Probe

M

mabo

Club Member
Nov 13, 2011
5,365
5,007
south wales
I guess this is a little off topic but I've recently noticed a Probe sitting idle.
I spoke to the garage keeper where it is parked. It seems the owner gave it to them for pre MOT. They condemned the inner sills and stopped. Owner didn't want to spend any more on it and has since bought another car.
It's a nice car, present is the second owner, ( first was Ford so maybe a demo car ) V6 white but resprayed at some point, no major body rust visible. Leather interior and sunroof. All in reasonable nick. Via the rear wheel arch the rear inner sill looks pretty flaky. I'd like to save her but don't have the room.
If the inners are gone then judging by our Cougars the outers will be pretty poor too but they are covered by the body kit cladding Probes have. I haven't got down to look fully underneath but the engine bay and brief inspection of boot floor looks OK. I suspect she could be bought for a couple of hundred and I'm afraid to go back incase my restraint crumbles and I open my wallet.
Anybody got experience if these ? What is she worth ? Will she need a rear subframe like our Cougars ?Anyone interested in taking her on ?

So many cars so little time. Sob.:(
 
I had a couple and loved them. Im not sure about subframes but they can rot pretty badly, if the inner sills are gone it might not be worth doing. Prices of good ones do seem to finally be on the up though. They're a great car in good condition and I reckon my v6 was quicker than the equivalent Cougar.
 
They have a better engine than the cougar, be worth asking the garage how much the work would cost, I believe unlike the cougar sills are actually available for the probe, I could never get on driving them myself, my mate had one and it was nice but indicators on the wrong side and the driving position just wasn't comfortable
 
Great cars, worth saving as they are becoming very scarce now.
I do prefer the Cougar though, the only things I don't like about the Probe is the Mazda engine which is prone to ring failure / blue smoke issues.
And the Bosch distributors, they are known for failing and can leave you stranded. Quite expensive to replace these.
Nice to drive though, similar driving position to the Cougar.
 
Haha I know all about the blue smoke mate. Do you remember my Silver Blue Mist one? Went to Bounemouth and back in it once, 300 miles on 5 litres of oil lol

I agree with Paul about the stalks though, very annoying. The pop-up lights made up for its sins though :)
 
catbus said:
Great cars, worth saving as they are becoming very scarce now.
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Back in 2003 when I was looking for a fast Coupe for Tracey, we briefly considered a V6 Probe. It turned out that everything we could find was either a knackered shed or over-priced. Or both. And that's how she ended up with a kind-of-Honda-derived Rover 4-banger, perfect in every way.

I guess we could've stretched to a decent Probe, but my "Grr... Rover" thread suggests that we made the right choice at exactly the right time. See because Probes were aging badly, but Tomcats were still pretty young and cheap (I paid £6K for Jinxy) and T had seen them at the Birmingham show and fell in love, so it wasn't a difficult decision.

Fast-forward some 25 years from production, and I agree with you. Both of them are showing their origin; when did you see either on the road, actually running?

I'd love to properly save/restore either, but at this point we're talking about dismantling back to basics and moving on from there. Almost as though they were built in the 60s.
 
Mako said:
Back in 2003 when I was looking for a fast Coupe for Tracey, we briefly considered a V6 Probe. It turned out that everything we could find was either a knackered shed or over-priced. Or both. And that's how she ended up with a kind-of-Honda-derived Rover 4-banger, perfect in every way.

I guess we could've stretched to a decent Probe, but my "Grr... Rover" thread suggests that we made the right choice at exactly the right time. See because Probes were aging badly, but Tomcats were still pretty young and cheap (I paid £6K for Jinxy) and T had seen them at the Birmingham show and fell in love, so it wasn't a difficult decision.

Fast-forward some 25 years from production, and I agree with you. Both of them are showing their origin; when did you see either on the road, actually running?

I'd love to properly save/restore either, but at this point we're talking about dismantling back to basics and moving on from there. Almost as though they were built in the 60s.
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you can thank whatever it is over there that kills the underside of cars for that.

I still see them here a buddy of mine a few years ago had one. He loved it.
Id take a coug over one anyday, but they do make a quite fine alternative.

As for the mention of the Mazda engine. I believe the V6 probe had a KDLE engine in it. Unlike the cougars duratec, they make aftermarket turbo kits for fairly cheap to fit the probe.
That being considered I would think you could find decent upgrades to make them really nice.

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backseateducation said:
Haha I know all about the blue smoke mate. Do you remember my Silver Blue Mist one?
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That was one of best (and rarest) colours, the chameleons looked nice too.
They also did a laser tint red , but I didn't think it suited the Probe as much as it does Rikedwards Cougar.

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rooster2100 said:
As for the mention of the Mazda engine. I believe the V6 probe had a KDLE engine in it. Unlike the cougars duratec, they make aftermarket turbo kits for fairly cheap to fit the probe.
That being considered I would think you could find decent upgrades to make them really nice.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
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Some guys over here swap out the KLDE and fit a KLZE from the mx-6 imports.
Supposed to give a decent increase in power...
 
rooster2100 said:
you can thank whatever it is over there that kills the underside of cars for that.
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The Japanese have a road-worthiness test that is the equivalent of the Swiss one. Like, a full-on white-glove experience. This is even to the point that they have to jet-wash the car's belly.

Since this is so strict and costs so much - a good percentage of a Kei car's value - they see their cars as disposable. It's why Japanese cars aren't properly undersealed.

Not sure if you know this, but T owns an 1.8 NB Miata as a runabout. And that thing needs its belly cleaned up and rust-treated because it's just raw metal and paint under there. There isn't even much stone-chip protection apart from around the arches. Not that it helps any.
 
Mako said:
Not sure if you know this, but T owns an 1.8 NB Miata as a runabout. And that thing needs its belly cleaned up and rust-treated because it's just raw metal and paint under there. There isn't even much stone-chip protection apart from around the arches. Not that it helps any.
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I have jackstands and some tools. Drive it on over and we'll hook it up. pick up some undercoating on the way though cause Im out.

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rooster2100 said:
I have jackstands and some tools. Drive it on over and we'll hook it up. pick up some undercoating on the way though cause Im out.
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LOL - driving it under the Atlantic probably won't be more of a rot risk than she already has.

Lemme know you you want anything from the Titanic on the way past!
 
Mako said:
LOL - driving it under the Atlantic probably won't be more of a rot risk than she already has.

Lemme know you you want anything from the Titanic on the way past!
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I was thinking put alot of extra air in the tires, pack light, and drive really fast and go over. but if you can hold your breath long enough to go under not only are you the man but that would be an awesome sight.

And yeah grab that big diamond the old chick threw off the boat at the end of the movie lol.

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'On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris.....'

Reading your posts put that in my head!
 
Mako said:
Not sure if you know this, but T owns an 1.8 NB Miata as a runabout. And that thing needs its belly cleaned up and rust-treated because it's just raw metal and paint under there. There isn't even much stone-chip protection apart from around the arches. Not that it helps any.
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I keep telling you.......:) :)
 
mabo said:
If the inners are gone then judging by our Cougars the outers will be pretty poor too but they are covered by the body kit cladding Probes have.
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I can't remember exactly what you're referring to here. but if its those plastic pieces that clip to the rockers, that could possibly be a save or a kill.
Problems with alot of that stuff is it holds water and debris against the side of the car. The body kit on my first coug actually rusted the rockers out. kind of like the guys poking screwdrivers through the metal, I was able to do that, but I was using my finger not a screwdriver. It was utterly horrid. Hopefully that ones the save instead.

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