Hello everyone,

I've had a 95' Thunderbird with 130k miles for the past few years now and usually I'm pretty happy with it. BUT lately due to a crappy college student budget and a busy schedule I haven't been able to get it into the shop for it's routine check up.

Here's the problem(s)...
The car for the past 5 months have been drinking down a full jug of coolant every week and if I drive it for more than a half hour or so over 55mph it starts to over heat. I have replaced both the upper radiator hose (which had a huge hole in it, and I thought was the original issue), and a few months before that the radiator fan motor was replaced (the previous owners ran the sub woofer amp to the fan power which caused the original to short frequently till it was fried). I have left cardboard underneath the vehicle to find leaks and found none as well as checked to see if my oil is frothy which was also a negative. I'm curious since my oil is about 2000 miles over it's oil change date could that be a solution to this now that I have the radiator hose fixed?

In addition the past 3 months I've been loosing a little bit of brake fluid as well as once a week I hear a crunching sound from my brakes (specially when I make a hard turn). I know I should get the brake pads replaced, but I've been short on time and money. BUT what really worries me is that today coming home from the grocery store I had to brake suddenly for a tourist who didn't know to yield coming on to Savannah's squares and I heard a slight thunk sound and my brakes lost most of it's response. I was still able to brake BUT I lost a lot of sensitivity in the pedal.

Now I should add that I was away for 3 weeks than back for a week than away for another week in which the car sat inactive. Today was the first day I drove it again after the week of inactivity. I has been raining and muggy... it's Savannah, GA.

Any advice, tips, or repair places people could recommend would be highly appreciated.

Thanx ahead of time,

Steve

P.S. My usual driving habits are in city driving and I'm known to be an overly cautious driver. I need to get to work on Tuesday across town should I be looking for a ride now?

 

Could be time for a new car. Sorry to be bearer of bad new, but I suspect you are talking about a 3.8 liter engine. Head gasket is more than likely junk even though you are not seeing anything in your oil.. Need to have block test performed. Then your brakes. Please stop driving this car b4 u hurt yourself or someone else. You have a hydraulic leak somewhere, and you should have it serviced regardless of the cost immediately cause this will hurt you in quick hurry. IMO you will probably see head gasket repair cost more that $800 and your brake would b minimum of $200 so b prepared for over 1k or look into replacement.