I just bought a shadow gray 2003 Cobra about 2 weeks ago. It is my first one. I drove 13 hours round trip to get it and it drove fine on the way back. I had it almost 2 weeks when it overheated. The first thing i noticed was the car felt like it was running out of gas, kind of chugging, or I guess losing power. I checked the gauges and noticed it was hot. I turned the heat on and drove it about another mile to where i was going. There I let it cool down, checked the fluids which were all fine and tried to drive it home. I only made it a little over a mile before it did it again. After the first "chug" i pulled over and called a wrecker. Now it is going to be Thursday before I can get it looked at by our local cobra "expert" and i am freaking out because I don't have answers of why this happened and did I do some major damage to the car. Has anything like this ever happened to anyone else and do you think i did major damage to the car. The guy I am taking it to said it didn't sound good. Please help, I am really stressing out until I can get this looked at. I don't even have tags for it yet! Thanks for any info on this subject.
Welcome to the site. I hope it's nothing major. As long as you didn't let it get too hot for too long, you probably didn't do any damage.
I see you found the SVT tech page. That's the best place for your question. Enjoy the site, and I hope you get a cheap and easy solution in fixing the car.
Check the oil and coolant for any mixing, due to a head gasket. If the had gaskets are OK, I don't think that the problem is gonna be too major.
Good luck.
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1992 Deep Emerald Green Mustang GT Hatch, 5 speed, 2.73s, Mac fenderwell cold air intake, '93 Cobra MAF, Mac 70mm throttle body & spacer, Explorer intakes, Mac unequal headers & offroad pipe, Magnaflow catback, Walbro 110lph fuel pump, Jet adjustable FPR, MSD Blaster coil, Accel 8mm wires, FRPP aluminum quadrant, UPR firewall adjuster, stock cable, Granatelli upper control arms.
Waiting to go on: Granatelli lower control arms, and GT40 Iron heads!
I wonder if your coolent is circulating, if you get my drift. I had something similar happen to me...but I was too late, I cracked the block on a different car, not the Cobra! Water pump had gone out.
Sounds like you might have some air trapped. Make sure you don't have any coolant leaks and burp it. The same thing happened to me. Had a small crack in the reservior that sucked in air. Replaced it and it ran fine for a while - starts heating. Trapped air was the problem. Ofcourse there are other possibilities. Keep us posted.
yeah, check for air in the lines also. It sounds like the wather pump, but keep us posted.
Your luck sounds like mine, don't fret you probably did not hurt anything, it was a good thing to call a wrecker. Do not continue driving it overheating ( which you already know)
Good luck,
Rich
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96 cobra, 4:10 gears, K&N cold air induction, BBK long tube headers, BBK high flow cats, king cobra clutch.
"If I am ticking you off, then I must be speaking the truth"
well i just baught a 1999 mustang gt and it runs fine but it over heats and the temp. gauge reads normal temp but you could hear ht ewater boiling with pressure and the fan dies not turn on and the car is really hot sorry for mu spelling
I NEED HELP
There is a mod that can be done but won't solve this problem. Unless its something like a stuck therm. blown gasket or water pump, the chance is you have air trapped in the system. Sometimes they are a pain to burp but if your still having issues, drop me a line. Good Luck.
Ive been working on my friends 04 mystichrome for a while... To burp them remove the 1/4 inch drive plug located on the drivers side to burp the car. Make sure when you burp them to have the car running and the Heater running on high. This will allow the air from not only the block but also the rest of the coolant system to flush fully. Sorry if you already resolved this, just ive been dealing with this issue for the last couple weeks.
Ive been working on my friends 04 mystichrome for a while... To burp them remove the 1/4 inch drive plug located on the drivers side to burp the car. Make sure when you burp them to have the car running and the Heater running on high. This will allow the air from not only the block but also the rest of the coolant system to flush fully. Sorry if you already resolved this, just ive been dealing with this issue for the last couple weeks.
as stated, this 1" or so pipe plug is in the metal coolant X-over tube and is the highest point in the coolant system and is where the coolant system should be filled from and bleed, failure todo-so will result in over heating issues.....
so...yes, this is an old thread. but it helped me out.
i have an 03 cobra and it over heated on me. the water pump is fine.. the reservior is full..and the hose have been checked.. and it's been burped before...so..
now what?
help please.
oh and it only does it...every so often...a couple of months will go by and then it decides to heat up. so... i'm frustrated.
so...yes, this is an old thread. but it helped me out.
i have an 03 cobra and it over heated on me. the water pump is fine.. the reservior is full..and the hose have been checked.. and it's been burped before...so..
now what?
help please.
oh and it only does it...every so often...a couple of months will go by and then it decides to heat up. so... i'm frustrated.
do you actually sea water/coolant being pushed outta' the engine or is this something the temp gauge in the cluster is telling you?
it happened to me yesterday.. i saw the guage...freaked me out.. so i pulled over..
let it cool off...i looked under the car and there was a puddle. lots of fluid.
so i did the usual checks on it.. and sure enough.. i unplugged the 1/4 plug at the top..and filled it.. it took about a gallon.
so it's running great now.. but i want to fix this.. it keeps happening.
2003 Mustang Cobra Overheating 
