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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / June 200599 Grand Marqius big dissapointrment
I have a 99 Grand Marquis and it is putting me in the poor house. 111,000 miles (1) Ball Joints and tie rods $800.00 installed (2) Spark Plug Coils? $100 a piece (quantitiy unknown as of today) The car is bucking occassionally. At idle speeds in nuetral the engine misfires. (3) transmission shudder repair price unknown and yes I did change the fluid and filter regularly. (4) brake rotors are warped so the car pulses when I apply the brakes. Bottom line? I will never buy and American car again let alone a Ford. I've had them all and they all seem to require expensive repairs to early and frequently. My friends who have imports don't seem to have the same problems unless they are lying to me. > I have a 99 Grand Marquis and it is putting me in the poor house. > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > frequently. My friends who have imports don't seem to have the same > problems unless they are lying to me. Your friends are lying to you. Actually they are people I work with who insist that imports are great. The is a good chance that they are lying. Still, I'm pissed that this car of mine seems to be a money pit. On Sun, 29 May 2005 23:00:18 GMT, " « Paul »" <" « Paul » "@houston.rr.com> wrote: >> I have a 99 Grand Marquis and it is putting me in the poor house. >> [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > >Your friends are lying to you. Nothing lasts forever. At 111k miles your vehicle is getting up there. However... 111k is not much for ball joints. Are you sure they were bad and you did not get ripped off? Coil-On-Plugs go bad. Check imports (Toyota, Honda, VW, etc.) for ongoing problems. Trans' go bad. 111k is getting up there for a trans. Few make it past 180k. Warped brake rotors are a common problem with all vehicles. It is due to wrong torque on the lug nuts combined with thin alloy (sometimes 2 metal) rotors. - Someone is not using a torque wrench properly like they should be doing. My thoughts are that you are taking care of your vehicle very well but you might be being taken advantage of. Your friends are not taking care of their vehicles and intend to get rid of them in poor condition. All machines break. Import parts will cost a lot, lot more than for your Merc. > >> I have a 99 Grand Marquis and it is putting me in the poor house. > >> [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > > >Your friends are lying to you. The ball joints were definately bad. I checked them myself and told them they were bad. The wheels were very loose. In fact, they failed long before 11k miles, I just put up with thme until I was tired of the crappy handling. Torquing the lug nuts improperly sounds reasonable and is probably what happened. Now that they are warped, I guess they are no good? On Mon, 30 May 2005 01:08:31 GMT, " « Paul »" <" « Paul » "@houston.rr.com> wrote: >Nothing lasts forever. At 111k miles your vehicle is getting up there. >However... [quoted text clipped - 37 lines] >> > >> >Your friends are lying to you. > The ball joints were definately bad. I checked them myself and told > them they were bad. The wheels were very loose. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Torquing the lug nuts improperly sounds reasonable and is probably > what happened. Now that they are warped, I guess they are no good? I agree with Kruse's answer to your questions. You can try shaving some off the rotors if not too much. The thinner they are though, the easier they heat up and warp. All cars have problems... Like tie rod ends wearing out at 30k miles on Pontiac GP's. And trans' going bad in Nissans and Hondas. > I have a 99 Grand Marquis and it is putting me in the poor house. 1. The ball joint and tie rod repair $$ is excessive. Instead of using factory replacements, get aftermarket GREASEABLE parts and you never have to worry about replacing them again. 2. The coils very seldom go bad on the COP (coil over plug) motors. It's usually the spark plug boot only. NAPA has the replacement boot for next to nothing. 3. I won't comment on the tranny except that it could be several different problems including the wrong type of fluid. 4. Brake rotors can warp, whether they are foreign or domestic branded. NEVER tighten with an impact. Torque to spec using a genuine torque wrench. Also make sure that they mating surface between the wheel and the rotor is clean so that unwanted material between the wheel and the rotor doesn't warp the rotor. Never use a cheap foreign made replacement rotor. It will quickly warp again. If very little material needs to be taken off, the rotors can be turned. (There are conflicting arguments on this. I feel a slight amount taken off is okay) Bottom line? Your friends are lying to you, but enjoy your next foreign car. Thanks for the info. I did have lower, and upper ball joints and tie rods replaced for $750.00 I won't be buying any car anytime soon because I am loosing my job dur to layoff because my company wnats younger people. Age = 58 years. No hope for a new job due to age discrimination , but that's another story. Too many bills and kids tuition to retire. Bye the way, how the hell do you get the plug wires off. Looks like you have to remove the fuel lines? >> I have a 99 Grand Marquis and it is putting me in the poor house. > [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] >Bottom line? Your friends are lying to you, but enjoy your next foreign >car. > Bye the way, how the hell do you get the plug wires off. Looks like > you have to remove the fuel lines? Unhook the wires going to the coil. You need to squeeze the connector and they simply unplug. Take out the bolt that holds down the coil. Wiggle the coil back and forth and gently pull up at the same time. You probably won't have to disconnect the fuel lines, but the procedure will try your patience the first time. You may have to slightly move the fuel lines to access the coils. You may also have to unhook/unbolt/take off a bunch of other items to get to the coil or plug. BTW, if at 110K miles you haven't replaced the spark plugs, you need to. AND, some of the coils will be a PITA to get to as you already assume. the tranny has a sensor on it that has gone bad,my dad has owned two crown vics,ive owned one,and my grandmother has had one,at 100k they all started doing the shuddering like going over train tracks usually between 2nd and third i believe its called the transmission position sensor its a 35 dollar part It's a Ford, you know. |
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