What did you do to your Town Car today ?

Rotated tires, which also served to reverse all the lug nuts on the car as the morons in whatever shop it was last in had them on backwards and digging into the aluminum rims. Also used a new Pittsburgh Pro torque wrench to properly torque all of them rather than just guessing. They are on sale at Harbor Freight for $10 through Sunday the 10th.
Also mounted the new full size spare in the trunk. Bought a matching aluminum rim with a mounted tire only 16 months old and in good condition for $75 at a junkyard. Added $13 tire cover I found on ebay to keep it from getting anything else in the trunk dirty and makes it look OEM. Picked up the mounting hook at a different junkyard for $5. It does take up most of the parcel shelf, but for my long road trips it will be much better to have on hand than a donut.
 
Took it up to 5000rpm for a very spirited stomp-the-pedal charge from ~35mph to ~70mph, to stretch its legs. Pretty sure I burned through about $4600 in fuel in the handful of seconds of doing this. Regret nothing. I can't get over how *happy* this big, heavy, stately sofa on wheels is to be exercised a bit, and how much the engine loves the 4000rpm-5000rpm space. The car breathed magnificently after that, too -- felt subtly "opened up" and alive, though some of that may be emotional feedback from the driver, I grant.

Yeah. Just gave my Town Car an "Italian tune," as the vintage Ferrari folks call it. And it loved it.
 
rancourt said:
can't get over how *happy* this big, heavy, stately sofa on wheels is to be exercised a bit, and how much the engine loves the 4000rpm-5000rpm space. The car breathed magnificently after that, too -- felt subtly "opened up" and alive, though some of that may be emotional feedback from the driver, I grant.
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Haha, I just did an 'Italian Tune' too, the big spaceship came alive - ye gads that was fun! The dual exhausts actually have a subtle throaty sound at full song, I could feel all 239 horsepower (lol) and everything worked. I've always wondered if the digital speedo would show more than 2 digits, now I know.

As to 'rancourt' saying his Lincoln Town Car felt more opened up after a romp, mine did too! The strange thing is this was a test run after just putting a new battery in it and I suppose the PCM (or one of those modules) was learning my 'new' driving style because now it seems more than ready to accelerate, while before it was acting rather sluggish after learning my wife's careful pace.
I'll have to drive it more often... ;)
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Oh, @KWIC, I envy you! I've never taken Sebastian up to triple digits, because while I'm confident his engine and suspension could handle it, braking gracefully becomes challenging enough at eighty...not that I have any firsthand experience with such speeds, of course...nope. Not me.
 
rancourt said:
Oh, @KWIC, I envy you! I've never taken Sebastian up to triple digits, because while I'm confident his engine and suspension could handle it, braking gracefully becomes challenging enough at eighty...not that I have any firsthand experience with such speeds, of course...nope. Not me.
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Doc Brown- " When this baby hits 88MPH you're gonna see some serious s***" :LOL:
 
Did the first oil change of my ownership, went more or less smoothly. I had good luck with the Harbor Freight "universal" filter wrench that looks something like a spider with 3 legs. Picked up a Motorcraft filter from Walmart and 10 quarts of Super Tech Advanced Full Synthetic. It claims 20,000 miles, which I would not do with any engine, much less this one, but I do unfortunately have a longer than usual interval coming up due to some travel plans, so going to see how this stuff holds up in the Town Car. I have had excellent results in the Corolla.

Trying to work out an easy oil change ramp solution. I did try what I had used on my Corolla, a stack of 3 2x10 boards, but as I found the RWD makes it a bit less happy to just climb up those. I ended up putting it on jack stands with a jack, but I went ahead and slipped 2 boards under each front tire while it was up there and at the end removed the jack stands. Sure enough, 2 stacked 2x10 boards raises the front plenty for an oil change (and due to the side orientation of the drain plug, the minimum needed to work is preferable to get the thing drained properly). I am going to try and glue 2 of them together, I think that will enable it to climb both (might also cut off one end at an angle, but we will see).

Also washed the car because it needed it badly. Removed two patches of some kind of tape or adhesive that were on the back window when I bought it, dollar tree 50/50 rubbing alcohol and an old plastic card took it off nicely without damaging the rear window defroster lines.

Also applied Meguiar's Gold Class Rich Leather Cleaner & Conditioner to all the seats, no apparent difference but if it maintains that is good enough for me.
 
Pony up $40 to $50 for a set of black plastic car ramps (Harbor Freight) will improve the process.
I use the Meguiars on everything plastic, rubber & vinyl. In addition to leather. I think it is eight bucks a bottle and keeps all of those things happy.

Action
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Action said:
Pony up $40 to $50 for a set of black plastic car ramps (Harbor Freight) will improve the process.
I use the Meguiars on everything plastic, rubber & vinyl. In addition to leather. I think it is eight bucks a bottle and keeps all of those things happy.

