ElGatoBlanco
LVC Member
Was in need of another vehicle as my ol' lady's 01 Sonata just bit the dust. Had to get one quickly as not having two working vehicles was NOT an option - unfortunately didn't have a lot of time to do my homework. I had promised her the next car I bought would be a "luxury vehicle" and she had narrowed it down to a BMW 3 series, Audi, or Lincoln LS. My knee-jerk reaction was to immediately rule out the Beamer and Audi based on cost of ownership, and because I prefer to buy American whenever I don't have to sacrifice value or quality, so went out looking at some Lincolns. The first four I looked at were pretty beat up. All of them looked great but had various mechanical issues. Perhaps that should have been a sign.
Finally I found a 2005 LS with 95xxx and the 3.0 V6 which seemed to be in excellent condition. Black on black - looked great, drove great on our very short test drive, interior was flawless so I bought it...4 days ago.
...3 days ago when starting it in the morning the car shook violently until it warmed up. If I didn't live in MN I would have thought we were having an earthquake sitting in that car. That issue persisted, violent shaking when cold-starting. Warmed up, it ran just fine. By the third day, an Engine light came on. I took it to Bloomington Lincoln to have them inspect the vehicle and pull the code. Dealer informed me that code says I need new catalytic converters - $1300. He was convinced it would be the coils when I first told him what was happening, but the code said otherwise. He also informed me that my right upper control arm and ball joint were extremely loose - $450. And oh, by the way, your rear right caliper is leaking and you have less than 1mm on both rear brake linings - $720.
Right out of the gate, I'm being told this thing needs $2400 in repairs. And that's without even touching the notorious coil issue.
In the days since I purchased it, I had time to search the web for information on this model and learned of the infamous coil problems amongst other things. I decided to hold off on the cats since I wasn't totally convinced of that being the problem based on what I read, regardless of what the code said. I did ok them to go ahead with the other work, I mean, can't drive with no brakes. Then he finds that the front breaks have only 2mm on the right side, likely due to the control arm issue, when the other side still had 7mm. I told him to just do the breaks all the way around...but first, there was an issue with the center cap on the drivers side front wheel, that required breaking the center cap off and drilling out the bolt that holds it in place because it had corroded so badly. Wonderful.
$1600 later - the car has new rotors and pads all the way around, two new calipers in the rear, and a full brake fluid exchange plus a new upper control arm/ball joint on the right side and a fresh alignment for good measure. And still, there is the unresolved issue of the earthquake idle when cold starting. I did some calling around for pricing and surprisingly found that the dealership had the better price...that's scary.
Me and the LS are getting off on the wrong foot. I want to like this car - it's visually stunning, gives a good performance and smooth ride on the road and has a comfortable interior - but, if this is going to be a regular thing, shelling out *thousands* to keep it on the road - I have to cut my losses sooner than later. Is this what owning an LS is going to be like? Major repairs every month? Because a number of reviews I've read on it suggest the answer is yes.
Back to the idling issue. I don't want to dish out 1300 for new cats if I don't really need them. From browsing this forum - the symptom seems to almost universally suggest it is the coils, not the cats. Is it possible the engine code is wrong? Or *gasp* is one a symptom of the other and am I going to need to replace BOTH cats AND coils? What needs to be done to keep either of these things from becoming a recurring problem? What preventative maintenance is high priority with these cars to prevent other common major repairs in the future? I will replace the cats if I must, and the coils too (plugs....ugh). But if this thing throws another thousand+ dollar repair at me any time in the near future this is going to be a short-lived man-car relationship with a bitter breakup possibly involving a shotgun aimed at that shiny emblem on the grill.
Finally I found a 2005 LS with 95xxx and the 3.0 V6 which seemed to be in excellent condition. Black on black - looked great, drove great on our very short test drive, interior was flawless so I bought it...4 days ago.
...3 days ago when starting it in the morning the car shook violently until it warmed up. If I didn't live in MN I would have thought we were having an earthquake sitting in that car. That issue persisted, violent shaking when cold-starting. Warmed up, it ran just fine. By the third day, an Engine light came on. I took it to Bloomington Lincoln to have them inspect the vehicle and pull the code. Dealer informed me that code says I need new catalytic converters - $1300. He was convinced it would be the coils when I first told him what was happening, but the code said otherwise. He also informed me that my right upper control arm and ball joint were extremely loose - $450. And oh, by the way, your rear right caliper is leaking and you have less than 1mm on both rear brake linings - $720.
Right out of the gate, I'm being told this thing needs $2400 in repairs. And that's without even touching the notorious coil issue.
In the days since I purchased it, I had time to search the web for information on this model and learned of the infamous coil problems amongst other things. I decided to hold off on the cats since I wasn't totally convinced of that being the problem based on what I read, regardless of what the code said. I did ok them to go ahead with the other work, I mean, can't drive with no brakes. Then he finds that the front breaks have only 2mm on the right side, likely due to the control arm issue, when the other side still had 7mm. I told him to just do the breaks all the way around...but first, there was an issue with the center cap on the drivers side front wheel, that required breaking the center cap off and drilling out the bolt that holds it in place because it had corroded so badly. Wonderful.
$1600 later - the car has new rotors and pads all the way around, two new calipers in the rear, and a full brake fluid exchange plus a new upper control arm/ball joint on the right side and a fresh alignment for good measure. And still, there is the unresolved issue of the earthquake idle when cold starting. I did some calling around for pricing and surprisingly found that the dealership had the better price...that's scary.
Me and the LS are getting off on the wrong foot. I want to like this car - it's visually stunning, gives a good performance and smooth ride on the road and has a comfortable interior - but, if this is going to be a regular thing, shelling out *thousands* to keep it on the road - I have to cut my losses sooner than later. Is this what owning an LS is going to be like? Major repairs every month? Because a number of reviews I've read on it suggest the answer is yes.
Back to the idling issue. I don't want to dish out 1300 for new cats if I don't really need them. From browsing this forum - the symptom seems to almost universally suggest it is the coils, not the cats. Is it possible the engine code is wrong? Or *gasp* is one a symptom of the other and am I going to need to replace BOTH cats AND coils? What needs to be done to keep either of these things from becoming a recurring problem? What preventative maintenance is high priority with these cars to prevent other common major repairs in the future? I will replace the cats if I must, and the coils too (plugs....ugh). But if this thing throws another thousand+ dollar repair at me any time in the near future this is going to be a short-lived man-car relationship with a bitter breakup possibly involving a shotgun aimed at that shiny emblem on the grill.
A warranty that covers little to nothing you actually need.
