Looking forward to collaborating with my new community

I had the fortune (or misfortune as has been thus far) of buying a purported low mileage 2001 Mustang Cobra from one of those big traveling classic car auctions. I did this on impulse (I know, lesson learned) as an "older gentleman" trying to feel younger. It didn't take long to realize someone has swapped the cluster - didn't show turnback but CARFAX shows only 1000 miles registered in 10 years prior to a "refurbishment" in 2022. It seems that the PCM only stores the actual register value from the cluster as that is all I read from my scanner. All of the major components show wear more consistent with >100-150K miles rather than the 14K indicated. I have spent the last several months getting the car driveable (new fuel pump, steering rack and shaft, lots of light bulbs, and repair of various missing/cut hoses and lighting wiring) but it is still nowhere near done. I looked into legal channels but guidance received from legal counsel was it will not be worth my hassle through fed anti-tampering laws and civil judgments typically have no leverage to actually get paid. So, I am trying hard to enjoy my purchase having 10-years owned an SN95 that was my "dream" new car purchase in 2001. I just don't want to invest too much money into a car where I have already paid ~10K more than it's worth (based on KBB value for 14K vs 150K miles).

I will be soon be posting my latest concern (consistent P0133 and P0153 errors on a stock setup with fairly new O2 sensors) to one of the specific forums and look forward to some collaboration with my peers.

Cheers!
Phil

Thanks! I did some more diggining on the interweb yesterday and decided to buy new upstream O2 sensors. Since my car is using a qt of oil every 800 to 1000 miles, the AI mechanic from Google tells me that it's likely early lifetime failure of my sensors. I don't know how old they are, nor do I know what brand (4 for $40 Amazon treasures?). I just know they are too shiny to be originals. I'm trying to keep my costs down so I can focus on the needed transmission rebuild expense. I will start a thread if my troubles continue.

Cheers,
Phil

I'll have to take some. All I have is pics from the auction. They have been good to me - refunded my buyer's premium so I don't want to sully their name. I'm busy doing retired things right now.

I haven't done compression tests. It was initially smoking from pass side upon start-up which is a sign of the classic valve seal issue with these engines. I added some bars leak to the oil when I changed it and that smoke ended. Pass side o2 sensor was sooted up a bit. If I can get a few thousand miles out of a pair of Bosch sensors, that's cheaper than a major engine job. I'm not up for a swap. Auction offered me a free entry if I fixed it up and wanted to sell it. Jury's out on that for now.

Here's a pic of this beauty. Yes, it looks really nice from the outside, particularly when it crosses an auction block, but I digress... The interior is equally nice. It is "under the skin" where all of the ugliness lives. One step at a time and I'll arrive at my destination of a reasonably good toy car.