A few, little, irritating things...

[Dan_Cicero]

This is a great forum! I haven't been able to find a place that caters to the LX before. Mine is a 1989 Mustang LX convertible that I bought brand new. It has 119,000 miles on it and I think I got the best compliment ever today at the Ford dealer. They couldn't decide if the car had 19,000 or 119,000 miles on it. After the test drive, they called me again to tell me the car was "su-weet!"

I'm planning to drive it from Chicago to Atlanta over the 4th of July, so it was in the shop for a professional check-over. I needed an alternator belt tensioner, a new throttle valve, a radiator flush and fill, a new fuel filter, a coolant reservoir, etc. End of the day: $780, which seemed reasonable when broken down into component parts.

Although the car runs great, there are a couple of things that I find a little irritating and I don't know what to make of them.

When the car was new, the temperature never moved much above the bottom of the normal range. Now it'll creep up, not too high, but higher than before. Is that just the water pump wearing? Does it need a new thermostat? The auxiliary fan kicks in when it should, but I'd like to stabilize this if possible.

The oil pressure gauge bounces all over the place. Most times, it's rock solid, right where it was when I bought the car, but when the car is idling, it'll dance around and sometimes drop off a lot. The engine doesn't lose oil and doesn't make any noise. I'm pretty sure it's the gauge, but how would I check? Is this something routine?

The left turn signal indicator is burned out. My Haynes manual doesn't give a good description of how I should take the instrument cluster out. Is this what I need to do to change the bulb? Is there a good description of the procedure somewhere? (The turn signal still works, I just don't see the indicator on the dash. There's another burned out bulb back there too and I'd like to replace that at the same time.)

If anyone's got some answers to these questions, I'd love to hear them. This car is a peach and I intend to keep it that way!

[FiveORookie]

What weight oil are you using by the way. I wouldn't worry too much about the oil pressure thing. Its normal unless you have a brand spanking new enging. My 5.0 had the same thing happen. 180,000 with 20w 50 and not a glitch. My 2.3 bounces too 147,000 miles with 20w50 and not a glitch either. As long as you have pressure and are using good oil you are good to go. It somestimes help if in the morning when you turn on your car you hold it at about 2000 rpms to build some pressure. Not a sure thing but it sometimes help to keep the needle a little steady.

As long as the car doesn't over heat don't worry too much about that either. I've always liked my engines to run hot that's just me. Some people like it ice cold. I've always felt if the engine was at about 180-200 degree at about 3000 rpms felt better than at 140 degrees. Just me on temp.

[GodStang]

As far as temp. Mine did the same thing(in the beginning did not move and than over a couple of years would begin to move). I replaced the thermastat and it runs normal now. It stays in one place except when I am sitting there ideling. I live in the south so it gets hot and it will move up just a tad. You may want to check the thermstat first it is easy to replace and cheap.

As far as the pressure gauge I agree with FiveORookie. Replaceing the lightbuld is pretty easy you just remove parts of the dash that cover it till you get to it. I had some burned out took abouts 30mins to do it.

Well man good luck. And tell us how things turn out.