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Comments
"What's the best tire for the LS?" is a hard question, because different people want and need different things. The best dry road tire will be poor in the snow, the best performance tire will ride rough. All-season tires tend to be a bit noisy. Everybody can get what they want from one Michelin or another, but the cost is tough to swallow. I personally couldn't justify it unless I thought they'd last 60k miles, and I can't quite believe that. I'm not cheap about my car, but I drive 30k miles a year and can't see spending $800+ on tires too often. And, so far I've been happy with tires that cost far less. Firehawks are around $125, and the Kumhos I have for summer use, while not the greatest performance tire, are superb in the rain, quiet and smooth, and cost $103 from a well-known internet tire retailer. Lots of choices out there, you'll know what you want after you've lived with the LS for a while.
One watchout: My dealer 1st put the MXM4's on as he heard me say Michelin & thought I wanted what's on new LS's today. Good thing I checked before driving out the dealer door.
I am assuming it is a damper but has any one else had this and is it accessible enough for me to try and fix it myself?
The location of the noise is behind the top center air vent.
Please post what you learn. This is an unusual problem, in my experience.
When I mentioned to the advisor that the car idles rough when cold and that I also notice a slight vibration through the steering wheel when idling in traffic, he asks me what grade of fuel I use. Figuring he thought I was putting regular in it, I told him premium(93 octane). He then tells me to put regular(87 octane) in it and says that even though the car recommends 91 or higher, 87 should work fine. He says he drove an LS for a couple of years and never had any problem using 87. What do you guys think, should I give a tank full of 87 a try? Honestly, if it idles rough on premium(which is what the car is designed for) then I seriously doubt that 87 is going to help things a bit. I may have gotten some bad gas on my last fill-up so I'm thinking I am just going to use premium again and see if the problem continues and if it does, tell them when I take it back in. Unless anyone here has any good reason(other than saving .20 a gallon) for me to use regular. Believe me, I'd love to use regular if I can, but I purchased this car with the understanding that it requires premium and intend to use premium unless this really is no reason to. To me, that just sounded a bit strange.
If you are planning on keeping your LS for more than a year or 2 - you could be doing some long-term damage by using 87.
Maybe this is something I'll have to remember about buying a used LS. You just don't know what you are getting and how it was treated. I'd hate to be the poor bozo that bought that guy's car after he used 87 in it for 2 years!
I would strongly urge you to NOT try to fix it yourself by adding any sort of cleaner. This paragraph is from the 2001 LS owner's manual:
"Do not use supplemental engine oil additives, oil treatments or engine
treatments. They are unnecessary and could, under certain conditions,
lead to engine damage which is not covered by your warranty."
In any event, if you do have proof of denied warranty claims due to the use of Techron or BG 44K, I would be very interested to see the documentation.
2021 VW Arteon SEL 4-motion, 2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech
The LS V8 should idle VERY smoothly. The 3.9L engine is one of the smoothest running V8's I've driven, from idle to red line.
A few possible things:
1. A bad injector. The problem could be the opposite of what others have suggested. That is you cold have a leaky injector that is putting too much fuel into a cylinder. This would explain rough idle, but OK power and smoothness when driving. Have someone check and see if you have any black smoke coming out the tail pipes when you start the car up, or when you are idling or pull away from a stop.
2. Bad / weak coil pack (there is one on each plug).
3. There is dirt / dust on the MAF (Mass Airflow sensor) wire. - This causes more rough running engines than you can imagine.
I would not recommend 87 Octane either. 87 will most likely not harm your engine but mileage and power will be lower. One of the things that you get for your extra 20 cents for premium gas is usually a better additive package in the Premium Gas. There is usually more detergents which do the same thing as fuel injector cleaners.
Yes, some people run 87 in their LSs, and claim to notice no penalty in performance or gas mileage. But why anyone would by an expensive high performance car and then screw around with cheap gas is a mystery to me. The '00-'02 3.9 V8 has 10.55 : 1 compression. It needs premium gas to deliver the performance, economy, and longevity the engineers intended. Period.
