I am the proud new owner of a '92 Cartier... Any other recalls I should know about?

[Oicu812]

In digging around the board here, I found the Hood Latch, Cruise Control and Ball Joint recalls, and I will be taking my "new" car to the dealership later today. Anything else I should be aware of?

I bought a '92 Towncar Cartier with 130K on it for $900. Runs (with a hesitation on initial revs), cold A/C, and some window issues. The paint is great, though.

O

[Towncar]

Welcome !!! Wow, nice find.. provided it wasn't pulled from the floods in LA

The current condition depends largely on the previous owners maintenance and storage rituals. If it was always garaged for example, the rubber parts are far less prone to deterioration. One way to tell if you're not sure, feel the suppleness of the rubber around all the windows..

Rear Air Springs will need to be replaced by now, if they haven't already. They can be checked by anyone familiar with their failure signs. Ok, the failure signs: Switch off the system (switch in the trunk), Jack the rear all the way up from the frame allowing the wheels to hang, inspect the bottoms of the springs (bags) for cracking. Severely cracked springs are on their way to failure.

[Oicu812]

Thanks. It has a lot of little niggling issues that I have to sort out. The driver side panel and the switches will probably need replaced, and some minor cosmetics.

Any advice for the hesitation / miss issue? When I first start to rev it, there is a bogging down noise out of the intake, and it will start to climb the revs after a second or two. Maybe something with the EGR or somewhere else in the vacuum system? I replaced the plugs (thinking it might be on the fire side of the fire/gas equation), but that didn't seem to help. Any tricks up your sleeve to smooth it out?

Thanks in advance!

O
(And it was bought in Florida, so the body is almost perfect, with two tiny dings in the trunk lid.)

[Towncar]

I'll be thinking about this while at lunch, meanwhile...

When you first turn the Key On.. double-check that all the instrument bulbs are functioning for the warning systems, etc. Specifically look for the Check Engine light too.

Some unscrupulous sellers will remove a bulb to mask a faulty condition.

[Oicu812]

When I first drove it, the CEL came on. I put a jug of fuel injector cleaner in it, and drove it the last two evenings. Tonight, the CEL didn't come on, and the engine ran rather smoothly.

The issue seems to be around 35-40 miles per hour. It seems to go into overdrive, then does the shudder shakes if you are light on the gas trying to accelerate after it shifts all the way up. I read somewhere that this indicates a need to do a fluid change in the transmission, so that will be the next thing on my list.

O

[Oicu812]

And I found the answer for the dings in the trunk lid.

Take an iron, and heat the area as hot as you can get it. Then apply dry ice directly on the ding. This causes the metal to shrink rapidly, and pop the ding out.

O

[Towncar]

OK, Two things...

One, and this is imperative.. there's a TV Cable Bushing at the Throttle Body to the kick down cable. Ford in their infinite wisdom made the bushing out of plastic, it deteriorates and crumbles. After it's gone you have shifting problems, but worse, the trannie destroys itself in NO TIME...

Two, assuming the above issue is resolved, you need to change that trannie fluid asap, and add Lubegard with the replacement fluid. 99.9% of Lubegard users will recommend it to the next guy. The other .1% waited too long.

PS: The new TV Bushings are bronze

EDIT:
Here's a link to a Tech Article showing that TV Bushing R&R

[Oicu812]

Holy Crikies!

A decision by Ford to use a $0.10 nylon bushing in something so critical, that if this little plastic jobber breaks apart, you lunch the transmission???

I won't even drive it again until I get the replacement part installed. Planned obsolescence is one thing, but that is outright piracy.

O

[Towncar]

Yep, check yours if you haven't already.. it may be the new bronze one already.

[Oicu812]

This is kind of odd. I looked at the photos in that guide, and the cables and butterfly valve arm look nothing like that.

There are two cables that come in from behind the drivers' side of the engine, and both are fed through a solid black plastic body that has a flat metal clip through it. What I take to be the actual throttle cable from the accelerator peddle actually clicks onto a knob on the butterfly valve control arm. The other cable (The throttle valve cable tranny cable?) is attached through the same black plastic junction, just above the other. Has someone replaced the whole mechanism, do you think? Because it looks nothing like the pics.

I looked the the sticker on the side of the engine, and it shows a 1992 date on it, which is correct for the car.

O

[Towncar]

Damn... Well 1st, it sounds like you wont be having that problem. Later models did away with that screwy setup too, in favor of electronics. This may have something to do with your transmission or Trannie swap, I just don't have the answer for you.

Here's what we should do at this point, just to be sure you're safe... I already have one and will be looking at it throughly a bit later, go over to Ford Cd's.com and get a copy of the 1992 Factory Service Manual (for free, you can go back later and make a donation if you wish), have a look at the setup.

[Oicu812]

I have one other quick question: Is there a way for me to pull my own codes? The stupid CEL came on again.

O

[Towncar]

EDIT: The following is total BS, Sorry

Yep, it's OBD1... you can get an OBD1 scanner for $30 or so.. Harbor Freight has a cheapo one. They give the code numbers, then you whip out your handy book to see the definition. Then you get confused and post your findings and questions

Oh, I think you can ground something to put the system into self test mode. This would send a Morse Code type (actually called flash codes) signal to the CEL light, blinking out the failure numbers.

Lemme find that reference and post back here in a minute....

EDIT:
Shit! All this time I was thinking you have a 5.0L engine, it's a 4.6L, OBD compliant ??. It's that EEC-IV system.

EDIT #2:
Well now I'm getting a bit confused as to the OBD1 compliance. According to what I'm reading all over the place, including past threads in this forum, the system was OBD1 compliant but the connector is Ford specific. The ports are on the drivers side fender under the hood.
Have a look at this 1991 thread, it details some of the problems.

Also, you might want to run a search on this board too. I think you may have to join them before you can search.