2002 Ford Thunderbird problems
Owners have filed 116 complaints with NHTSA about the 2002 Ford Thunderbird. Engine is the most reported problem area, at 31% of complaints. Next are electrical system (19%) and air bags (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 116 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Engine 31% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 6 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 5 and 1
- Typical mileage
- 33,000 miles 92 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 24 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 28 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 20 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 13 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 6 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 1 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 92 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 33,000 miles. For engine specifically, the median reported mileage is about 38,000 miles (32 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 6 complaints mention a crash; 5 injuries reported; 1 death reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2002 ranks 9th most-complained-about out of 12 model years of the Ford Thunderbird with enough data (30 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 1 safety recall campaign.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Vehicle drifted off the road and hit an object and neither air bag deployed. Driver died from chest injuries.
This complaint is reguarding a 2002 ford thunderbird. I am the origianl owner, and have had the car in a ford repair shop 4 times for the same problem. The engine throttle sticks, usually when the the brakes are applied. The last incident resulted in the car running through the kitchen of my house. Ford can not find any reason for this reoccuring problem
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 ford thunderbird. While traveling at speeds of 35 MPH, the contact applied the brakes but the brakes did not engage. The contact proceeded to crash into the rear of another vehicle. A police report was filed accordingly. The vehicle was not repaired. The current and failure mileages were 10,000. Updated 08/03/10. Updated 08/04/10.
Water leaked on the passenger side, with the hardtop installed, passenger seat and floor were very wet. Consumer was concern about the air bag in passenger seat as well as electronics under passenger seat.
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 ford thunderbird. When the contact depressed the brake pedal at 5 MPH, the vehicle would suddenly surge forward. Four years prior to this failure, the same issue occurred and the iac control was replaced by the dealer. The vehicle was towed to another dealer, but they could not duplicate the failure. The current mileage was 64,332 and failure mileage was 61,745. Updated 07/28/09.