Action
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I looked long and hard at the HF plastic ramps but ultimately went with the lumber because I just did not trust the plastic ramps. The capacity rating looks fine, but I read a number of stories from people that had them fail with age, etc. I might go back that direction if I cannot get the lumber to work, but I definitely feel better with solid wood under the tires.
 
I have a set for my Navigator. Used them on an Econoline before that, in addition to a half a dozen cars.
These replace a metal set that I wrecked.
I have had them for 7 or 8 years and have not had any issues other than a non-skid pad came off the bottom.
I got mine at Auto Zone back then.

Action
 
If you are into making oil changes easier, you might try to locate the shield that helps direct the draining oil. No longer for sale but might find one: p/n 5W1Z-6N634-AA
 
dave42 said:
If you are into making oil changes easier, you might try to locate the shield that helps direct the draining oil. No longer for sale but might find one: p/n 5W1Z-6N634-AA
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I was fortunate, mine came with it pre-installed. It helps, some. Still a bad oil filter location.

Dr. Towncar, or how I learned to stop worrying and love oily cars.
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Action said:
I have a set for my Navigator. Used them on an Econoline before that, in addition to a half a dozen cars.
These replace a metal set that I wrecked.
I have had them for 7 or 8 years and have not had any issues other than a non-skid pad came off the bottom.
I got mine at Auto Zone back then.

Action
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Good to know. I should have added my decision was slightly influenced by the lower bulk of a few pieces of 2x10 as I intend to haul these to another state to do an oil change mid-road trip.

Action said:
I use the Meguiars on everything plastic, rubber & vinyl. In addition to leather. I think it is eight bucks a bottle and keeps all of those things happy.
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Do you use the leather treatment for those or the other Meguiar's branded products that are labeled for plastic, etc.?
 
I use the Leather Conditioner for everything.
I am lazy and don't want to buy multiple products for multiple things.
The leather conditioner works for leather. And works well for everything else. And for 8 bucks at Walmart, hard to go wrong. IMO

Action
 
I am in the process of completely overhauling the audio system in my 2004 Town Car. There wasn't really anything wrong with the stock system except the fact that Bluetooth was not really a thing in 2004, and I was using a small Bluetooth adapter running through the cassette deck (which amazingly enough still worked).

I bought a Pioneer DMH1700NEX stereo, wiring adapters, 2 rear speakers, a SiriusXM module for the stereo, and assorted hardware. It did not help that Best Buy sold me a bunch of incorrect hardware (including the Double DIN installation kit), so it is still very much a work in progress.

I found out the hard way that this car WAS equipped with the Alpine premium sound system, so I now have to exchange my 6X9 speakers for 6X8 speakers, and I'm still trying to figure out what the additional plugs are in the original stereo wiring harness. Plus I'm trying to figure out what wires I need to hook my Maestro unit up to so I can use the steering wheel audio controls.

I may have to come back here in a month to say that I'm STILL working on this. 😂🤣😂🤣
 
dsstaton said:
I am in the process of completely overhauling the audio system in my 2004 Town Car. There wasn't really anything wrong with the stock system except the fact that Bluetooth was not really a thing in 2004, and I was using a small Bluetooth adapter running through the cassette deck (which amazingly enough still worked).

I bought a Pioneer DMH1700NEX stereo, wiring adapters, 2 rear speakers, a SiriusXM module for the stereo, and assorted hardware. It did not help that Best Buy sold me a bunch of incorrect hardware (including the Double DIN installation kit), so it is still very much a work in progress.

I found out the hard way that this car WAS equipped with the Alpine premium sound system, so I now have to exchange my 6X9 speakers for 6X8 speakers, and I'm still trying to figure out what the additional plugs are in the original stereo wiring harness. Plus I'm trying to figure out what wires I need to hook my Maestro unit up to so I can use the steering wheel audio controls.

I may have to come back here in a month to say that I'm STILL working on this. 😂🤣😂🤣
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Audio work on these is tough and if you want it done right you have to do it yourself, the guys at Best Buy are in over their heads.
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dsstaton said:
I found out the hard way that this car WAS equipped with the Alpine premium sound system, so I now have to exchange my 6X9 speakers for 6X8 speakers, and I'm still trying to figure out what the additional plugs are in the original stereo wiring harness. Plus I'm trying to figure out what wires I need to hook my Maestro unit up to so I can use the steering wheel audio controls.
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The answers my friend are NOT blowing in the wind, the answers are in this book.

Action
 
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Just working on the circuit system of the whole RASM system.
 
dsstaton said:
I am in the process of completely overhauling the audio system in my 2004 Town Car. ........ I'm trying to figure out what wires I need to hook my Maestro unit up to so I can use the steering wheel audio controls.
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It's not been a month; not quite a couple weeks, actually. Did you get that Maestro wired in? I know the Maestro units are supposedly for 2006 and later, so I'm curious if you got it to work in the 2004 model. If you got it to work, it gives me justification for buying a Ford harness to attempt using my prior Maestro RR. 🤣

I've presently got my '98 Town Car apart, doing audio upgrades, as well.
 
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