Sorting Out My "New" LS

[Ghost37]

Hi folks. As of Friday of last week I'm the proud owner of an 03 LS V8 with 52,800 miles on it. I feel like I got a pretty good deal on it, but there are some things that I'm going to be working on. The center dash surround on the vents, CD player, AC, etc. needs refinishing and the shifter surround is scratched up pretty badly. Several of the speaker covers have rust spots and it has a busted parking light lens in the back. And I'll be trying to get the "car was smoked in 6 years ago" smell out of it. The first thing I've gotta work on, and the reason for this thread is this:

I'm getting intermittent readings on my speedometer. As I'm accelerating it pauses and then jumps to the accurate position, then pauses there, and then jumps to a new accurate position. More often than not, though, it is showing an inaccurate reading. All other dials on the cluster appear to be functioning properly and I got a flash of CEL this morning just for a second on my way to work. Have any of you experienced something similar?

I'll post some pictures of the car, and the interior as it stands now so you can see what I'm up against while I try to get it back to "as good as new."

Thanks for your time.

 

[lsemex04]

Welcome

:GotPics: OF YOU ls AND :W

 

[joegr]

The speedometer needle has about 2 or 3 MPH of hysteresis to it. Both of mine do this and have since they were brand new. Are you talking about something worse than that? It sounds like you are. If so, I would guess that the servo for the speedometer needle is sticking or otherwise defective. If it were the speed sensors themselves, you'd have the ABS light on.

Was it just a flash of the check engine light? If so, you can still get the code read as long as you don't have too many start-stop cycles before you do. On the other hand, was it a beep from the message center and a brief flash of a message that was too quick to read? If so, it is normal for this to happen once in a while.

 

[purevilpleasure]

When the CEL came up did the car buck or surge for a second?

 

[LS4me]

I've been searching for a matching brushed nickle paint for the trim pieces for almost 4 years!

 

[G-RELL]

all seems pretty fixable! congrats and welcome! cant wait to see it!

 

[smoothLSV8]

I've been searching for a matching brushed nickle paint for the trim pieces for almost 4 years!

Contact DupiColor. I learned they will custom color match spray paint in the rattle can.

 

[smoothLSV8]

I'll be trying to get the "car was smoked in 6 years ago" smell out of it.

Febreeze.

Or get the FreshAir EcoBox: http://ecoquestair.com/shop/living_air/freshair_ecobox/

I have one for the house and it makes a huge difference. After coming back from a 1 week vacation the house had none of the stale air smell. You could use it in the house or apartment and occasionally ozone the car's cabin with it.

 

[Ghost37]

Pictures as promised (had to wait for it to stop raining). Also, the rain has revealed another thing to fix. I've got water at the front edge of my sunroof and going down the driver's A pillar (both shown below). I'm pretty sure I've seen a post on here what to do for that so I'll be tracking that down.

 

[Ghost37]

Answering questions:

joegr - Yes it is worse than slight needle jump. If I were to accelerate slowly from 0 to 60 the needle would start out on 0, stay there for a second, jump suddenly to 12 mph, stay there as the car is continuing to accelerate, jump to 38 mph, stay, and then potentially jump to 60 mph 20 to 30 seconds after the car has already topped out there. All of those numbers are just to provide a sample of the way the needle acts. I don't see any discernible pattern in it, save for the possibility of it jumping sometimes when I hit a bump (which leads me towards electrical wire/connector problems).

joegr and purevilpleasure - The CEL flashed for about half a second and wasn't accompanied by any action from the car or chimes. I just mentioned it in the interest of giving as many potential relevant factors as possible for the speedo issue. I'm hoping the experts here on this board (that's you guys) might recognize what is going on from past experience.

smoothLSV8 - That product looks interesting. My wife has occasionally complained about the "dead air" in our house. Perhaps that will do the trick. I think I'm going to start with a professional detailing, and then see if I have to go any further. Hopefully I can pay someone to scrub it all out.

 

[Mustangdanimal]

Rent a good carpet cleaner with a hand wand. Pull your front seats. Get a good foaming upholstery/carpet cleaner. (I like the Turtle wax brand as it smells good) Use at least the entire can, if not two, soaking down the entire carpet. Scrub it in good. Wait about 15 minutes and then use the machine.

After that, use the Febreeze on your headliner and underneath the seats. I guarantee you'll get ANY smell out using this procedure.

