Is the SHO high Maintenance or not?

[SHO_ROLLER]

Hi,
My dad and I are having a debate on the SHO being high maintenance or not. From what I have read here on the forums, I would have to say yes. My dad says it is just like any other vehicle, take car of it, and it will run. The reason we are having this discussion in the first place is because of all the work we have done in the past 2 months. $1400 for a clutch, rear main seal, 2 motor mounts, CV seals, re-seal the oil pan and an alternator. Now I need new valve cover gaskets. I figured it would be this much for an older car and all, but my dad thinks I drive too hard. I just wanted your guys opinion. Thanks!

Anthony squint

 

[yamahaSHO]

I would have to say yes, it is high maintainence. I would also have to agree with your dad. The biggest thing is, the parts for the car can be pretty expensive. Its really not that hard to work on, well, at least not as hard as it looks. I have all the records for my car and even though it has been in the shop a lot, it has not been in more than a regular car.

 

[Machspeed]

Overall yes. Some SHOs are great quality. In general however SHOs are money pits. I've done all the regular maintainence and then some and my SHO has already developed more problems just one month after the 60k. The engine however is in my opinion one of the best ever made in history. You take good care of that engine it'll run very strong for a LONG time. Just look at sdpatts. Doesnt he pull a f'n boat with his SHO?

 

[luigisho]

The parts for the general maintenance are fairly expensive as a baseline. If you drive it hard you will need to fix more stuff. They also require requisite upkeep for their age. If it has been driven aggressively for most of its life there will be a correlating amount needed for repairs.

 

[Groo]

It really depends on how hard you drive it. The harder you drive it, the more stuff breaks.

Even so, it's a Taurus with a 220hp motor. The Taurus wasn't built to handle that, neither was the MTX-III (which they upgraded for the SHO). Naturally, things break slightly more than average.

 

[PROPHET]

High maintenance...YES.
By the time you pay for a sho ,maintenance,modify the engine,suspension.
Well you could have bought a nice 90s Bimmer.

 

[jthomas68]

I must be on the up side.I don`t believe the SHO is high maintenance,or a money pit.This opinion stems from the ownership of my specific SHO,and the ones owned by my close friends.You may have has to just spend a decent amount of money on yours,but that is to be expected with a 10 year old car.The maintenance items you`ve just said are maintenance items on every car.

 

[Mr Anonymous]

No, it's not.

In your case, you're talking about a now 13-year-old model. You'd be hard pressed to find any car of that age that doesn't require increasing maintenance costs. Fortunately, many of the larger costs are usually 'one-time' jobs (like the clutch, rear main seal and motor mounts) that will last you 70-100K miles before you have to attend to them again.

My '94 ATX with 85K cost me a whopping $600 in repairs and maintenance this year (not counting oil changes). I drive my car hard, but don't beat on it or race it, I maintain it on schedule and immediately attend to any repairs. I suspect next year will cost me a little more than this year, but probably still under $1000.

A used car is a used car. Some are better than others, and naturally some are worse. All in all, for the performance, utility and reliability of the SHO, I personally think it's probably more economical than similar models in the same age and mileage bracket.

 

[billh]

SHO_ROLLER:
Hi,
My dad and I are having a debate on the SHO being high maintenance or not. From what I have read here on the forums, I would have to say yes. My dad says it is just like any other vehicle, take car of it, and it will run. The reason we are having this discussion in the first place is because of all the work we have done in the past 2 months. $1400 for a clutch, rear main seal, 2 motor mounts, CV seals, re-seal the oil pan and an alternator. Now I need new valve cover gaskets. I figured it would be this much for an older car and all, but my dad thinks I drive too hard. I just wanted your guys opinion. Thanks!

Anthony squint

I have had some bad luck with the automatic transmission in my car, but overall, the SHO is not any higher maintenance than any other thirteen year old Performance Car. For an engine that has a 7000 RPM redline and was light years ahead of it's time when it was released, they are extremely reliable. Replacing one of these cars with something comparable in todays market will not be inexpensvie. Unless you can stand a "Ricer"
(I want one with a 55Gallon Fart can muffler)

 

[Bizzy]

All SHOs are different. Some have had a bad maintenance record which will make it more troublesome than those who have been meticulously kept. If you decide to buy one, check out the maintenance records...be wary if they don't have any. My car has it's ups and downs, did not have a good maintenance record before my ownership, but overall, she's never left me stranded ont he side of the road yet. I'd buy another one in a NY minute.

 

[Machspeed]

PROPHET:
High maintenance...YES.
By the time you pay for a sho ,maintenance,modify the engine,suspension.
Well you could have bought a nice 90s Bimmer.

Shit...for the money ive put in my SHO i can almost get that F-40 ive been wanting...lol

 

[jbeano]

I would have to throw my vote in with high maintenance. Mine is a 95 and I've owned it since 98. It has always required one thing or another. Currently it's sitting in my garage waiting for me to put in the second clutch in a year. The previous one self destructed after a dyno run.

 

[SHO_ROLLER]

Thanks for all the input everyone! I bought my SHO from the second owner and it was VERY well kept. And I'm trying to keep the tradition! I guess it's just that a lot of repairs have to be done within a couple of months of each other. I'll be doing the valve cover gaskets and rotors myself. As for being able to buy a Bimmer after the repairs of an SHO, I'll take my SHO any day!

Anthony thumbs_u

 

[SHOZ123]

I would say the Gen 3 is NOT high maintenace.

 

[RTStabler51]

Is the sky blue?

And get out of denial people, it is a high maintenance vehicle.

 

[SolidState]

I dunno....it is high maintenance, but it is 10-13 years old now...

my dad understands this...and tells me just to drive it until it breaks, but that is where the SHO differs from others....

sure, it'll go longer than most, but it responds well to even the most mild maintenace....you are rewarded pretty well for doing the maintenance...

 

[jbeano]

While there are lots of components that will fail because of age the ones failing on my SHO are ones I've previously fixed. I have an 86 SVO which comes out only in the summer and is 9 years older than the SHO. Besides regular maintenance items I've been able to drive it hard with no ill effects. Do the same with the SHO and boom.

 

[Porod]

All cars require a fairly extensive amount of maintanence to remain at the peak operating condition. High performance cars require more than grocery getters. For the kind of car the SHO is, it does not require a ridiculous amount of maintanence, but it is MORE than on a regular Taurus or any other run of the mill car.

 

[blackcurrant]

High maintenance or not...it's the aggravating parts issues that get me....

Has anyone made a list of commonly failing partS that Ford has discontinued?

RH carrier bearing is the first to come to mind.

And $200 water pumps can add up to high maintenance COST!

There're two issues here... frequency of repair and cost.

 

[FordLover]

The SHO is only high maintaince when you're catching up with lack of maintaince(abuse) from former owners.
my 95 with 110K miles I just bought a couple of months ago with unknown maintaince history.
I've bought a 21 dollar VS sensor to fix the tranny shifting, and a 15 dollar rear swaybar end link. Other than that, it's been pretty much trouble free, and just needed cleaning here and there. True the A/C doesn't work, but that's the only thing that doesn't, and all it needs is an A/C condenser and a recharge.
-Martin