All, New member here after following this amazing forum for some time. Contemplating purchase of 2008 GT500 with only 3500 miles on the clock and would appreciate your feedback re two matters and any others you might flag for consideration: 1) I understand early years incl 2008 had ongoing TSB's and parts updates to (try to?) address clutch problems. It appears many of these were done at Ford's expense but a vin search of service history on this car shows no such updates done. It is now long out of warranty so my question is: if I need to do these at my own expense, am I looking at modest cost (a few hundred dollars) or a good deal more, and if the latter, what work would be done and what might it roughly cost? 2) Carfax shows oil change around 1K miles but nothing since except for annual registration renewals, so I can't tell is the car had 3500 miles on it as of, say, 2008 and has mostly sat ever since or it it might have been driven more regularly a small number of miles each year over the last 8 years. I want a reliable weekend recreational driver, not a project, so is this very low mileage a big red flag for a bunch of stuff that may go bad before its time due to lack of regular use? If yes, are affected items of modest cost to repair or are some of them things that could cause me to end up way underwater on the purchase? I know there are pretty much no guarantees about anything in life but would appreciate hearing some guidance from those of you who have been down this road before. Thanks! --Leigh
I went down that road with my 2008. Bought it with 3700 miles. It soon needed a full engine build. Low miles doesn't mean easy Sunday driving miles. Get a 3rd party to do a full inspection of the car. Good luck.
Thanks for your comment and sorry to hear yours ended up needing such major work. Tires on the car I am cons are original but there clearly is more wear on the rears--as one would expect--than the fronts. I know the original tires wear crazy fast, though. Eager to hear from others on the questions I posed and welcome any and all input.
Not a GT500, but I bought a very low mile Terminator with stock tires, etc... After putting about 500 miles on it only, it recently came home from an engine rebuild that lasted the summer. It's now stronger and better than stock, but my wallet seriously suffered. I also recommend heeding the above advice and taking it to a mechanic to have it evaluated before buying.
The reality is that if someone bought that car and sat on it for this long, it was probably taken care of. I wouldn't hesitate to buy it after a good inspection. I bought my '07 two years ago with less than four hundred miles on it, and the only problem I came across was a bad gas tank and pumps after sitting around for so long. Clutch will run you quite a bit of money if you don't do the work yourself. $1,300-ish for the parts alone.
Thanks for your comments deadstang. Was the engine work due to reasons related to low mileage on the car? What would a mechanic check or spot that would alert you in advance to likely imminent failure? joewee500, can you say more about why work on yours was needed? I found earlier threads you posted which suggest your car was pretty modded when you got it and am wondering if you have insight that points to low mileage rather than lots of mods as the more probable cause of the problems you experienced. Thank you both for your comments and please keep them coming. -- Leigh
A new clutch and install can cost 1500-2000 depending on the clutch you get. If your not planning on modding and racing you can get a cheaper clutch but if you want to race a little your going to want a McLeod RXT or something similar. Just because there was a TSB doesn't necessarily mean you'll need a new clutch. As far as there being no records for oil changes its very possible they were done by the owner or somewhere other than a ford dealership. I agree that you should have the car inspected by a 3rd party that you trust.
My car was modded. Engine was blown and rebuilt. This was on the carfax. I called the dealer on the carfax and got the info about the builder. All checked out. Car ran decent but it was only after I had it looked at by a shop did they find that the valves were leaking and and compression was down in 2 cylinders. Also supercharger was overheated and needed rebuild. This had nothing to do with low mileage, just a poor rebuild and someone trying to do a quick flip. I'm sure yours is an entirely different situation. Just get it looked at and you'll be fine.
Thanks, everyone, for your comments and clarifications. I am guessing the absence of any apparent history on the clutch TSBs is due to the car not as yet having accumulated enough miles for the weak spots to have presented themselves to the prior owner. I will see if I can get the OASIS report suggested above, too. I have always done my own work and don't have any bead on a local mechanic whom I would know to trust for a pre-purchase inspection, much less one who would have experience with early GT500s, so need to noodle on that one.
I would not let the clutch thing worry you. I purchased my 2008 two years ago and it had no repairs on the oasis report and had 9000 miles. Before I purchased it I tested the clutch and it behaved exactly like the owners manual supplement described. It worked fine and held. The first thing I did was to begin saving for a clutch and have since driven the car 5,000 miles and the clutch acts like it did the day I purchased it. I did a ton of research on these cars before buying and for every clutch that was replaced under warranty I found another that had 30 or 40 thousand mikes on it. If the car is everything you want it to be I would buy it, add a 2.5 stock look pulley and idler, a cai and tune and go have fun. Btw you should get rid of those stock tires. Get something sticky like Nitto and go enjoy it. Dan
RedZR, thanks for your comments. I am not familiar with the owners manual supplement clutch operation description and would be grateful if you can summarize any specifics noted there, esp if different from what one ordinarily expects with a manual trans setup. The clutch felt quite firm compared with my 2008 Bullitt but I expected a stronger force would be required assuming the clutch is beefier than the one in my much less powerful 315 HP 4.6L.
I am using my phone to reply and having trouble referencing links. You can do a Google search on gt500 clutch tsb" and the most recent one (issued in 2009 or 10) describes how a properly functioning clutch should act. They key, in my opinion, with the stock ceramic clutch is do not slip it. It likes an abrupt engagement. Dan
