What can I expect...

[jontz]

Hello all! I have JUST purchased a 2000 Lincoln LS V6 with 64K miles on it. It was previously owned by a friend of mine who lives about 4 hours from my location. I have been doing some research on the forums here, and I must admit that I am little bit scared of this thing now.

Case in point, on the way up here to deliver this car, it started shifting oddly, or to be more precise, NOT shifting. It wouldn't shift into 5th gear, sometimes not into 4th gear. If you throw the car in neutral, turn the engine off, and then restart while still rolling, it will shift. From my own limited understading, this would seem to be the solenoid pack in the transmission going out. My friend is now driving the car back home, he said that he would fix it (he owns a body/repair shop with his dad) at no charge to me. Did I point him in the right direction by telling him the solenoid pack?

What can I expect down the road from this thing? I have heard a lot about valve cover gaskets, but it seems to only be a problem on the V8 models. Is this true? What is the clockspring I keep hearing about? Is it hard to fix?

Any insight that you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I already have a $%&#!!! Deville with a blown head gasket. I don't need any more surprises this month...

 

[BlntdEyez]

See the thing about these forums is everybody comes here to post about problems with there cars. No one comes in here and starts a thread that says for example " Woke up this morning and the car started right up, she was running beautiful today." you know what I mean? I am a mark owner so i don't know much about the LS. I just wanted to let you know that little tid bit.

 

[jontz]

See the thing about these forums is everybody comes here to post about problems with there cars. No one comes in here and starts a thread that says for example " Woke up this morning and the car started right up, she was running beautiful today." you know what I mean? I am a mark owner so i don't know much about the LS. I just wanted to let you know that little tid bit.

LOL, that's true. I take everything with a grain of salt, and I have owned sevral "problem" vehicles that I have never had problems with. I guess I just want a little general info, mostly about the transmission question. Thanks for the insight though.

 

[eL eS]

See the thing about these forums is everybody comes here to post about problems with there cars. No one comes in here and starts a thread that says for example " Woke up this morning and the car started right up, she was running beautiful today." you know what I mean? I am a mark owner so i don't know much about the LS. I just wanted to let you know that little tid bit.

LOL... True!

Now with that said you should find better friends . Becasue thiscar is an additiction. Love it... Hate it.


Just don't romp on the car and you should be ok. And do not try to do burn outs becasue the transmission just can't take it. If your buddy hasn't had the pcv tube replaced you might want to ready yourself for this ordeal.

It is definitely something you can do so long as you have a covered garage and some basic had tools.

Like the rest of us drive it till you have problems then come o here and B!t<h about it then you will see who your true friends are

Welcome to the addiction otherwise known as the LS Grin.

 

[tagliato22]

well ill be the first. ive owned my 00 ls8 for almost a year now and it has (almost) been absolutely fantastic. aside from getting a little pissed off by discovering how cheap parts of the car were made, it has been great...zero problems.

im not one to believe in superstitions (or stupidstitions), but itll be funny if something should happen now.

 

[jontz]

LOL, no doubt. It's cool, I am not super worried about it. I'm more curious if there are any preventative practices that people do with this car. For instance, if you have a Cadillac with a Northstar, you had BETTER change the coolant every 20K miles, regardless of what GM says. That is, if you enjoy having head gaskets.

I was also curious about the transmission shifting problem that I stated in the original post, if anyone has any insight. Thanks for the responses everyone!

 

[eL eS]

LOL, no doubt. It's cool, I am not super worried about it. I'm more curious if there are any preventative practices that people do with this car. For instance, if you have a Cadillac with a Northstar, you had BETTER change the coolant every 20K miles, regardless of what GM says. That is, if you enjoy having head gaskets.

I was also curious about the transmission shifting problem that I stated in the original post, if anyone has any insight. Thanks for the responses everyone!

Nothing you can really do to prevent the shifting problems. The solenoid pack and valve body simply have some poor componenets in them. Whether you drive easy or hard as hell, eventually the parts will fail. Just start a little repair fund now so you will be ready when it happens.

 

[jontz]

How hard are the solenoid pack and the valve body to replace? Backyard mechanic or professional transmission man? I believe that I have one of the two going bad on this car currently.

 

[HyeLifeLS]

If you replace em, change both of them. I had my solenoids go bad, dealer changed em, everything was fine. Later, started again, they changed the valve body and the solinoids needed changing one more time. The mechanic told me that they make each other go bad.

I think it is hard to change, I don't remember well, but they said it is on top of the tranny and they needed to drop it a bit to get there.

 

[Garbone]

I've had my 04 LS V8 for about 2 1/2 months now, and this am, I got up, went to the car, and it started it, and it ran beautifully!!!...as it has since I bot it!
I absolutely love my LS. I have changed out the grill, and rear trim to LSE units, added the eibach's, and a K&N FIPK, and it runs better than when I bot it.
Blew off a new Toyota V8 yesterday...but it was a truck, and it was up hill...too bad for him!
There, there are people on here who rave about this car!