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Comments
Kind regards to all
How much does it cost you to import a Ford from the colonies? Do your dealers there help you, or do you have to arrange it on your own? Is this the first time you've done that? They don't sell them there in any form?
Just curious.
BTW, my ancestors came from Birmingham.
BTW(like that abreviation!)I live in Lancashire 100 miles north of Birmingham.
iusecad-your tax issue-No, taxation on large cars is only slightly more for our 12 months road tax,and the cut off point is only about 2000cc,I think.After all we have many large engined cars on the road,ie 6.7 litre Rolls,V12 Jags at 6.0 litres,and the big V12 BMW & Mercs.(They just make up the tax from the petrol these machines use.You don't want to know how much that cost.Neither do I !!Stopped worrying years ago.Just fill up,give in the old visa card,close my eyes and sign.)I do hope I have not bored everyones socks off,but if you get me talking motor cars,I could go on forever,and I am consious of being an "interloper" on your notice board.
Have a good Christmas
Best Wishes
Jim
oh, and just a general ? for the room: if your fuel gauge didn't work (its always on full) and the "low fuel light" never comes on - even when you know the tank is low - would you be tempted to replace the sending unit in the gas tank or the pod(?) in the dash? My gut says the sending unit, but the indie shop told me it'd be about $150 for the part and about the same for the labor. If I trade it for a Focus I think I'll let the dealer worry about it...
and maybe some POR-15 for the frame...
My 2001 GM has 37K. When it had about 34K, and was still under factory warranty, it started going dead at stop signs and red lights. It would also lurch, and lose power on hills. All this is at low speeds. On the Interstate, it ran fine.
Took to dealer. Said diagnostic machine did not show fault. They replaced air sensor. Doing it again before I got off lot. Took it back. Replacment air sensor defective. Went dead, skipped, and lurched on way home.
Took it back. Was told engine wasn't skipping at all, but transmissing slipping. That was what was causing lurching and skipping. Dealer replaced transmission, under warranty.
Still have same problem. Can anyone help?
Something else, while all this work was going on, factory warrenty expired. Now dealer claims they repaired original problem and this is something else. Strange the "Something else" started up with minutes after they 'fixed it."
Since car out of factory warranty, dealers says I will have to pay for repairs. I maintain that problem developed while vehicle under factory warranty, and never fixed.
Anyone know what might be wrong? If I am going to have to pay for repairs I won't take it to dealer.
Also, who could I contact at Ford to discuss this? I feel like I am being given run around.
Secondly, these are tough problems to find and correct, and it could be a $2 subcomponent made by TRW or some subcontractor for Ford that is failing. If it's not tripping an error code in the computer, it makes it hard to identify. Unfortunately, I can't lead you in the right direction. Sounds like a fuel pump to me, but I could be so far off. Good luck.
Remember, be nice, but relentless. Don't give up. Don't lose your temper or threaten legal action. That just closes down anybody from working with you and moves it to a venue where nobody wins.
Thanks for your reply. I looked at the arm rest and other trim but can't figure out how to remove. If you can help me further it will be appreciated.
ewolfe1
1) Don't laugh, but trunk room is a concern. The G.M. apparently doesn't have a fold down rear seat/pass thru so all my 6'6" fishing rods may be obsolete. I am hoping that I can sort of angle and wedge them. I can almost do that now in my "00 Sable ( Which does have a pass thru ), but I come up about 5 or 6 inches short.
2) What is the true power rating of the upgraded stereo in the G.M. I contacted Ford and they sent me to Visteon. Visteon told me that it was an Alpine system rated at 20 watts per channel ( 4 channels ),but the Marauder has what appears to be the exact same unit and I have seen conflicting ratings between 100 and 140 total watts on that system. I don't understand why Ford wouldn't offer a high quality stereo option on a thirty thousand dollar car. And why is the trunk mounted CD changer a 350 dollar option on the G.M.,and only 185 dollars on the C.V. It is almost as if they didn't want anyone under sixty to buy a G.M.
