Maintenance Questions

[Ancillery]

Hello all,

I'm going to be performing some much needed maintenance on my 2002 LS V8 Sport with 125,000 miles. I just had a few questions as to the general consensus of things.

New Plugs and Coils:

I'm currently looking on eBay for new coils I picked up the plugs from rock auto already. Does anyone have a suggestion on what brand or a seller to go with? Or should I bite the bullet and eat $400 in coils. Cheaper alternatives?

New Shocks:

I have new sport fronts and euro rears because I have a pretty heavy sub box and carry tools for work. Pretty sure old ones have been on the car since new, what kind of difference can I expect from having euros in the rear or new shocks in general?

New Sway Bar Bushings:

I picked these up from energy suspension anything to note?

Coolant Drain/Flush:

Should I just do a drain and fill or flush the system? These cars are picky, will fill with proper fluid.

Rear Differential:

Is it worthwhile to drain this and replace with new fluid?

Anything else I'm missing to do with this mileage? Cold weather tips?

And a general diagnostic question, the car tends to wander and sway at highway speeds almost like it is on an air hockey table. Is there anything I should check to fix this? I had assumed it was my crappy tires but it seems to be getting worse.


I have found some answers with search so please don't maim me right away.

Thanks for any input.

 

[jjcool00]

New Plugs and Coils:

I'm currently looking on eBay for new coils I picked up the plugs from rock auto already. Does anyone have a suggestion on what brand or a seller to go with? Or should I bite the bullet and eat $400 in coils. Cheaper alternatives?

No - do not do any other brand besides Motorcraft/Visteon or you will do them again, very soon.

New Shocks:

I have new sport fronts and euro rears because I have a pretty heavy sub box and carry tools for work. Pretty sure old ones have been on the car since new, what kind of difference can I expect from having euros in the rear or new shocks in general?

The Euro shocks supposedly provide a much rougher ride - I haven't read anything positive about them but I've never personally experienced the ride with them on.

New Sway Bar Bushings:

I picked these up from energy suspension anything to note?

Check all of the arms near the wheels, especially the rear.

Coolant Drain/Flush:

Should I just do a drain and fill or flush the system? These cars are picky, will fill with proper fluid.

I don't think this is necessary. Plus any drain you will do will only be about 10-15% of total coolant. To do a full coolant flush you need to drop the engine. However, you probably will be at the point (if you haven't already) where you will need to replace ALL of the plastic cooling parts. Maybe you should start getting the parts together. Remember after changing any cooling component to properly bleed the system according to the tech article above (follow it EXACTLY).

Anything else I'm missing to do with this mileage? Cold weather tips?

And a general diagnostic question, the car tends to wander and sway at highway speeds almost like it is on an air hockey table. Is there anything I should check to fix this? I had assumed it was my crappy tires but it seems to be getting worse.

Bent rims, alignment, not properly balanced wheels, arms, sways, could really be anything. Visually inspect your wheels and the suspension components. Its easy to see if they have worn.

I have found some answers with search so please don't maim me right away.

Thanks for any input.

I would say that all of your questions have been answered recently in threads, the search feature built into the site sucks... dont use it. Instead go to google.com type "site:lincolnvscadillac.com lincoln ls (insert search term here). That will yield proper search results for the questions you're posing.

 

[cobey]

Consensus for coils is going to be Motorcraft, aftermarket is extremely unreliable for this car. You can find some horror stories about it if you really dig for it. You may be able to find them cheaper at ebay, amazon or another similar site, but when I looked for them 9ish months ago, cheapest place was Rockauto at around 45 per if I remember correctly. If you do a coolant drain or flush, I would look at all of the plastic cooling components. You are right at about the mileage where those like to go. Good Luck with the Repairs

 

[eots44]

With cars like Cadillacs and Lincolns, it's a very bad idea to go with cheap parts, cutting corners on cars like these is only going to cost a lot more later.

 

[LS4me]

Euro shocks in back only may induce over-steer and cause the car to be tail-happy.

 

[tireman]

I bought cheap coils on ebay for my 01V6 at 100k miles, now at 160k miles no problems. Paid $125 for 6 coils.

 

[scjmc]

Wandering could be tie rods. My 06 has 77K miles, and I need front inners and rear tie rods already. My 02 had 140K, and the originals were OK when I traded it. I would have an alignment shop check it out.