 

[smoothLSV8]

smoothLSV8 - That product looks interesting. My wife has occasionally complained about the "dead air" in our house. Perhaps that will do the trick. I think I'm going to start with a professional detailing, and then see if I have to go any further. Hopefully I can pay someone to scrub it all out.

Taking care of that "dead air" is exactly what it is designed for. It ionizes the air. The ozone kills air born germs and it makes the dust drop to the floor.

I believe they make a unit for cars also, but I suggest get one for the house. You guys certainly spend more time their than in the car. From time to time you can treat the cars with it.

 

[joegr]

...Taking care of that "dead air" is exactly what it is designed for. It ionizes the air. The ozone kills air born germs and it makes the dust drop to the floor.

I believe they make a unit for cars also, but I suggest get one for the house. You guys certainly spend more time their than in the car. From time to time you can treat the cars with it.

The down side is that the ozone considerably accelerates the aging of rubber and related materials.

 

[1LoudLS]

I've been searching for a matching brushed nickle paint for the trim pieces for almost 4 years!

i believe that seatle silver was the closest i could get in a can off the shelf with out having it mixed up, perfect? not quite but damn close for sure

 

[1LoudLS]

and yes, your drain tubes in both A pillars have came disconnected because they shrink, easy enough fix, this is probably why you speaker grills are rusting...

 

[LS4me]

i believe that seatle silver was the closest i could get in a can off the shelf with out having it mixed up, perfect? not quite but damn close for sure

Is that a Duplicolor body paint color?

 

[tireman]

Welcome! Nice car!

Just a little cosmetic stuff. To freshen my cabin, once a year I buy a can of lysol linen scent spray, close the windows turn the fan on high inducting outside air, open the hood and spray the lysol into the cabin filter. this kills all the mold and yukky stuff in the vents and carpet, smells great too. 99.9% of germs killed. try it.

 

[1LoudLS]

Is that a Duplicolor body paint color?

i believe so.

back a while ago, before metra started making the silver dash kits, i had to paint my black one to match, i just went into auto zone took in my ashtray and bought the 3 or 4 cans that were the closest to the lid. then i painted a small piece of plastic with each can, and that was the winner.



EDIT: sh!tballs, i just googled the color and it does look a little too goldish, and i dont have the old can laying around anymore. dont know why i remember that colors name if its not the right one...




on a side note, i really want to repain all the center pieces, but the climate controls have me a little worried because of the LED indicators for the bottom row of buttons. does anybody know if that can be fully disassembled (like does the clear come out) or if i will have to tape it off?

 

[chocolat1701]

good buy and these issues are all fixable.
for the leaky pillars here is the fix
http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/showthread.php?t=84715

for the center dash just paint it if you paint every peace in the dash the color will match
the instrument cluster may need to be replaced but also a easy fix.
you can also paint the grill for the speakers but these are all easy fixes. here is a list of common problems with the LS so you can study on

http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/showthread.php?t=61616

 

[der3wuste3fuchs]

Pictures as promised (had to wait for it to stop raining). Also, the rain has revealed another thing to fix. I've got water at the front edge of my sunroof and going down the driver's A pillar (both shown below). I'm pretty sure I've seen a post on here what to do for that so I'll be tracking that down.

Looks great. How much did you pay for it?

 

[RigsLS]

That looks like just some dirt to me, try *gently* cleaning that with a Mr clean magic eraser.

 

[Ghost37]

Just a little cosmetic stuff. To freshen my cabin, once a year I buy a can of lysol linen scent spray, close the windows turn the fan on high inducting outside air, open the hood and spray the lysol into the cabin filter. this kills all the mold and yukky stuff in the vents and carpet, smells great too. 99.9% of germs killed. try it.

I need to replace that filter. A search at Autozone is turning up 2 different part numbers with 2 different sizes. Do you guys know which is the right filter?

CAF1759 9.8 x 7.2
CAF7759 10.3 x 8.8

 

[Ghost37]

Fixed the sunroof drain tube with the information I got here. So, thanks much for the help with that. Supposed to rain today which will prove whether I got it or not. Also pulled the map light switches out since they've gone bad. Planning to find a junkyard with an LS and go looking for switches, a replacement parking light lens, and whatever else I see that might help.

Edit: BigRig - The plastic looks like it was sprayed with something that discolored it. Also, its worn through the finish down to the white inner plastic in a few places. That picture looks better than it does in real life. That'd be my camera doing its job and making things look better (which is normally a good thing).