In the previous installments I bought a 1992 Ford Mustang LX at auction despite not really even looking at it. It was now time to collect it with a proper assessment to follow. Then get it on the road as a daily driver. Maybe uplift the appearance a little bit as well.
I had my oldest son drive us out to the auction site in Coaldale, Alberta where I did a quick once-over of the car. The driver’s door latch was very stiff and reluctant to open. Popping the hood, all the fluids were at reasonable levels. I had brought jumper cables but they proved to be unnecessary as the car fired from the battery as is. The 14″ tires were winter ones with plenty of tread and no cracks. So it looked reasonable to drive the 25kms home. Before we left, the seller let me know that I was now the second registered owner of the car! The first stop was a gas station to fill the tank, as it was sitting on empty. Here my son reminded me to check the air pressure in the tires, which was sitting at an astounding 70 psi each. I suppose this was the seller’s hedge against flat spots but I quickly dropped that in half. While fueling up, an older gentleman came over to admire the car and ask which engine I had. He did not seem too disappointed when I admitted it was the four cylinder, but continued to chat about his good for nothing son and his vehicle woes for several minutes. The son apparently did not check his oil despite multiple reminders, thus running a Ford Escape dry and ruining it in the process. Apparently, he is out of the will but does not know it yet. I promised not to (somehow) spill the beans before hitting the road.
With a full tank of gas, reasonable air pressure and a windshield wipe down we were back on the road. The gas gauge had moved up to the full position, so that was a good sign that it might be reasonably accurate. It was not long before we were out on the highway and I immediately noticed I had put it in Drive rather than Overdrive with the frantic revving of the engine. With tachometer markings out of a tractor, the 2.3L four does not encourage high revs. This automatic thing is going to take a bit of getting used to. The car itself did not feel super slow nor fast. Sort of a very average acceleration, if that makes any sense. It tracked down the road nice and straight. Only the temperature gauge seemed reluctant to move. Maybe I had snagged myself a good one?
The more perceptive of you may have noticed the Mustang has two antennas. But what for? An old school cell phone perhaps? It was the Nineties after all.
Under the hood lay a pretty big hint. A remote start system which is perhaps not surprising given it came from a northern location. As a general rule I dislike these as they have to muck with the wiring during the install and unfortunately did not come with a remote.
Inside there was a mystery switch that likely was connected to the remote start. Not sure what “NOR LT” might stand for. Any ideas?
As per my usual process, I gave the interior a deep clean. There was a subtle layer of grime on everything, which mostly came out. I found a carrying box for the faceplate of the stereo. Remember when you had to remove the stereo faceplate when parking your car, or it would stolen instantly? There was a remote for the stereo in there, which seems a little silly in such a small car. On the plus side, the stereo supports Bluetooth so I can blast out all my retro 90s music to match the car.
In the rear, the parcel cover was intact and working. I have been told a few times since that these are now quite rare. Can I remark on how weirdly heavy the rear hatch is on these? Because it is. Despite this, the struts still hold it up.
A further exterior examination showed some rust on the fender lips and a little on the rocker panels. The rest of the car was very solid. The wheels that came with it were on the ugly side and reminded me of a Tempo. But not in a good way.
Here is quick walk around video if you would prefer right after I had bought it. Please ignore the license plate taped to the back window, as I could not find any bolts right away.
The Mustang came nice and clean on the outside after hitting up a car wash.
The color is one of my favorite things about this car as it is quite eye catching.
Popping open the engine bay showed lots of space, as this platform had also housed a V8, V6 or inline six at various times. As far as non-turbo four cylinder Ford Mustangs go, the 1992 year is not a bad one. I realize that is pretty specific, but I reaching here for some bragging points. Earlier cars had a 88hp rating but starting 1991 they received a revised head with two spark plugs per cylinder, among other changes to develop 105hp. The automatic also had overdrive, which helps with fuel economy and overall gearing.
All in all, I was pretty happy with my purchase as it was a fairly sharp looking car as far as sub $1k clunkers go. Except for those mirrors. They looked awful. Could we make it a little nicer without breaking the bank?
It was almost like the mirrors had been painted (poorly) with white at some point. A quick sand, primer and a bit of leftover black paint improved those shabby looking mirrors.
A plastic intake grille was glued back into shape and the wiper arms received some black paint as well. It is amazing what a dramatic overall improvement a few little things can make.
