Buying 1995 Town Car
homeskillet43
02-15-2006, 06:58 PM
Ok people I am getting ready to purchase a 1995 Lincoln Town Car, I was wondering what are some of the key things I should be looking for? I was told that the Town Cars have rear air bags, and front coil springs, how true is that? I had a 1995 Continental and they have air bags on all four wheels, the ride was the best, until I was driving one day, and my car just dropped, with no warning signs. Is this problem common with the Town Cars.
master hec0
02-15-2006, 10:40 PM
not common but if u wake up one day and ur cars laying down its cheap to fix air bags btw look onthe engin turns over after 8 sec thread he seems to want to sell his 1995 tc seems like its got problomes tho ask him about it
Towncar
02-16-2006, 12:33 AM
Ok people I am getting ready to purchase a 1995 Lincoln Town Car, I was wondering what are some of the key things I should be looking for? I was told that the Town Cars have rear air bags, and front coil springs, how true is that? ....
Yes, you were informed correctly. Fronts are normal coil springs, and the rears are Air springs. The main purpose of the Air springs in the Town Car, from my experience, is to keep the rearend level with varying loads.
Key things:
Service records would be nice. Especially if they show the car was taken care of. It's never to late to run fully synthetic oil either.
No particular order, here goes:
The transmission should be flushed every 30/40k miles due to it's shuddering problem. The flush and refill with premium grade MerconV keeps the shudder at bay.
Turn off the air compressor switch in the trunk, passenger side, overnight to see if the air springs leak down. If so, replace the bags right away to prevent compressor stress and failure.
Check for CEL (Check Engine Light) and pull any codes present to determine if there are any problems beyond your operating budget.
Check that all the dash lights work to be sure someone hasn't removed a bulb from a warning system. You can do this with key on, engine off.
Check the operation of the heater and fan controls. There are two things that fail in the climate controls, 1)-The Blower Speed Control, relatively simple fix with a soldering gun. 2)-The Blend Door Actuator, this one is a real bitch to fix, symptoms are no control of where the blower air flows, and sometimes a banging sound where the Blend Door itself is banging open/closed.
Check the front of the Intake Manifold. The first crossover, right behind the Alternator should be made of aluminum as well as the Thermostat housing/mounting flange. If it's a plastic composite crossover it will eventually fail, usually when you run WOT for a few seconds, and blast hot Radiator coolant all over the engine and engine bay. This usually results in a massive steam cloud when the coolant hits the exhaust system. Manifold kits are available just about everywhere now, simple to install, set's you back a few hundred $$ if you replace that pesky Heater Hose that runs down the valley of the engine block just under the manifold at the same time - recommended.
Seat heaters will fail, there's not much you can do about that, it's just a piss-poor design. The heater pads (one in the backrest, one in the seat) are joined by thin wire veins set in a ribbon wire harness. Getting in/out of the seat makes the veins bend and eventually breaks the thin wires. Some folks re-solder the broken wires but they break again in another place. Stupid design.
Trunk Pulldown motor will break if it's abused. It's designed to gently take the trunk lid from your hand and finish closing the lid. When someone ignorant to this process slams the trunk lid repeatidly, it breaks the pulldown motor assembly.
The engine hood on most of these cars is adjusted incorrectly thereby forcing the operator to slam the hood, and I mean really f'n slam it to get it closed. The hood is aluminum, so if some jackass tries to close it gently and it dosn't work, their first lameass instinct is to put both their fat f'n hands on the hood and bounce their 300lb fat ass on the hood, making two very large dents in it. This of course flames your blood and you make the assholes pay for a paintless dent repair. The hood can be adjusted to close normally too.
The CD changer in the trunk is crap. If you get one that works your lucky. Don't be surprised when it dies. NeoChanger makes a very good direct replacement.
The headlight lenses are plastic. They get yellowed after 10 years or so. You can use metal polishes to get the yellow off and clear again, but a more agressive sanding process lasts longer.
The ashtrays in the rear doors are another bonehead design that require repair. There's a small spring that sits on an even smaller nub, the nub breaks off, the spring shoots somewhere inside the door, and the ashtray doors stay open forever. These can be fixed by drilling a small hole where the nub used to be and re-installing the little spring, if you can find it.
ABS sensors on the wheels get corroded connections causing the ABS system to shut down and the ABS warning light to come on at about 15 MPH forward speed. There's an exact speed for the self test, I just dont recall right now what it is. Most folks open the connector plugs one by one (testing the result between cleaning) spray liberally with a contact cleaner, and reconnect the plugs. This works most of the time.
That's the main list of anoyances. There's a host of other problems as you can see in this and other Lincoln forums but they come unexpectantly and are far less common.
Enjoy your new Town Car :)
Yes, you were informed correctly. Fronts are normal coil springs, and the rears are Air springs. The main purpose of the Air springs in the Town Car, from my experience, is to keep the rearend level with varying loads.
Key things:
Service records would be nice. Especially if they show the car was taken care of. It's never to late to run fully synthetic oil either.
No particular order, here goes:
The transmission should be flushed every 30/40k miles due to it's shuddering problem. The flush and refill with premium grade MerconV keeps the shudder at bay.
Turn off the air compressor switch in the trunk, passenger side, overnight to see if the air springs leak down. If so, replace the bags right away to prevent compressor stress and failure.
Check for CEL (Check Engine Light) and pull any codes present to determine if there are any problems beyond your operating budget.
Check that all the dash lights work to be sure someone hasn't removed a bulb from a warning system. You can do this with key on, engine off.
