More Blend Door Problems, Should I Just Buy a New Town Car? Advice Thread

[raiderfan247365]

So it's been pretty cold in my neck of the woods and I went for a drive the other day and noticed my defrost was not warming up very quickly and then all of a sudden it just switched to hot, there was no gradual warmth increase, it's like it was blowing AC then all of a sudden switched to heat well after the car had warmed up. Classic blend door actuator problem. I run the EATC test and sure enough it tells me that my panel/defrost actuator is bad.

Now I have a dilemma... Do I even try and fix this or just start shopping around for a new Town Car. My car is paid off, only paid 3,000 for it, I put probably another $1,000 into it, I've had it for about 2 years. Looking back the car was probably worth closer to $2,000 when I bought it because of the mileage and amount of patchwork that was done, but hey, you live and you learn. I imagine I could sell as is for ~$1,000-$1,200

I reviewed the procedure to remove the plenum chamber to access the actuator, this involves:

-removing steering wheel
-removing air duct system
-removing entire instrument panel

I just don't think I am up for this seemingly 500 step process. My local mechanic would charge me ~$400 for the job, I just don't want to put that kind of money in right now. Curious what others would do in my situation? Thanks for any insight.

 

[CuttingToolGuy]

Didn't we just work through getting your A/C up to snuff?

I'm holding my vote pending more information.

I would say let the shop do it if they are giving a guarantee on parts & labor. I would even look at replacing as many blend doors / actuators as can reasonlby be done since your already in there, or at least any that are suspect.

The way I see it $1200 + $400 = $1600

And I doubt you can get a decent running anything for $1600.

But, what else is wrong with your car? And how many miles on it now?

 

[raiderfan247365]

Didn't we just work through getting your A/C up to snuff?

I'm holding my vote pending more information.

I would say let the shop do it if they are giving a guarantee on parts & labor. I would even look at replacing as many blend doors / actuators as can reasonlby be done since your already in there, or at least any that are suspect.

The way I see it $1200 + $400 = $1600

And I doubt you can get a decent running anything for $1600.

But, what else is wrong with your car? And how many miles on it now?

LOL yes we did, I replaced my "easy" to get to actuators in the spring of 19' but my panel/defrost did not show an error code at that time and seemed to be working.

The car has 300,000 miles on (supposedly with a new motor thrown in at some point but I can't verify it). It used to be a fleet delivery car so no doubt driven a little hard.

The only other thing I know to be "wrong" is that I need a new EATC. I know that because when I press air flow buttons the system does not always respond appropriately. For example, I may press the front vents button and air might start coming out the floor instead, or no air will come out of vents and just kind of circulate in my dash. I guess its a problem with the o-rings on these things, I have confidence I can pull it apart and at least repair the o-rings though to fix my vacuum issue.

I suppose I could ALSO have a failing heater core, don't really know what those symptoms would be other than not getting any heat lol.

Thanks for the response.

 

[CuttingToolGuy]

Do you like white?

2006 Lincoln Town Car Signature Gorgeous Elderly Owned Low Miles No...

Beautiful Town Car fully serviced and in excellent original condition. All southern car with no...

sanantonio.craigslist.org

______________________________

 

[raiderfan247365]

Do you like white?

2006 Lincoln Town Car Signature Gorgeous Elderly Owned Low Miles No...

Beautiful Town Car fully serviced and in excellent original condition. All southern car with no...

sanantonio.craigslist.org

LOL thanks, white and red are the only colors I just can't do though. I'm up here in the Pacific Northwest, probably need a seller in Oregon or Washington. But that is exactly the kind of Town Car I will be looking for, I learned a lot doing repairs on my current Town Car, I even enjoyed some of them but I am looking to get a Town Car where I shouldn't need to put much work into initially (with the understanding that because these are older cars, finding one with ZERO issues may be hard).

 

[raiderfan247365]

I just remembered, my current Town Car also needs new catalytic converters

I mean, it doesn't affect the car per say, just the emissions, which isn't great for mother earth.

 

[04TC]

So it's been pretty cold in my neck of the woods and I went for a drive the other day and noticed my defrost was not warming up very quickly and then all of a sudden it just switched to hot, there was no gradual warmth increase, it's like it was blowing AC then all of a sudden switched to heat well after the car had warmed up. Classic blend door actuator problem. I run the EATC test and sure enough it tells me that my panel/defrost actuator is bad.

Now I have a dilemma... Do I even try and fix this or just start shopping around for a new Town Car. My car is paid off, only paid 3,000 for it, I put probably another $1,000 into it, I've had it for about 2 years. Looking back the car was probably worth closer to $2,000 when I bought it because of the mileage and amount of patchwork that was done, but hey, you live and you learn. I imagine I could sell as is for ~$1,000-$1,200

I reviewed the procedure to remove the plenum chamber to access the actuator, this involves:

-removing steering wheel
-removing air duct system
-removing entire instrument panel

I just don't think I am up for this seemingly 500 step process. My local mechanic would charge me ~$400 for the job, I just don't want to put that kind of money in right now. Curious what others would do in my situation? Thanks for any insight.

Can you live with the heat being wonky, or is that a deal-breaker. Plus the cats being inefficient. In my opinion, the "devil you know" is better than "the devil you don't". If the engine and transmission aren't having any issues, I say keep driving it.

 

[Towncarlimoguy]

You can't buy another DECENT Lincoln for the 400 bucks your mechanic will charge to fix it. You've already done some fixing I see as well. I say fix it and keep driving it because you will certainly get your money's worth out of it that way. I'm not sure what they go for in your neck of the woods but a 300,000 mile car-even a Lincoln-is not an easy sell. I saw plenty of 200-300k ones around these parts when I was looking. All around the 1200-1500 mark.. and they just sat there. Even so ,fix it for the 400 and keep driving. Who knows what issues the next one might have ....

______________________________

 

[raiderfan247365]

Thanks to everyone for their votes and replies. Since the first post I was able to diagnose my heat issue a little better, I was actually very low and possibly out of coolant which was affecting my heat (who knew coolant and heat were connected, I do now). The car is still giving me the blend door error but I haven't actually experienced it having an issues since I filled up the coolant.

What I did discover is that I have a coolant leak coming from the intake manifold, so I ordered a new one and will do the repair myself and ride this car into the ground!!! I have been watching my coolant levels and it doesn't appear I am actually leaking that much as I initially thought, so I will just drive short distances around town until I get some favorable weather to do the repair. Here in western Oregon where I live it's supposed to rain for pretty much ten days strait, so it may take me a bit before I get to the repair.

 

[04TC]

Thanks for the update.

 

[Towncarlimoguy]

Glad you figured it out and learned something too .COOLANT will always affect heating.