it bone stock? Alot of Mach's had the isolators fixed on the Shaker (4 round rubber washers that are underneath the Shaker). The replacements are black, the stock ones are white. They had problems with the stockers causing the Shaker to squeak. Check the idle on it after starting to make sure it does'nt have a high idle problem. It should settle on 750-800. Sometimes even a new IAC plate does'nt work on dropping the idle. This problem can also happen if they have an aftermarket throttlebody (twin 60's, 62's,65's.). Stock is twin 57's. I can't think of anything else. Mine's only got 27K on it after 7 years, but I have'nt had any problems at all.
Thanks, Crzyhrse. He ended up buying it. 67k miles, $10k. Car's a little rough. Red paint has some fade, looks like it'll buff out. Few dings and rock chips. Seems to run out good, we kept hearing an intermittent squeak we couldn't trace, but it has the white isolators, so that seems to make sense. Car was at a used dealer who got it through an auction, so no way to check on the head tick or synchro. I pushed it pretty hard first through third and couldn't feel any shift problems; clutch is a little weak, but that's pretty easy to fix in the garage. Didn't notice any issues with a high idle (didn't look at the tach, but the ear says it was less than 1000). No signs of aftermarket anything under the hood.
Biggest concern was that it had some oil or power steering fluid on the front of the block. Too hard to trace on the dealer's dirt lot. That concerned me, but he's buying it for a summer toy, and the price seemed good enough that I figured whatever the problem might be was fixable and still made it a good deal (He REALLY wanted a Mach 1!). Looked like it might have a input seal leak on the rear diff, which makes sense, because it felt like someone had done a gear swap. First gear pulled about as hard as my 95 does with the 3.73s. Never driven a car with 3.55s, but would guess it was running 3.73s or better. He's going to bring it over this weekend so we can get it up on jack stands and check it out better.
Took me forever to figure out that the weird looking thing sitting in the front of the intake valley was an alternator! :O Never did understand where they hid the pushrods...
Guess I get to learn myself up on mod motors now...
That's a really good price, so whatever work needs to be put in you'll still come out ahead. Alot of cars these days are making more power stock than a Mach, but it's without a doubt one damn sexy car, and most of the time you don't see many at all. I still kick myself for not getting a '93 Cobra, with only 4993 made, but I'm glad I got a limited production Mach. The future resale value does'nt interest me. I just like having a car that is'nt a dime a dozen.
My Mach uses the least of the 3 Mustang's I've owned. My '89 GT used about a quart at less than 1,000 miles after an oil change, but I never saw smoke or saw any leaks in the engine. My '93 GT used about a quart every 1,200 miles. My Mach uses a quart about every 1,800 miles. To me, that's excellent compared to the other two.