The hinges as well as door catches were lubed and the stiff driver’s handle worked well again. It made sense to catch up on some maintenance items like a new air filter plus oil change. This went smoothly until it came time to remove the old oil filter. The previous mechanic must have been Thor as it was on crazy, crazy tight. It took a silly amount of time to get this filter off and I only barely got it moving with the big screwdriver through the filter multiple times. I have owned a good number of vehicles and this was the most stubborn filter yet. That includes some cars that I have pulled out of fields after decades.
The car did have a check engine light on. Since this is a pre-OBD2 vehicle, to check the codes without a Ford specific reader, one has to jump these two spots with a wire. Then read all the blinking check engine lights on the dash. There are both two or three digit code versions to complicate this. It took me a while (ok, quite a while), but I determined I have the three digit code version. Then counting the codes was an exercise in frustration.
If you would like to get an insight into the process, then watch the video above. I would not blame you if you did not, as I certainly do not want to again. The action, if you can call it that, begins around the forty second mark. In the end I have one temperature sender error (no surprise there as it does not move much) and EGR valve system error. On the last item, it could be the EGR valve itself or the sender. Something to track down still.
Now it was time to do something about the ugly wheels. The Mustang shows off the versatile hatchback body style as I snagged a set of 15″ ten hole alloy rims cheaply off a high school shop teacher, with brand new snow tires on them. I would have preferred non-snow tires, but new rubber is new rubber. Besides winter is coming.
The V8 model LX rims have a more favorable offset, filling out the fenders much better than the base rims. The Mustang has received a surprising amount of attention and thumbs up from all sorts of people, including a very enthusiastic new Corvette driver. With the big grin and thumbs up he shot me, I suspect he does not realize this car is on the road for less than the cost of one of his rims.
We got a decent dump of snow and my boy has been driving the Mustang to school since the Fiero only has all season tires on it. A Ford Probe owner there apparently commented on how cool it is, just to show that the fox body Mustang has universal appeal. As far as a project goes, I did not get one at this auction… but stay tuned.
CC Goes to the Auction: Part One – Daily Drive Fodder
CC Goes to the Auction: Part Two – Potential Projects
CC Goes to the Auction: Part Three – The Others
CC Goes to the Auction: Part Four – The Purchase
CC Goes to the Auction: Part Five – 1992 Ford Mustang LX Budget Makeover
“Reminded me of a tempo, but not in a good way.” No tempo EVER reminded Anyone of anything in a good way. Ever.
I don’t think the 4 would be as bad as we think in this car. Yes, the v8 was a good bit more powerful but this was still a light car and by today’s standards the 8 would be weak.
What an amazing find and car! You really won with this car.
Note the temp sender, for the gauge is separate from the temp sensor which is for the EFI. So I’m guessing that you may have a bad thermostat. The computer will set a code if the engine doesn’t get hot as quick as the computer thinks it should.
For reading the codes it might be worth investing in one of these. https://www.amazon.com/Actron-CP9015-Ford-Code-Scanner/dp/B0006V2BGY Somewhere I have the older version when it was sold under the SunPro name. The beeps can be easier to follow than the flashes in my opinion. It also makes it easier to enter the other test modes like the power balance test, the early version of miss fire detection, or output mode cycling.
I thought about that as well. The temperature gauge never gets hot so I would suspect the thermostat is ok. There are multiple gauges. One for the gauge and one for the computer. Not my photo.
Mmmm…”Thermostat is ok” doesn’t follow from “temperature gauge never gets hot”. Your thermostat could be opening too cold, or stuck open, or missing—check it out. My 5-part article on the subject starts here (link to subsequent chapter at the bottom of each).
It is not uncommon for a thermostat to stick so it doesn’t fully close. That leads to an engine that won’t reach normal operating temp.
It may also be a false code depending on which test you ran and what the coolant temp was when you ran the test.
Heater seems to work. But a thermostat is pretty cheap so probably worth changing.
I wonder if the switch for the remote start is for normal and long term, as in storage/non use? To avoid draw?
Not a bad thought … I will have to play with it.
Since it was sold new in the North West Territories I’ll speculate that the NOR LI switch controls the northern lights! Try flipping the switch at night and see what happens.
