Hey, I'm lookin for an SHO is there anyone here that is selling one?? where would you look to get one? thanks guys

 

http://www.shoclub.com/

 

be warned, they are not the most reliable cars around. i had a '91 and it was a nice and fast car (for a 4 door sedan) but i had alot of problems with it in the 80,000 miles that i owned it:
4 clutches, (one i got covered under warranty the other three where $1000 each) ac commpressor,( $580) water pump, ( $400) climate control unit,( $500) ABS module ($600)

 

Yeah, the 89 was the worst and the early 90s were pretty bad. Consumer Report had them on their 10 worst list for several years. I would say it was the worst car reliability wise I ever owned but one of the funest.

Maybe the V8 and the automatics were more reliable.

My problems with the 89 were mostly early year issues and "exotic" parts pricing, clutches every 30,000, bell housing(yes bellhousing) every 50,000 or so. EGR issues, the valve costs something like $80 when everything else was $30, plus you needed the PFE for another $110. Thermostat was $35 when normal was maybe $10. Towards the end of it's useful life it cost me something like $2000 per year to keep it running, jeez.

Could be I just had a bad dealer who didn't know what they were doing, and I was too lazy to take care of some of the weird goings on.

Fun car but a PITA to own. Note there is a SHOTIMES web page with good info, just like our Ford Trucks forum.

Jim Henderson

 

I had a 1990. Great handling. Great power. Lot of problems. Kept it for five years. Cost me plenty. And talk about rust. Early Hondas could learn from it.

Really want one? Why?

 

If you don't mind going smaller, I would highly recommend a Contour SVT. Also a little pricey to maintain, but a much nicer car IMHO.

But I have to say, I do like the SHOs...

 

My brother has a 95 SHO that he has talked about selling. My sister bought it new and took great care of it, brother bought it from her. He's a long haul trucker so it sits in his garage most of the time. Car looks like new. Oh yeah, we're all in our 50s so there hasn't been any stupid kid tricks pulled with it. If you're interested, send me a pm.

 

Super High Operating costs....



If you want a fast 4 door, find a Maxima, then take a heat gun and pry all the badges and emblems off it so you can keep them guessing as to what it is.

 

SHO, A ford mechanic told me he thinks " sho(w) me the money", when working on one.

JA

 

Do NOT, under any circumstances, buy a '96 or newer with the V8 engine. Each and every one of them is a time bomb, just waiting to blow up. A nice '95 would be my choice.

 

oh yea, those have that "pressed on cam gear" (or something like that) that can fail at anytime

 

I had a 92 for about 5 years - 3 of those was spent in the garage trying to fix it, but when it ran, it was a really fun car.

I would never buy one again and wish I would have listenend to my parents and not bought the thing in the first place. But hey, at 20 years old, you really don't like to listen to parents.

 

Wow, a lot of SHO basher's around here. Although I guess I'd have to agree at least to some degree with the part of about repairs being costly if you intend on letting a mechanic do all the work and provide you with all of the parts.

On the other hand, if you don't mind doing some things yourself and have a fairly good understanding of how to properly work on vehicles, then the SHO is no more costly to own and operate (I'd even argue it's less costly) than say, a similar year Mustang, for example. You have to keep in mind that, while the SHO is loaded with many of the so-called amenities that a modern luxery sedan could offer for its time, the Yamaha-built DOHC 3.0L/3.2L engine with 220 horses stock is really the main attraction.

I use the Mustang analogy because I know of personally, and have read about too, all those Mustang owners out there who are pouring thousands and thousands of dollars (and hours) into their rides, much more than I am putting into my SHO, and yet nobody is as much as blinking an eyelid. I find that somewhat amusing. It's also a good analogy since I happen to consider any '89-'95 Mustang to be more of a fun car than a daily driver, which is how a SHO should be viewed as well, IMO.

Click Here to See My SHO

FWIW, I've owned my SHO over 2 years now and I've never taken it to a mechanic even once. Quite frankly, I wouldn't want anyone but myself working on my SHO's engine anyway, I've heard too many stories of garages and even dealerships mucking things up because they aren't familier with it, and they either cannot or will not take the time to learn about it before diving in.

As for the '96+ SHO's and the V8 engine, what Jeff says is correct about the cams, there is a problem in the sprocket area which causes it to break loose from the cam itself . Because the SHO V8 engine is an "inteference" one (the earlier V6 is not), we are usually talking about the kiss of death. However, there has been developed a welding process for the V8 sprockets which permanently binds the sprocket to the cam (no keyways, press-ons, or any other such garbage). This is a preventive strike measure (cost you 5 or 6 hundred) and is pretty much 100% reliable as long as the welder knows what he or she is doing. So I wouldn't totally write off the Gen III SHOs, they are actually a real nice car once the cams are welded.

BTW, two very good resources for anything SHO-related are SHOForum.com ('89-'95) and V8SHO.com ('96-'99).

 

I would say parts wise the SHO is worse than any car I owned except maybe a Datsun. I do 90% of my mechanical work except for trannies and the occasional odd job, and stil this car was a money pit.

My 89 was the worst year due to Ford skimping on the clutch and how the throwout bearing rode on the shaft in the bellhousing. I think maybe the 90 and newer models fixed that.

Still, whenever I had to replace any parts other than spark plugs, oil filters, etc, the parts were at least double the cost for a normal engine. Other than the previously mentioned parts costs, try on $200 for a clutch disc, when normal was less than $100. Fog lights, $100 each and I cracked one every year due to gravel. Wanna replace the ($5)idler pulley bearing on the belt drive, try $100+, you can't buy just the pulley or the bearing(a non standard size, you betcha), you had to buy the whole idler assembly. The seat rails? try $295 and national backlogged for over 2 years, til I finally welded mine. Apparently the early SHO had lots and lots of touble with the rails, why else a national backlog?

The Heater core blew at about 120,000 and cost over $1,000 to replace because 1) I am too lazy to tear out the dash, 2) the body shop I use for other stuff, didn't want to touch it, 3) the radiator shop the body shop told me to use didn't want to touch it, 4) the dealer saw me coming and 5) to get to the core, you have to remove the AC core which destroys that so you get to replace it too. The core blowing was the final straw that made me sell this money pit and move to a chebby.

The guy is right about finding a dealer that knows what is going on. The one I used ignored what I told them when my code scanner said it needed a new PFE, instead they replaced the regulator etc to the tune of $1000 plus, and the problem didn't go away. The $100 PFE I installed fixed it. Stupid me for listening to that dealer far too often.

My 96 Chebby SS was way less expensive to maintain over about the same number of ownership miles. My 86 TurboCoupe was a dream(except the manual doesn't tell you to change the cam belt, oops). My 79 TA was a penny pincher. We will see about my 04 LS, another of those Amerikan cars with exotic mechanicals, like $15 oil filters!!!??, when will I learn.

Admittedly mine was first year and probably had more than it's share of problems from that, and maybe a bit of vehicle quality roulette, but when CR rates the series of cars in the worst 10 and when common parts cost too much, it was time for me to move on.

Jim Henderson

 

True the SHO is not for the feint at heart, I have been driving my 93 SHO for 7 years and I still love the car. It had 59k on it when I got it, now has 161k. A new chutch was put in a 50k and I put 1 in at 158k. No other real problems at all with it. I'd stay away from a auto trans.