3) I live in Chicago, so winter conditions are a factor. I have been tooling around in front wheel drive vehicles for the past 17 years so I need somebody to please reassure me that I won't be getting stuck in snow all the time.
4) Lastly, How true are the fuel efficiency ratings? Is 17/25 accurate?. My Sable was rated at 20 mpg city, but actually gets about 17.
2) If you get the audiophile stereo option, you'll have all the watts you can stand. But the CD changer is not a popular option on this car, why they charge more, I don't know. But get it, it's worth it.
3) Get Advance Trac (I think it's available on the ultimate) and you should be ok in the snow, although FWD may even be better still.
4) Your mileage will be amazingly good. You can easily get 20MPG in town, 25 on the highway.
It's an amazingly nice car for the money, in my opinion. And incredibly reliable.
Ron
I'll be very happy to get 17/mpg city. Anything more would be a bonus.
Glad to hear the GM does well in the MI snow climate. I'm getting to old to push a 4000 lb. car.
Visteon can't confirm that the GM Ult. stereo is the same Audiophile unit sold in the Marauder. Their tech assistance people don't seem very sharp. They tell me to contact Alpine. Ford tells me to contact Visteon, and Visteon tells me to contact Alpine. Neither of them can give me a tel. number for Alpine. Oh well,I'll pin'em down eventually. Thanks again
Do junk yards typically install trannys for a price ? The car is OK otherwise, thanks
On the other hand, if you are short on money, you can probably get away with just replacing your OD band and maybe the servo. Technical information on how to do that is available at crownvic.net
Info on the J-mod is at www.tccoa.com/articles/tranny/
Job 1 for the 500 is July 2004 so don't look for them until early fall.
Typically, I forgot about it until the same thing happened last week when the temps were in the teens. What happened then was the engine ran very hot (though not in the red) (about 10 o'clock or 10:30), while I started to lose "geddy-yup" (power), and the engine started to really "knock" when I accelerated (during the last mile or two of the 25 mile trip). I was late to work and came to a stop to back in to the space when the engine stalled (locked up?) and I had to push it back.
After a few hours sitting there, it started right up, with no engine knock.
It made it 3/4 of the way back home before it started to knock again and I lost a lot of the "geddy-yup". Again, the temp. guage was running around the 10-10:30 area, but not in the red or even touching the "H".
I nursed it home after my wife came and picked me up and we went to dinner and came back. I left the car sitting in the driveway until this last Sunday, when the temps got into the low 40's with sun. I opened up the hood and checked the coolant reservoir and it was frozen solid!...and didn't seem to have a high concentration of green anti-freeze color to it. I left the hood open and let the sun light hit the reservoir directly for a couple of hours. This melted it down for the most part, so I started the engine up and it sounded fine, with a slight knock. I added anti-freeze (about a half gallon), to the fill line in the tank, and let the car warm up quite a bit (20 minutes) and circulate the coolant. I've since run some short errands successfully, but the car still has a knock sound on the engine, but it slows down considerably when I coast down/brake to a stop.
Any clues? Thermostat? Is the knock sound because I may have done serious damage to the block?
Remedies?
Car has 155k miles on it.
When you froze the radiator, the coolant in the engine had nowhere to go. As a result, you overheated the engine. Since coolant wasn't circulating, the temperature at the sending unit was probably much lower than what was happening in the water jackets.
As for the knock, without hearing it in person, it's hard to say. You may have wasted a bearing (or several). You may have cracked the block, with all sorts of possible unpleasant results. Take it to a mechanic you trust and find out.
I just wanted to take a quick poll and see if any of you 93 or 94 CV/GM owners had to have your EGR ports cleaned, and if you did, what were the symptoms that caused you to clean them? Thanks I really appreciate any responces any of you might have.
Any other ideas or stories out there?
Thanks JRC