Amazing how much the aluminum rims improve the looks of the car.
Funny you say that. I was helping my son replace the front brakes on his Mazda 3. At the conclusion he mentioned that the Mustang was running sitting down the street. Flipping the switch to on is either some kind of timer or someone’s remote triggers it as well. Good thing it was not in the garage during the night!
I was hoping that you would have won the bid for the Cadillac. However, you stole that Mustang! The improvements look great. Good luck and enjoy your project!
10 holes look great on it! They’re actually 15” though, the later 5 spoke “pony” wheels were 16”.
The best paint I have found for a Ford black parts of this era is Duplicolor trim paint, Indid my Cougar’s faded door pillars and wiper cowling with it, it’s a nice satin sheen that doesn’t take a crazy amount of skill to come out well(I’m not a good painter, I tend to rush it)
Quite right they are 15″ rims. I think the seller advertised them as 16″ which is where I got it.
Excellent! It’s looking really nice, especially with those wheels.
A 4-cylinder engine is theoretically the same length as a V-8, yet that’s one of the longest upper radiator hoses I’ve seen.
In addition to the twin-plug head, I believe ’92 was the year an electric cooling fan replaced the engine-driven fan. Might be good for a HP or two.
Son No. 2 had an ’84 LX as his first car, 4 cyl., 4 sp., 4 lug wheels. Previous owners had five homeschooled daughters, all who learned to drive on it. Had a lot of miles when my son got it, and he wasn’t the best at staying current on maintenance (at that time – he’s learned his lesson!). We spent a lot of time deciphering das blinkenlights with the ECM jumper in place. Seems like we had to replace an EGR valve or dashpot or sumsuch. That helped, but it never really ran right. Had to trailer it home more than once… Son finally sold it to someone interested in building a drag car out of it.
Yours has turned out really nice-looking, and I love the blue color, too.
I had a red ’84 Mustang L at age 17. The 2.3L with the four-speed manual. I just couldn’t get away from cheap Fords with that engine/transmission, having traded a ’79 Fairmont Futura that burned oil in choking clouds of blue for it. But the $2000 price for a five year old car with only 60,000 miles was right for my budget.
The engine clattered up every grade, drank more gas than it should, and the handling was miserable in the winter without studs. But it always got me there, had decent legroom for a taller driver, and for an 80’s teenager it certainly was NOT forest green with a tan landau top like the Fairmont!
It will always be good to see a fox on the road, no matter what body shell is on top of it. Many friends drove foxes of all types back then so they are in the background of many of my cherished memories.
I would probably try to take that remote starter off the car along with the antenna for it. Then I’d plug the antenna hole with a matching blue cover to conceal it as much as possible.
You did a very good job cleaning up the car and it looks good!
I worked as a dealer service advisor for both Mopar and GM and the biggest nightmare of no-start was always aftermarket remote stop and alarm systems. To a one they were slashed into a butchered wiring harness, waiting to strand someone or ever worse, cut out in traffic. Yup, seen both.
I’ve lived in some pretty cold places and I would never use a remote start system. You are far better off just to use the block heater, which will take coolant from -30’C to roughly 5’C in four hours. A remote start is just going to drain fuel and dilute oil. Tough it out for five minutes and you’ll be plenty warm.
As for aftermarket alarms, they are all abominations.
“As for aftermarket alarms, they are all abominations.”
I’m not a fan of car alarms in general. The best quote I’ve heard on the subject goes like this: A Lojack system recovers your car, an immobilizer keeps it home, and a car alarm annoys the neighbors.
Respraying wiper arms is one of my favorite tricks to spruce up a car, one of those things you don’t really notice. The wheels are a fantastic change. Different than the Pony 5 spokes you usually see as upgrades, and the finish looks great with the blue.
The whole car looks thousands of dollars nicer with just a little attention to detail, must have been a very satisfying project.
While I’m not a fan of fox body Mustangs, this one looks surprisingly nice. As you said, that metallic blue is really eye catching and work great with those rims. Seems like you got a heck of a deal on it!
I’ve had a few fox body Mustangs and would have kept one or two if not for the two oldest kids grumbling about not being able to drive in the snow. But that was then. I’m still keeping my eyes peeled for another Mustang and don’t have a problem with the 4 cylinder engine as I’m more concerned with fuel efficiency than laying rubber.