FWIW: Of the LS owners I'm acquainted with, defective coil packs are more common than bad injectors. And my car has had a can of 44K every 10k miles since day one. Engine performance and economy are the same at 87k miles as when it was newly broken in. Still so smooth that when the spark plugs were changed at 80k miles I couldn't feel any difference in the way it ran.
Hang in there, v8lincolnguy. A good shop will diagnose & fix this quickly, and you'll have the car you bought.
ON whichever car you use, go with what the manufacturer tells you is requires for the engine. If it's 87, and your using higher octane, your WASTING money... The psychological babble that your treating your car for some dessert, doesn't work
If your engine requires premium 91, and your using 87 octane fuel, then your not really saving money, in fact probably averaging the same because the engine will have to work a bit harder to try and prevent from knocking, to TRY and deliver the performance (reduced performance) it's programmed to give with premium gas. So the savings argument doesn't apply in this case.
Not to mention your complicating the engines work, and could be causing some possible damage that will not pop up till maybe later in the engines life.
So that's it in a nutshell, in an eloquent manner.... But personally, if you have the money to afford a premium vehicle, Don't be so DAMN cheap and give it the premium gas. Should have thought of this before buying the vehicle! :-)
I changed out the Firestone tires at 39K+ just before this trip. They were very close to the wear marks, but I didn't see any of the rear tire "center wear" some have mentioned. I always kept them at 32 PSI and rotated front/rear every 12K miles. I replaced them with the Michelin Sport A/S 235/50 ZR17 tires, and I love them. We've put about 5000 miles on them so far, and we've covered all sorts of roads. If they make any more noise than the Firehawks, I really can't detect it except possibly only on some very coarse road surfaces, and perhaps when making VERY hard and fast turns (but they stick like glue, wet or dry). Mostly, I notice a kind of soft/cushioned feeling compared with the Firehawks, which were getting pretty worn. Since I had good results with 32 PSI on the Firehawks, I've been running that in the Michelins too.
As alway, the LS is running perfectly with that silky smooth V8 and on good roads, living room quiet in the cabin, even at 80 MPH. The cruise control in this car is the most steady I've ever experienced. This is a fabulous car for long cross country road trips.
27K seems too low mileage to see coil pack failures. Some early LS V8's had small oil leaks from the cam covers. The oil would collect in the sparkplug wells and cause the coil packs to fail. You could try checking for this, but I really wouldn't expect this problem to show up for another 30K - 40K miles.
You may want to check your MAF. If any contamination is on it, it can cause a rough running engine. Often if an engine is running great one day and the next it's running rough a dirty MAF is the problem.
On the 4.6L V8 Ford engines, a common cause of rough idle is the IAC. (Idle Air Controller), but I have never hear of this being a problem on the 3.9 and don't even know if the 3.9 has an IAC like the 4.6's do.
Good luck finding your problem.
And I'd still buy an LS8 Sport - If I were spending my money today.
(see: http://www.thenew5drive.com )
- Ray
Go Red Sox . . .
interesting, I never drove a 5 series. But in your opinion how different is my 00 V8 sport driving experience and performance pros and cons compared to the 5 series you just drove. I thought the BMW 5 was a more reliable vehicle?
On a different note can I drive on the Highway with my moon roof open or will the head liner come apart? Or will the glue or velcro separate?
If you look at Consumers reports, BMW's are usually rated below average in reliability with fair or poor ratings.
Have you driven the LS? Do yourself a favor and drive it and the Aurora. No comparison. I'm here to tell you, I did it in 2000 and just walked away from the Olds shaking my head. Can't give an opinion on the Maxima other than to say it's not my cup of tea in the styling department. Especially not the '03.
About the best advice I can give you is just to go drive the LS. That's usually all it takes to convince most folks. It did me.
You didn'd say whether you were looking at new or used, that will effect what some of us will say. Also are you looking at a V6 or a V8?
I leased my 2000 LS (3 years). In that time I only had one problem with it. It was a vibration at highway speed. I never was able to get it fully fixed. Probably because the LS was too new to the dealers and their techs were on a learning curve. After turning the 2000 back in I found out that a few other LS owners had had the same problem and it that it was easily fixed. The problem was there are balancing bolts on the driveshaft where it attached to the rear end. Apparantly some of the early LS's were built with the balancing bolts in the wrong positions.
