92 Continental, New to forums

[jase386]

I have just ended up with a 92 continental that is in very good shape with 80k miles, good leather, good paint, no dents.

I found this forum hoping to find someone with some experience repairing these quirky cars, someone who can give me advice, and help me keep this beautiful little car on the road. Im pretty good with cars, but sometimes you need a back up plan and so far I keep running into very negative people, guys who aren't car guys who bought a mechanics car and can do nothing but complain and belittle me for buying one. I want to find a mechanic, or someone who knows the ins and outs of the electrical issues, transmission issues and more.

to start I have some electrical questions about the cluster, im unsure if the cluster is crazy, or the BCM is crazy. Everytime we crank the car a different set of warnings go off, the air back light on the dash shelf flashes code 51, and the cluster and clock go dark when the headlights are turned on, not dim, they turn off.

So that's the start of the fun.

looking forward to some educated answers.

 

[MooJohn]

There are very few Contis of that era on the road today. 80k miles is awesome! I've seen one or two for sale before but most are rusting in a yard these days. Like you said, people give up on them rather than fixing the issues as they pop up.

The transmission shouldn't be a mystery to any mechanic who's rebuilt them for a 90s Taurus. I'm no transmission guy myself but I have a good one who rebuilt the one in my car a little over a year ago.

The backlighting issues with the lights on sounds like the lead to the dimmer rheostat is broken somewhere. You can rig it temporarily by grounding the right wire which will leave everything at max illumination. Use a volt meter to probe one of the lights that should be dimmed when the lights are on. One wire will have +12v and the other will have nothing - no ground, no voltage. That's the wire to ground.

A quick google of the AC code says it could be the solar sensor in the dash is broken or disconnected.

My family drove Lincolns since the 70s so I've been in them all. I liked our 93 Continental but went crazy over my grandmothers 95. That's why I bought one almost 20 years later!

 

[dfoy50]

for electrical issues i found a web site that has great schematics and its free also has tech service bulletins ... www.bbbind .com check it out

 

[jase386]

thanks for the answers guys, I will probably be asking for more help as we go along. as far as the condition of this car, ive never seen one this nice since about 1993 . It still smells new inside, and appears to have always been garaged.

Mentioning the solar sensor, there is something missing on the drivers side dash cover. there is just a square hole, there is a round sensor on the passenger side dash cover.

 

[MooJohn]

The passenger side sensor is probably the one - they haven't changed its design in decades. It may be disconnected somewhere or just be DOA after all these years.

 

[jase386]

Ok, took the cluster out tonight and cleaned the connections. the check dcl quit flashing, so maybe that's one fix that worked.


Now, before I found this forum, I had read an article on fixya that said the cluster going dark was due to a lighting relay. the wire diagrams from bbbind show an LCD Dimmer Relay, Would anyone know its location?

 

[jase386]

I think we have it narrowed down to the Panel dimmer switch itself. Another dimmer is on its way. If this corrects the problem, that will be the only 'Continental only' problem so far. The previous owner installed an aftermarket stereo, which sounds great, but looks like hell, so we may be putting the correct radio back in, and we are on the hunt for an affordable eatc unit, as the buttons on ours are all caved in.

 

[MooJohn]

No need to relegate yourself to AM/FM/cassette hell when you can have modern music. Just find a better looking aftermarket radio. If you've got the JBL audio system the stock speakers sound great already.

Notice I said it was probably the dimmer in my first post I've done car stereo for almost 30 years now.

 

[jase386]

No need to relegate yourself to AM/FM/cassette hell when you can have modern music. Just find a better looking aftermarket radio. If you've got the JBL audio system the stock speakers sound great already.

Notice I said it was probably the dimmer in my first post I've done car stereo for almost 30 years now.

and you were correct. thanks for all the input.

 

[Darrell85]

Once all of the electrical is fixed you will have a sweet ride