Initial Problems, new Bird

[SirMadog]

Well it took 4 years but I had dropped back into a Thunderbird. I picked up a 1997, 3.8 Collector's Series Blue Thunderbird (yes it has decals and special seats and some weird scoops and racing stripes on it). It will be my daily driver for a while, but I have other transportation in the mean time if need be.

Right now I am trying to shake it down. The body and undercarriage is in very good condition, in fact for NE Ohio it looks like it came from New Mexico, I will have to get some pictures up on my blog and here soon *wink. The interior was significantly trashed. I am going to have to replace the dash panel that covers the radio 2 of the air vents and some other things. The doors are shot, Passenger door doesn't have either a inner or outer handle. It must be operated from the inside with a pair of vice grips.

The outside has a half a dozen little issues: No antenna just a whole, cracked rear drivers brake light lens, one out light, front lower bumper plastic cracked (will need that bumper cover right now I will pay good money for one in perfect condition), and I guess I am not so keen on why someone put the racing hood pins on the car instead of having the hood release on the inside.

Now the fun stuff, I got the car drove it about 200 miles and then changed the oil, the dip stick was broken off in the tube, so I removed the tube and screwed a long screw into the end so I can use it as a temporary handle until I get a new identical length dip stick from a junk yard.

The Thunderbird has a 'service engine soon' light on. (At first I thought, oil change has some switch thing, but after some reading I hear I need to disconnect the battery and let it come on again and read the codes...) Their is also a low coolant light on, (full at the radiator, and at the reservoir) I have a small leak someplace, so I hope the light is on because a sensor is detecting an air bubble (when I say slight leak, I see a drop coming down the trans coolant lines and on the starter from below after running for a long time.

I have a pulley that sequels when it is about 15F outside, WD40 shuts it up, but it sounds like someone strangling a creature.

And last on the list. The airbag light flashes, what I think is code 33, 3 flashes 2 second pause then three flashes and a 4 second pause repeating constantly while it is running. Anyone have any clues.

I plan on taking it up to Autozone to get the codes read from the computer tomorrow, I'll post an update.