I have a 1995 Mustang with a 3.8L V6. It currently has 157,800 miles on it and is in great condition other than the few problems that I have at the moment. Up until now, I really haven’t had any problems worth mentioning. I’m going to do my best to explain everything as clearly as possible.

Here’s my first issue. If I start my car with the air conditioning turned off, the air works fine. If I start my car with the air turned on, it comes out of the defrost vents on the dash. If I turn my air off while I am driving and then try to turn it back on before I turn my car off, it comes out of the defrost vents again. Sometimes it will be working fine and start to come out of the defrost vents while I’m driving but after about 30 minutes, it will start working properly. I don’t know what could be causing this but it is occurring more and more frequently and it’s essential that I have air conditioning due to the fact that I live in Florida.

Now for the other issue. I’m having acceleration problems as well. Yeah, yeah, I understand that I have a 3.8L so I know it’s not going to get up and go like a GT would. I’ve just been noticing that it has been less responsive than it used to be. I don’t know if that could be due to the fact that it has 157,000 miles on it or if after so many miles it just gets slower. It just doesn’t feel like it has power anymore. From a stoplight, it accelerates very slowly. It used to be slow to come out of first gear since I got it but it would quickly go through the other gears and I would be going 60mph before I knew it. But lately it is slow through all the gears. It takes about 12 seconds for me to get up to speed. Also, if I need to pass someone, it takes about 6 seconds after I push the gas pedal to respond and go into passing gear. I just remember it being more responsive than that. It’s getting to the point where I no longer feel as confident driving on a highway due to my car’s poor acceleration.

I hope I explained all of that clearly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

How up to date have you been on the maintainence? Might want to try the basics...change oil, spark plugs, spark plug wires, transmission fluid, and run seafoam through the PCV line, gas tank, and cranckase. Also try higher octane gas. At that age, your compression may have been affected to the point where higher octane gas may be beneficial. Let us know how all that works out.

 

I would be willing to bet you have a slice in the vacuum hose that runs along the firewall. Also check the canister, I used to have the same problem with the a/c coming through defrost vents only. Next, I just did plugs and plug wires on my 95, and it woke the car back up considerably. You may have the original fuel filter, change the fuel filter, oil change, plugs, wires, maybe get a K&N filter too. See how that works out for you! GL