Hello,
I must apologise in advance for making a first post, with a question. I promise you that I'll make it up to the forum by contributing along my journey in 'repairing' a 2005 TownCar who's interior was badly vandalised, and subsequently saved after sitting 6 years in a parking garage by yours truly
I have extensive experience with Towncars of 'yesterday', specifically the box 95-97's, and even that was a decade ago - so my skills in troubleshooting what I've got in front of me now, are really lacking.
The car: 2005 Town Car Signature
The situation: Car was vandalised, interior was cut up, and instrument cluster was smashed in with a hammer or some other type of heavy object. Cluster was working just fine, speedometer, coolant, and fuel gauges, as well as all lights were absolutely working fine even though it was broken. The "information area" was smashed to bits (both sides), but irrespective of this, the cluster did function.
What happened: I bought a used cluster, from a 2003 TownCar (should have read before....) and I put it in the car. The mileage read 390,000 miles, and I wasn't going to have something like that go into a car with 28K Miles. So, I took it out about 5 minutes later ( I didn't try to start the car ) and I put it on the table, side by side with my own "smashed up " cluster.
I took the clusters apart, and put the "circuit board" of my 2005 Town Car on the mechanical portion of the other used cluster. I put this in the car, and nothing showed up, no LED's, no Info - so I figured this is a bad idea, something must be incompatible - and unplugged it again.
I then took the 2 x informational displays out of the "used working" cluster, and put them into my own cluster, complete with it's own needles, gauges, and what-not. Essentially, the only thing that I salvaged from the used cluster, was the clear plastic bezel, the plastic surround that covers the informational panels, and the two, information panels with the ribbon cables.
At this point, I reassembled the cluster, and put it in the car - remember, everything inside this cluster is original at this point except for the plastic bezels, and the 2 LCD's informational displays.
What I have: Brake parking light, the 'service /wrench' light comes on for a bit at start up, and that's it.
No ABS, No Service Engine Soon, no Traction Control, no speedometer, no fuel, and no coolant.
What I've done:
* Checked all fuses
* Disconnected the battery and let it sit a few hours
* Started the car again, to confirm 'no -cluster'
* Checked all fuses again after this attempt - nothing burned out
If I were in the US, this would be easy, just drive it down to the Ford dealer. This is made extremely complicated by the fact that there are no Lincoln dealers around here (Greece) and I probably have the only Lincoln Town Car in the entire country save for 5-6 limousines.
Generally as you can imagine I'm really disappointed with myself. I feel that somehow, I brought this upon myself by plugging in the 2003 (used) TownCar cluster into the car and this somehow caused something to burn up or fail. It really concerns me that the gauges don't move at all, and basic things like the fuel gauge, don't work.
It's really difficult to describe a situation where literally, you're the only one in the entire country with this car, and ultimately nobody can help you, but I digress. Point is, I got myself in a tight spot, and I'm quite sure that with the PATS and CAN situation, this is outside of "backyard mechanic" territory. Frightening.
Also of interest is that after this whole situation came about, the steering got heavy (very little power assist). I assume that this is due to the cluster being 'disconnected' somehow from the CAN bus and therefore ABS <-> Cluster <-> EEC <-> Steering module? don't pass the requisite information to each other as they should.
So, in conclusion, if you have any ideas at all, please don't hesitate to share. I'll update this thread until it's solved one way or another. I was considering the purchase of the Ford Diagnostic Software (I think it's called VDS II). That's probably a good idea anyway but we'll cross that bridge when we reach it.
Thank you
Mark
I must apologise in advance for making a first post, with a question. I promise you that I'll make it up to the forum by contributing along my journey in 'repairing' a 2005 TownCar who's interior was badly vandalised, and subsequently saved after sitting 6 years in a parking garage by yours truly
I have extensive experience with Towncars of 'yesterday', specifically the box 95-97's, and even that was a decade ago - so my skills in troubleshooting what I've got in front of me now, are really lacking.
The car: 2005 Town Car Signature
The situation: Car was vandalised, interior was cut up, and instrument cluster was smashed in with a hammer or some other type of heavy object. Cluster was working just fine, speedometer, coolant, and fuel gauges, as well as all lights were absolutely working fine even though it was broken. The "information area" was smashed to bits (both sides), but irrespective of this, the cluster did function.
What happened: I bought a used cluster, from a 2003 TownCar (should have read before....) and I put it in the car. The mileage read 390,000 miles, and I wasn't going to have something like that go into a car with 28K Miles. So, I took it out about 5 minutes later ( I didn't try to start the car ) and I put it on the table, side by side with my own "smashed up " cluster.
I took the clusters apart, and put the "circuit board" of my 2005 Town Car on the mechanical portion of the other used cluster. I put this in the car, and nothing showed up, no LED's, no Info - so I figured this is a bad idea, something must be incompatible - and unplugged it again.
I then took the 2 x informational displays out of the "used working" cluster, and put them into my own cluster, complete with it's own needles, gauges, and what-not. Essentially, the only thing that I salvaged from the used cluster, was the clear plastic bezel, the plastic surround that covers the informational panels, and the two, information panels with the ribbon cables.
At this point, I reassembled the cluster, and put it in the car - remember, everything inside this cluster is original at this point except for the plastic bezels, and the 2 LCD's informational displays.
What I have: Brake parking light, the 'service /wrench' light comes on for a bit at start up, and that's it.
No ABS, No Service Engine Soon, no Traction Control, no speedometer, no fuel, and no coolant.
What I've done:
* Checked all fuses
* Disconnected the battery and let it sit a few hours
* Started the car again, to confirm 'no -cluster'
* Checked all fuses again after this attempt - nothing burned out
If I were in the US, this would be easy, just drive it down to the Ford dealer. This is made extremely complicated by the fact that there are no Lincoln dealers around here (Greece) and I probably have the only Lincoln Town Car in the entire country save for 5-6 limousines.
Generally as you can imagine I'm really disappointed with myself. I feel that somehow, I brought this upon myself by plugging in the 2003 (used) TownCar cluster into the car and this somehow caused something to burn up or fail. It really concerns me that the gauges don't move at all, and basic things like the fuel gauge, don't work.
It's really difficult to describe a situation where literally, you're the only one in the entire country with this car, and ultimately nobody can help you, but I digress. Point is, I got myself in a tight spot, and I'm quite sure that with the PATS and CAN situation, this is outside of "backyard mechanic" territory. Frightening.
Also of interest is that after this whole situation came about, the steering got heavy (very little power assist). I assume that this is due to the cluster being 'disconnected' somehow from the CAN bus and therefore ABS <-> Cluster <-> EEC <-> Steering module? don't pass the requisite information to each other as they should.
So, in conclusion, if you have any ideas at all, please don't hesitate to share. I'll update this thread until it's solved one way or another. I was considering the purchase of the Ford Diagnostic Software (I think it's called VDS II). That's probably a good idea anyway but we'll cross that bridge when we reach it.
Thank you
Mark