I had no other problems with my 2000 LS. Did absolutely nothing to it other than oil & filter changes. My wife liked my 2000 LS so much that she was upset when I turned it in. She wanted me to buy it for her as the vibration that bugged me was not strong enough to bother her.
The overall experience with my 2000 LS was good enough, the LS was built so solidly and such a blast to drive that I got a 2003 LS V8 Sport - NO vibration problems with this one! The 2003 / 2004 LSs are significantly improved over the 2000-2002 LSs too.
With all the incentives on the Lincoln LS, it is a great bargain. Keep in mind that the LS is a well balanced rear wheel drive car. It really drives and feels much better than the FWD cars you said you were considering. Before I got my 2000 LS I test drove the 2000 Maxima, Olds Intrique and the old Aurora (new one wasn't yet out). There just is no comparison to how those FWD cars drive and feel compared to the Lincoln LS. My decision back in 2000 came down to BMW 528i (way too much $$, $10K more than the LS8), Audi A6 (didn't want a turbo and the 3.0 just wasn't as much fun to drive)and the Lincoln LS V8 (was simply the best price / performance choice). The decision to get my 2nd LS was a lot easier,
The torque steer on the Maxima prevents it from being a drivers car. Had one for a week in Chicago in the rain. Stab the gas and it will yank the steering wheel out of your hands or jump three lanes to the left. With all its fancy bells and whistles I couldn't keep it between the white lines.
My LS on the other hand has seen race duty several times. This is something I would have never in my wildest dreams considered but this cars begs to be driven.
Two LS's for me have meant a service recall for a tranny reflash and fogging headlamps. That's it. Given the spirited driving style and having met the "gear heads" that designed this wonderful platform I say go for it.
One day in June of this year I had some time on my hands so I dropped in my Lincoln dealer to test drive a 2003 LS. That reminded me how enjoyable it is to drive a driver's car.
I sold the Lexus (huge financial beating) and bought a 2003 Lincoln LS Premium Sport. Recently completed a 4,500 mile trip from Michigan to Yellowstone & back. The drive was fun in the LS; would have been a chore in the Lexus. (very poor directional stability)
Anyway, I liked my LS so much that when it came time to replace our '96 Sable, I bought my wife a 2001 LS with 30K miles. It's only been back for the free maintenance.
Even the early teething issues were minor and NOTHING like stories from years ago. There were very few lemons produced, but every maker produces a lemon from time to time.
Normal maintenance is the same as any other car. You shouldn't need to change the tranny fluid for ~150K. The plugs on the V6 are a bear to change. Not complicated, really, you just need to remove a bunch of stuff. The V8 is easier. Don't believe anyone's claim to 100K mile plugs! The V6 takes 7 qts. of oil, the V8, 6. If it matters to you (it doesn't to me), the LS needs at least 91 octane gas. The battery is in the trunk for better weight distrubition.
Hope this helps. As was said earlier, drive the LS, then try to wipe the soon-to-be-patented LS Grin off your face!
2021 VW Arteon SEL 4-motion, 2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech
-Paul
There are solid reasons behind the loyalty sda mentions. This is a superbly designed and well-built car that can be driven like a sports car on twisty roads, yet will eat up 1000 miles or more of interstate in a day of driving while coddling the passengers and driver. And many of us have had the privilege of meeting the people who conceived and designed the LS, and those who build and test it. The dedication and passion of these people makes us even more proud to own and drive this car.
Here's something else to try on a test drive: Where it's safe, really nail the brakes and see what happens. The Lincoln engineers designed (and patented) a way to keep the rear end from lifting under hard braking, so the nose dive is almost nonexistent. The car feels like it's being sucked down to the pavement.
Oh, yeah, one more thing: With current incentives, a base V6 '03 LS can be had for something like $26k. And you're not giving much up to the higher models. I got to drive one, briefly, at a Ford test facility this summer, and the low-end throttle response was as snappy as my V8. This car is a steal.