You’re only a few hours south of me David. Keep me in mind, my wife likes the colour blue!
Will do. Not ready to but part with it yet but I tend to cycle through my stuff fairly often. Not sure what border issues you would encounter but that could be worked through.
I’m north of you as in St. Albert, AB.
Loved this whole post. Sharp looking Mustang LX, and it made me miss mine. Well shared and many happy miles to your son!
I have room in my heart for most Mustangs, and have quite a bit of affection for the later versions of the basic ’79 body. That blue is very fetching, and the interior looks like a still pleasant place to be.
Working on my mom’s weathered 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee, I was faced with several similar cosmetic tasks, not all of which were attended to before it sold quickly at a fair price. While moving my mom and the Jeep from an acreage where they spent a quarter century was way too much work, putting some life back into the Jeep was sort of therapeutic at the time.
Enjoy your ‘stang!
Very well done!
I am happy for you. What a great deal, and your improvements helped a lot.
Its still gonna be bad in snow, no matter what tires are on it. Nature of the beast. With my ’92 four-banger I just went everywhere sideways in the snow, and had fun. One of the few cars I still miss.
BTW, there is more power to be had from the dual-plug 2.3L, but I don’t know how to get it on purpose. I got it by accident, briefly. If anyone’s interested, I’ll tell the story.
We’re interested.
We’re always interested …
I’m a little late getting back here.
Around 20 years or so, I bought a ’92 Mustang LX coupe. I wasn’t sure of the maintenance history on the car, so to play it safe I decided to have the timing belt replaced. I could have done it myself, but I was working a lot and it was worth it to me to take it to a shop. I didn’t have a favorite shop as I used to do most of my own stuff.
So I took it to the auto shop where I had oil changes done. (I had gotten over the need to do them myself by then)
They replaced the belt, and when I drove it away it felt slow and low on power. It wasn’t missing though. In fact it was quieter than before. The shop guy said it would take the computer time to recalibrate, or some such babble like that.
Mmm, okay. Well I had errands to run so I left and drove it all over town. It never improved, so I took it back to the shop. After some debate they agreed to look at it again. When they opened it up, they said that the belt must have slipped because there’s no way it could be running with it the way it was set.
Uh-huh.
So they set it correctly and I asked them to come with me on a test drive. As I was a little annoyed at their BS, I gunned it from a stop. Normally with this motor you wouldn’t really be able to tell if you were driving it rough because it was too slow to tell.
But when I first started it up it sounded different. Like it was over-timed. Making a little ticking sound like I’d heard while advancing the timing from the cap on an old car with a distributor. You know, turn until you hear the tick and then back off some, all that old-school stuff I found out by trial and lots of error.
Well, this time when I floored it from a dead stop the rear tire broke traction and it did a burnout! On dry pavement. It was an automatic trans as well! It took off with a growl I didn’t know it was capable of making. It had instant torque, just growled and went. Revved its nuts off too. Needless to say I was surprised and quite happy. I thought that it must have supposed to run like that; glad I took it in and such.
By the fifteen minute drove home it was normal again. Ran fine, but no more growling torquey stuff going on. Just acted like it originally did.
This puzzled me. How could I get it to go back to being growly and hyper again? I’m not a mechanic and have a barely average mechanical skill level.
I guessed that somehow the computer had figured out a way to make it run with the timing so out-of-whack. It had dual plugs, one on the intake side and one on the exhaust. It had advanced the timing as much as was possible and somehow used all eight plugs to figure out some sort of rhythm to keep itself from dying out and/or blowing up. I can’t imagine the hoops the computer went through just to make this happen.
When the timing was rectified and it was restarted, the computer was still set to whatever bizarre settings it had chosen. I assume when the mechanics put the belt on wrong it must have been in a particularly lucky way to make that even possible to occur.
Out of curiosity, I looked into a “Superchip” for it and there actually was one which promised 14 more horsepower. I tend not to believe those claims and wouldn’t buy one. And I know it temporarily had more than 14 more h.p. Of course its just my feeling and I have no proof, but it felt closer to an extra 50 h.p. if anything.
I know that sounds ridiculous, and if I were reading this I would think its BS. But I comment on here a lot and I don’t think I’m known to make many braggy-type claims. If I was going to BS I would not choose this story to be my hill to die for.
