Thinking about a 93 SC, need input on price and OD issue

blackdog36

Registered User
My first car was a midnight blue base tbird that I had to junk back in 2004. I found on craigslist the below car which is about 3 hours from me. It is the same year and color as my first car but also a SC! Seller is asking $2,650 and it has 100,000 miles. I spoke with seller and got some more information. He recently bought car from a used car salesman that had it as his personal car. The salesman bought it from a lady a while back when she traded in her car. Seller has worked on many fords (tbirds, mustangs) and said the car is in great shape with no rust or major issues. Only issue car seems to have is it won't fully shift into overdrive. Seller thinks it is the servo as they tend to go on these cars and there are no odd smells from fluid. I'm strongly thinking of getting this car since it is high end version of my car, decent mileage and appears to be in good shape. Is changing the servo a big deal? Doesn't sound like it would be as seller said can be changed with transmission in car. Is the asking price fair or could I get him down a few hundred? Tough call for me since I am currently building up a camaro ($$$) and could only store this car in driveway or a storage place. Then I would be paying storage fee every month.

https://utica.craigslist.org/cto/4748260691.html
 
Check engine light is on in the 4th pic...more likely it is the overdrive band I would think as that is the more common issue...rebuild. I would say it's not worth that because of the likelihood of a transmission replace or rebuild.
 
Thank you for the response. Are you referring to the green light in the one picture? I'm not sure on the servo being issue with OD either. I did some searching the other day and main thing that kept coming up was the OD band as you mentioned. The seller described OD issue as the following: "car will shift into OD but will only rev normally in OD but then free rev from then on". Think I'm going to call seller back and tell him that car most likely has a slipped OD band and I would not buy it at that price. Maybe he would reduce price a lot say down to $1,500 or try to fix transmission himself and then sell later in year. I wouldn't have garage space to fix car until 2016. If I bought unfixed, I would have car that couldn't use overdrive for a year or two. I don't really need the car but if the price is right, would be fun to tinker on after my camaro build. Probably would need to replace head gasket too :)

Seller likes the car but bought it unplanned because he knew car was is decent shape. He really needs a car with better fuel mileage as his daily driver. Maybe his predicament will work in my favor. Will call him soon and let you know.
 
Green light is firm ride...to the right of that you can see a hint of orange from the check engine light. And yeah if the issue is so easy to fix and cheaply fixed why not just do it and remove that variable from the purchase...I think he's either under informed or lying but I could be wrong.
 
No OD on a 94/95 SC trans could be solenoids as they used a 4R70W trans, which is computer controlled. 89-93 used the Ford AOD, also known as the DOA. If you lost OD on a ford AOD trans, it needs a rebuild, plain and simple. If the seller works on so many fords as he claims, then he knows this too, and that combined with the "used car salesman's personal car" story tells me this guy is a filthy liar and you shouldn't buy a pack of gum from him, let alone a car. Basically he got hosed by a used car salesman, and now he is trying to pass his loss onto the next victim. If it really was just a servo and it was so easy to change, then he would have changed it and fixed the transmission.

If you really want a moonlight blue SC, and you have the money to buy that one, buy this one instead.

http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?134725-1989-thunderbird-sc-5-speed-NY

That is not my car, and I haven't actually looked at it, but it is also in NY, looks to be pretty clean, and has a number of recent upgrades and repairs, so I think it would serve you much better.
 
Thank you again for the responses. Seller informed me that he is getting interest in car from other people. Ok, sure... Told him transmission needs a rebuild and I don't have time for it now. Oh well, would have been nice to have but I don't need it :) Will keep a look out in the future. Oddly enough a car collision/paint shop real close to me has a 89 SC for sale. Has been repainted in a medium blue. I looked at it a few months back. Was in good shape but clear coat is coming off in chunks over the car. Can't they fix that easy because nature of their business? Off course they couldn't put how much it was on the car! Hate when people do that.
 
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