So I trade a member here for his LS after he assures me numerous times that the car has "no issues". The second day I have it, I go to start it, and it cranks, but won't fire. I try it a few times, and after stepping on the gas pedal, it fires right up. The car idles fine and seems to run fine, so I write it off as a "hiccup". My 3rd day of ownership, it happens two more times, now I know there is a problem with the car. After browsing the forums here, I'm thinking I have an injector issue. I decide it's probably worth the $95 fee for Lincoln to troubleshoot the fuel system for me, so I know exactly what to replace. This morning (5th day of ownership) I drop the car off at Lincoln. As I'm sitting in the car filling out the envelope for the night drop with the car idleing, suddenly, the engine develops a pretty good miss, and starts shaking like crazy....GREAT! I add that to the symptons on the night-drop envelope. I get a call from Lincoln this afternoon. They tell me they found the problem. They found a bad vacuum line, heavy carbon deposits in the throttle body and intake tract, and the computer needs re-flashed/updated per the TSB for the hard start issues. So now, on top of the $135 I paid the Ford dealer in Wisconsin to go over the car before I bought it, I'm out another $501 for the repairs today. The good news is, they assured me that the injectors and the coil packs are fine. I did drive the car this afternoon, and so far it is fine. The most irritating thing is, I find a post on this site from the previous owner, where he was chasing a hard start issue, so he obviously knew about it before he traded me the car. I'm sure it just slipped his mind as he told me over and over how the car had "no issues".
That being said, it will be $500 well spent if the car doesn't give me any other "major" issues.
That being said, it will be $500 well spent if the car doesn't give me any other "major" issues.