Well after reading a few posts about "problems" with the older 3.8's, I am starting to get abit nervous. I love my car, but I don't want a pile of garbage either. Now, I can't get rid of it, so thats not an option, but I would like to hear from people on these mysterious "problems".

The body is in amazing shape, and it has 170,000 km. The engine looks great, runs stong and will have just roled over 4000 km.

The only issue I have, is that (well except for being gutless) that when it warms up, I can smell hot (maybe burned) anti-freeze if I get my nose close to the engine bay. Now I have looked it over, checked the oil (looks great) pressure is great, and I haven't lost any anti-freeze at all. So whatever

So ya, any insight into potential problems, and maybe some signs to look out for, would be a big help. Thanks in advance.

 

I believe they just had head gasket problems and the sensor to the cooling fan had problems with shorting out, both of which Ford warrentied and recalled.

 

Thats it? Oh thats fine. From reading the posts, it was made to sound "BAD". It's babied, and the engine is brand new, so I am sure that the head gaskets won't go anytime soon. And when they do, will be an excuse to do some head work *coughcoughport&polishcoughcough*

 

the headgasket is an, "oh thats it problem" its like 1k to fix, but you can use mls gaskets that will help out alot

 

thats it? LMFAO thats the biggest and worst problem you can have!

headgaskets go and you keep going the pistons burn and your engine is completely gone. Then if your wiring of the fan shorts out...you can even get a fire...."thats it"...ha.

 

Ya thats it. I had a 1986 Celica that sprung a coolant leak twice, had a rad practically explode, had stuck throttle body and then sprung an oil leak, that made the engine burst into flames.

A head gasket will cause the engine pressure to drop, also, I have been in a car that had gasket failure, and you can tell. I pay very close attention to my car while I drive.

So ya, thats it. I was expecting to be told it was prone to have piston ring failure, or something HUGE like that. Gaskets can be replaced, pistons that fly through your block can't.