Check the operation of the heater and fan controls. There are two things that fail in the climate controls, 1)-The Blower Speed Control, relatively simple fix with a soldering gun. 2)-The Blend Door Actuator, this one is a real bitch to fix, symptoms are no control of where the blower air flows, and sometimes a banging sound where the Blend Door itself is banging open/closed.
Check the front of the Intake Manifold. The first crossover, right behind the Alternator should be made of aluminum as well as the Thermostat housing/mounting flange. If it's a plastic composite crossover it will eventually fail, usually when you run WOT for a few seconds, and blast hot Radiator coolant all over the engine and engine bay. This usually results in a massive steam cloud when the coolant hits the exhaust system. Manifold kits are available just about everywhere now, simple to install, set's you back a few hundred $$ if you replace that pesky Heater Hose that runs down the valley of the engine block just under the manifold at the same time - recommended.
Seat heaters will fail, there's not much you can do about that, it's just a piss-poor design. The heater pads (one in the backrest, one in the seat) are joined by thin wire veins set in a ribbon wire harness. Getting in/out of the seat makes the veins bend and eventually breaks the thin wires. Some folks re-solder the broken wires but they break again in another place. Stupid design.
Trunk Pulldown motor will break if it's abused. It's designed to gently take the trunk lid from your hand and finish closing the lid. When someone ignorant to this process slams the trunk lid repeatidly, it breaks the pulldown motor assembly.
The engine hood on most of these cars is adjusted incorrectly thereby forcing the operator to slam the hood, and I mean really f'n slam it to get it closed. The hood is aluminum, so if some jackass tries to close it gently and it dosn't work, their first lameass instinct is to put both their fat f'n hands on the hood and bounce their 300lb fat ass on the hood, making two very large dents in it. This of course flames your blood and you make the assholes pay for a paintless dent repair. The hood can be adjusted to close normally too.
The CD changer in the trunk is crap. If you get one that works your lucky. Don't be surprised when it dies. NeoChanger makes a very good direct replacement.
The headlight lenses are plastic. They get yellowed after 10 years or so. You can use metal polishes to get the yellow off and clear again, but a more agressive sanding process lasts longer.
The ashtrays in the rear doors are another bonehead design that require repair. There's a small spring that sits on an even smaller nub, the nub breaks off, the spring shoots somewhere inside the door, and the ashtray doors stay open forever. These can be fixed by drilling a small hole where the nub used to be and re-installing the little spring, if you can find it.
ABS sensors on the wheels get corroded connections causing the ABS system to shut down and the ABS warning light to come on at about 15 MPH forward speed. There's an exact speed for the self test, I just dont recall right now what it is. Most folks open the connector plugs one by one (testing the result between cleaning) spray liberally with a contact cleaner, and reconnect the plugs. This works most of the time.
That's the main list of anoyances. There's a host of other problems as you can see in this and other Lincoln forums but they come unexpectantly and are far less common.
Enjoy your new Town Car :)
PantherFan
02-16-2006, 12:06 PM
Great response Towncar! I think you have nailed all the biggies.
I'm pretty sure the infamous intake manifolds were used in Town Cars from 1996-2001 only, so a 95 should be safe from that particular concern. It's always worth inspecting though, just in case.
I would add that you should check the all the power window functionality. All FoMoCo products seem to suffer premature failures of the regulators back then and even to this day. Not that it's a deal breaker, but it could help to have it identified in price negotiations.
Good Luck with your purchase. Keep in mind that despite these areas of concern, the LTC is a very solid reliable automobile that is also fairly inexpensive to repair.
I'm pretty sure the infamous intake manifolds were used in Town Cars from 1996-2001 only, so a 95 should be safe from that particular concern. It's always worth inspecting though, just in case.
I would add that you should check the all the power window functionality. All FoMoCo products seem to suffer premature failures of the regulators back then and even to this day. Not that it's a deal breaker, but it could help to have it identified in price negotiations.
Good Luck with your purchase. Keep in mind that despite these areas of concern, the LTC is a very solid reliable automobile that is also fairly inexpensive to repair.
03-11-2006, 04:43 PM
steven, just read your post re 95 tc. lots of valuable info here. i just bought a 95 and installed monroes on the front = a pc of cake. the rears however have me stumped. even with the wheel off i cannot seem to un do the top nut short of a torch (not a good idea) how do i hold the stem and turn the 9/16 nut up top ? tried holding the dust shield and it "turns". this has got to be a two man job. any ideas would be welcome. pls e-mail me back. thanks, mike
Towncar
03-11-2006, 08:27 PM
I see this "top shock nut" topic all the time.
Pretty much everyone on Earth agrees; Ford really pulled a boner on this one. I've seen some suggestions that involve Vice grips on the very tip of the shock stud, there's supposidly a squared off portion to grab.
My favorite, and I've seen this one quite a bit, split the nut with a nut splitter.
http://www.northerntool.com/images/product/images/150244_lg.gif
Here's another rescent thread on the subject, there's more over at lol.
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=430554&highlight=Shock+Replace
Pretty much everyone on Earth agrees; Ford really pulled a boner on this one. I've seen some suggestions that involve Vice grips on the very tip of the shock stud, there's supposidly a squared off portion to grab.
My favorite, and I've seen this one quite a bit, split the nut with a nut splitter.
http://www.northerntool.com/images/product/images/150244_lg.gif
Here's another rescent thread on the subject, there's more over at lol.
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=430554&highlight=Shock+Replace
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