Officially in the LS club...

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2003_LSV8

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So I won't lie, I have considered myself pretty lucky since buying my LS back in May of this year... For it being a 2003 with (at the time) 54K on it, seemed like a pretty good buy for just at 10 grand... Then after owning it and reading the posts on here, I felt even more lucky, that I wasn't having these issues - until this past week...

So anyways, last Thursday I got home from work, park in the garage and when I walk behind my ride I notice a LINE of oily water following my car down the block and into my driveway... Upon further inspection it appeared to be seriously dirty transmission fluid. (** Side note** The mechanical engineers who fit the V8 into the LS are rocket scientists, cuz I spent thirty minutes crawling underneath it, while the front of the vehicle was on ramps and all I could see was that the fluid was leaking around the AC compressor. /**Side note) Long story short, I ended up taking the car to my mechanic the following morning and asking him to find where the leak was coming from. Turns out it my power steering pump was hemoraging fluid out the front shaft like no ones business. (Who knew that Ford recommends transmission fluid instead of power steering fluid?) I told him to go ahead and replace it, since you had to remove the A/C compressor just to get access to it. Total parts/labor (Plus an k&N filter cleaner kit) cost me 499 and change (ouch)...

Now I just hope that I get at least 20K more before something else unexpectedly fails...
 
@ Lucky LS - probably exhaust at some point. Already have a great aftermarket stereo..

@joegr - I don't know how everyone else reads the owners manual, but I don't sit down one night and read it cover to cover... I typical read about the features figuring out how to operate what is inside the car first. Then when I have an issue with something under the hood, I reference back to it. Since I didn't know where this leak was coming from - I had no where to reference back to. So when my mechanic told me what fluid he used, it surprised me.
I sit in reverent awe at your dedication to COMPLETELY read the owners manual... :yourock:
 
2003_LSV8 said:
@joegr - I don't know how everyone else reads the owners manual, but I don't sit down one night and read it cover to cover... I typical read about the features figuring out how to operate what is inside the car first. Then when I have an issue with something under the hood, I reference back to it. Since I didn't know where this leak was coming from - I had no where to reference back to. So when my mechanic told me what fluid he used, it surprised me.
I sit in reverent awe at your dedication to COMPLETELY read the owners manual... :yourock:
Click to expand...


Will you read the operators manual (or owners manual) when you by a new stereo? Or microwave? Or any other device? A car is no different; in fact it's even more critical to read the car's manual? There are many safety features that one needs to know.

FWIW, Ford has been using ATF in the power steering system for at least 20 years.
 
I brought the owner's manual inside the house the day I brought the car home. I've read most of it more than once. It's there for a reason.
 
pektel said:
I brought the owner's manual inside the house the day I brought the car home. I've read most of it more than once. It's there for a reason.
Click to expand...

Yeah it is good to read it for radio & ac controls, beltminder, fluid capacities, etc... but it doesn't tell you how to fix anything.
 
It can also prevent problems that could arise (i.e. putting the wrong type of fluid into a reservoir). Not saying it's a fix all, but it does have pertinent information that is helpful to read/know.
 
Not sure where all this flaming is coming from - just cuz I didn't know that Ford uses ATF for power steering fluid? Even if I did know that piece of (in this case, useless) information it wouldn't have helped me identify where the leak was coming from - or help me fix it.
 
Not flaming you. At least, not me. You started it by going off the deep end on joegr for him giving you a harmless jab.
 
2003_LSV8 said:
I don't know how everyone else reads the owners manual
Click to expand...

cover to cover, with in the first couple of days of having the car, other wise you take the chance of looking silly when some body shows you that the car can do something that you didn't know about until a year or two after owning the car.

for example, how to roll down the windows from the factory remote, how to put the heated/cooled seats into auto mode, how to set the wipers to auto mode, hot to use the E-parking brake, what fluids to use and what fluids not to use...

i'm not flaming anybody by saying any of this, but its always very clear who does and who doesn't read their manual by the questions that they ask in this forum
 
1LoudLS said:
cover to cover, with in the first couple of days of having the car, other wise you take the chance of looking silly when some body shows you that the car can do something that you didn't know about until a year or two after owning the car.

for example, how to roll down the windows from the factory remote, how to put the heated/cooled seats into auto mode, how to set the wipers to auto mode, hot to use the E-parking brake, what fluids to use and what fluids not to use...

i'm not flaming anybody by saying any of this, but its always very clear who does and who doesn't read their manual by the questions that they ask in this forum
Click to expand...

Same here.

Every car I've owned.

Its the simple sheit that you dont know about your car that you learn. Like holding the key in the door lock to roll every window down and open the sunroof... Would have never figured that one out if I didn't read the owners manual. :cool:
 
in the last year Ive probably had 4 LS's in the shop, none of the owners knew about the window down thing.lol
 
I was so stoked when I got my LS (I didn't know about this site till a few months later) that I read the manual, even out the CD. :D
 
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