But my little 2.3L automatic did a decent burnout on dry pavement with its wide-ish performance-y tires. It was briefly awesome. The power is in there. Somewhere. Beats me how to get it on purpose though.
Sorry my stories are so long. I edited this over and over and it only grew longer. So I figured I should just post it as it is before its bedtime.
These were lovely cars with excellent proportion.
This one screams for a 332 crate engine.
My ‘86 Ranger with the 2.9 Köln V6 had the thermostat stick open once, during a particularly cold spell here in the San Francisco area, which means lies around 30°F. The gas consumption skyrocketed and the heater barely worked, but it never set off the check engine light. But I remember trying to read codes pre-OBD2. If I recall right my Toyota display codes with Morse-code-like flashing of the radio display. Love the color of your Mustang, similar to (same as?) as my Ranger. I have a soft spot for Fox Mustangs, having driven a few and considered buying one at least three times. Though the only 4 cylinder was an early Turbo.
Is that Edmonton and if so, do all Edmonton streets look the same?
Lethbridge. Less cold but more wind. 🙂
I am unfamiliar with Fox powertrains, but does this Mustang use the old full-hydraulic AOD transmission? My experience with that thing in Panther cars is that there is a plastic bushing where the throttle cable attaches to the throttle linkage. Keep an eye on the bushing, if it breaks or falls out the transmission will try to eat itself. A fluid change would not hurt it.
My 87 had those wheels, rubber bonded on to steel wheels to (sort of) look like alloys. You could bend the fins with your fingers. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything similar before or since.
That extra 17 horsepower in the newer version must help a lot; mine had a 5 speed and it was still slow, though pleasant enough to drive. I did really like the car as it was good to me.
Never had to do the code thing on that car, but I did on my 96 Cherokee, which though I think it had OBD also had lights, accessed by turning the key in a certain pattern if I recall.
It’s looking good, my first car (’79 Mazda 626 coupe) was a very similar shade of blue which does look very good when all cleaned up.
Those 15″ alloy wheels are in my mind the definitive Mustang wheel of this body style and look perfect on it. Great find!
Enjoy it, it’s cold and icy out, the V8 wouldn’t provide many more thrills than the 4 can during this season and would be harder on the wallet.
Not a fan of this Mustang shape, but in this basic and doo-dad-free form, it’s a decent-looking car. Perhaps thinking of it as a simple commuter rather than a rather silly muscle car helps. It seems nice, too: certainly good value for the price.
Why on earth was a ’92 fuel-injected four cylinder of this size making so little power? Even 2-litre fours from Japan were making 30%+ more than this by then.
Besides the fuel injection and twin spark ignition the 2.3’s basic engineering hadn’t really changed since the 70s, it had a largish displacement for a 4 cylinder, no balance shaft, and like many American(ized) engines of the 70s was optimized for low end torque rather than high end volumetric efficiency. Toyota’s and Hondas by the 90s generally had a redline a good bit higher than 5400 RPM
Lets not forget there is buckets of performance parts for the 2.3L OHC engine.
It’s nice when you find a car that you can improve with only a little effort. I think that the styling of Fox bodied Mustangs has held up well. I wasn’t as big a fan of them when they were new, probably because I had a such strong memories of the first generation models. I particularly like the hatchback version because it makes a much more usable vehicle. I’m sure that your car is faster than my brother’s Mustang II with it’s four. Good luck with it and I will join the chorus about the blue paint.
I just remembered something about my ’92 2.3L auto Mustang. I had a “sport” or “Turbo” muffler put on it. It seemed to open up the higher-end revs of the motor somewhat. I didn’t notice any low-end torque loss. It was kind of loud and buzzy though and not the best kind of noise, and I kind of regretted putting it on as it didn’t make it quicker-enough to put up with the racket.
Wow she cleaned up incredibly well! I love to see “regular” cars come back to life like this with just some basic DIY touching up and cleaning, mostly elbow grease rather than dollars. I’m going down a similar path with my high mileage ’06 Suburban. Very satisfying.
Yeah, that 2.3 engine. I had a ‘94 ranger with the same engine. I hated it. Not zippy, not torquey and not efficient either. BUT that damned thing never failed to start and run smooth for 212K miles! Still ran exactly the same when I sold it on to some old guy to be a parts runner. So I guess they had something going there.