Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

[MerlotBlue]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

To me it's pretty obvious that the COPs problem is related to mileage more than anything else. There seem to be a lot of other factors that cause the failures, but they're usually well driven cars, not garage Queens. Just my opinion. Leroy

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Maybe for others but that hasn't been my experience.

The '02 has just about EXACTLY twice the mileage now on the odometer of the '04.

[Gobird]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

And I turned over 75,000 going to Atlanta on my 02 this past weekend with NO Problems to date. So it doesn't fit for all.

[catb1rd]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

2002, failure on #5 and #8 at 30,000 miles. Car is in CA, and garaged, I have not driven it in the rain in the 3 years I have had it, not sure about the previous owner.

[babybluebird]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

Just had all COP's replaced on my 2003..drove 1/2 mile home and had hard shifting, now in shop for a new tranny...they said while in shop this time, oh you have 1 COP cylinder problem (just replaced all eight 2 weeks ago). Do you think I have a lemon...No problems with car until last big rain hit...has 43,000 miles on it...love my bird don't want to give it up. Luckily I have extended warranty on tranny if I can find my paperwork on the 30,000 service. My husband did the service and then he died and I cannot find the paperwork or where he had the job done.....am I in trouble or what.

[MATBird]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

If it was done at a Ford dealer, it will be on record by the VIN

[Bruce]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

I have not experienced any COP problems in either the 03 or 05, however, both are garage queens with light mileage and spend the winter in hibernation.

[Al T- Bird2002]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

CRAPPY 2002

[YLO BRD]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

No problems at all 2002 yellow with 28,000 miles

[martee]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

03-1 COP replaced-25,000 miles

[5bird7]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

CRAPPY 2002

Al, you need to expound on your coil problems with your 2002

[Mintgrn]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

My 2004 never used in rain or snow, but still had four cops go bad. When I went to the dealer for the last two ( they went same time) he also replaced the valve cover gaskets. Said that some Retro's had defective valve cover gaskets that caused oil to leak on to cops. What ever? All work was performed under cops extended warranty so I got no bill. Last four original cops are still good, gaskets replaced over a year ago. Probably shouldn't have said that. Knock wood. (hitting self on head)

[MidNiteRiders]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

No problem with my 02. 13,600 miles (2nd owner)

[2K2BIRD]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

As of now this poll is showing some rather interesting information. It might be even more enlightening if all of TBN's members would join in, but much like we've been told about Consumer Reports, we can only go with the sample size that we have.

FORD stats indicate:

There were 31,368 of the '02 T-birds sold - 46% of all Retros.
There were 36,730 of the '03 - '05 T-birds sold - 54% of all Retros.

COPs Poll stats as of today:

56 of the '02 owners have responded to the poll - 48% of all responses
60 of the '03 - '05 owners have responded - 52% of all responses
(The % numbers are remarkably close to the same as the number sold.)

23/56 of the '02 owners have replaced COPs - 41% replacement rate
24/60* of the '03 - '05 owners have replaced COPs - 40% replacement rate

* included VintageMerlot in the total of replaced COPs

I'm not that great with statistics but in this particular sample and not taking into account the many possible causes (age, mileage, water in wells, oil in wells, local climate, driving habits) it appears that COPs failure has been essentially identical for the '02 vs. '03 - '05 Retro Birds.

I'd really like to see a break down on mileage on when the problem happened with the two groups. Anecdotally, it has seemed to me that the '02s generally have had between 50K - 70K miles before the first failure (obviously some sooner as well), while the '03 - '05s generally had problems sooner than that. Of course I have no scientific proof of this, just a generalization of what I have seen from posts here. That would seem to be validated by FORD warrantying the '03 - '05s but not the '02s since the problem was showing up quicker. I also think that they were trying to hedge their losses by eliminating 46% of the potential problem vehicles from the extended warranty.

[5bird7]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

Will also mention that my poll #2 on the cops where only those with cop problems were asked to respond, you'll find similar results
http://www.thunderbirdnest.com/forum...ad.php?t=19993
the poll also covers mileage.

[Kokomo]

Re: Cop Poll: 02 verses 03/05

... Anecdotally, it has seemed to me that the '02s generally have had between 50K - 70K miles before the first failure (obviously some sooner as well), while the '03 - '05s generally had problems sooner than that. Of course I have no scientific proof of this, just a generalization of what I have seen from posts here...

That is true from my two cars. The 2002 model started having issues with cops around 65,000 miles. I changed them all myself. Now my 2005 model has problems at 44,000 miles. I am going to let Ford pay this time.