Quick question on potential Mark VIII Purchase

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Screw-Rice

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Found a 95 Mark with 90k miles out of town. The women who has it knows knothing about cars and bought it for a friend a month ago. Says everything works great, and only needs a paint job.

I asked if she has noticed it sitting lower after it sits for awhile. Said she thinks it its low, but it rides great. My brother is going to check the car out for me, and told him he should hear the compressor and that if the bags are shot it would ride like ass.

He knows cars inside and out, but not too familiar with air bag cars. What are some other ways to make sure it was just lowered and doesn't have a bunch of suspension issues? Did a search, but came up with 18 pages and got lazy, lol.

Also noted to take it for a long test drive to look for trans shudder.
 
Tell the lady not to start the car before he gets there... if it has been sitting for any amount of time and the bags leak it will be down lower than normal. When he starts it if the compressor runs longer than 30 seconds it has dropped down...
 
So if it runs longer than 30 seconds than the bags are likely leaking/blown? From what I was told, it isn't dropped on just one end, it looks like it sits lower on all 4 corners.

Granted it could be stock height and she just doesn't know.
 
The car drops a certain amount from parked to ride height... so no matter what height the sensors are set at for the difference between parked and ride height will be the same...
 
Got ya, so as long as pumps fairly quick, but not for a long time (over 30 seconds) it is likely it's working.

Also I assume I am correct, it will ride horrible if the system isn't working?
 
Cool, will pass along that info. Thanks man

Figure I might be scoring a good deal, only asking $850 cause she wants it gone. 90k is the lowest mileage I have seen in a long time around here, especially for price.
 
87TTOPGT420 said:
could possibly be getting a great deal,hope everything works out for ya
Click to expand...

Thanks man, I hope so too. Only other one I found that I liked was a 96 for $2800obo in immaculate condition with 132k. Guy has been trying to sell it for atleast 6 months. So I am thinking I could offer $2k cash.

The 95 has less miles and throwing on a paint job will be fairly easy.
 
lol...i drove 70mph home for 45mintues with the back end in the air and the front slammed last year...OMG what a ride, i felt like a geno OHLLALEY lol
 
i understand how you guys get on the highway with it slammed, but how do you get off? dont you have to turn the wheels? lol
 
Can't imagine driving two hours in a big vibrator. :lol:

If I buy this one, I will be making an hour drive home.

Also, did these cars got to OBDII in 95 or 96? My 95 T-Bird was the first year for those to have OBDII.

Was 96 also the first year to have the traction control button?
 
i drove mine 20 minutes slammed, never again! the car rattled you teeth out over the rumble strips coming up to a stop sign and bounced till the next strip
 
90k miles.
14 year old car.
If those are original bags, they are probably leaking.
And if they aren't, they will.

Anticipate having to replace either bags, compressor, or both.

If everything else on the car is nice, it could be well worth it.

But visually inspect the bags. If they are all rotted, or if your hand if filthy black with rubber after touching them, they're old.

While driving it at a steady speed, listen to hear if the compressor is kicking on after hitting bumps. Remember that the car drops at highway speed and then has to lift itself back up when your speed drops though.

Pumping up for a long time at start up could just mean a tired compressor.

Make sure the AIR RIDE is "ON" when you take the test drive.
The switch is in the trunk, on the drivers side fender.

If the car is out on display, have you friend drive past and look at it a few times. See if she's starting the car up to lift it before showing it.

But, again, if it's still the original bags, they're due to go.
Consider a coil-spring conversion or anticipate replacing the system components in the future.
 
My 97 lost the fight and the front bags blew out. Rode like a forklift. I did a slow roll going home & after pricing replacement bags along with compressor and air dryer, I went with a coil spring conversion. The kit was easy to install and allowed me to lower the car at the same time. The price seems like a good deal.
 
How do coils compare to bags? I have read a lot about people doing the conversion, then wanting to sell the car, due to losing the air setup.

If the bags are good, and I pick this one up, might gather parts as I find deals just incase.

Does OBDI still have decent range of tuning options?
 
I have coils and I like them. I like flying through corners though and IMO the coils offer better body controll. I do believe I will be yanking the stock T-bird coils and switching to slightly lower Vogtland springs after the new wheels get here. The stock springs are just too soft and compress too much when doing 80 on a dip heavy road. My SCP braces scrape all the time where they connect to the k-member because of too much spring compression.
 
Just paranoid about it riding horrible since it was designed for air bags. I lowered my Bird, had a ton of suspension work, and it handled awesome.

003_4.jpg
 
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