2007 Town Car Stiff Ride

[mscs]

Seems like my town car doesn't have that soft "pillowy" ride. The motor runs smooth, but going over cracks in the road or bumps, the car feels really stiff. I can feel everything especially from the back of the car. Any suggestions on what I can do? or what could be wrong? I rode in an '05 town car and that felt very smooth, kind of a floating feeling going over the road, it felt great. I have 40,000 miles on my 2007 Town Car Signature Limited. My tire pressure on the Michelin's that came with the car is 34 on the back tires and 32 pounds on the front tires. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks

 

[CartierBear]

Seems like my town car doesn't have that soft "pillowy" ride. The motor runs smooth, but going over cracks in the road or bumps, the car feels really stiff. I can feel everything especially from the back of the car. Any suggestions on what I can do? or what could be wrong? I rode in an '05 town car and that felt very smooth, kind of a floating feeling going over the road, it felt great. I have 40,000 miles on my 2007 Town Car Signature Limited. My tire pressure on the Michelin's that came with the car is 34 on the back tires and 32 pounds on the front tires. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks

Have you gotten new shocks lately?? I put new sensa traks on mine and i feel the texture of the road now.

 

[mscs]

No, I haven't replaced the shocks. I was thinking about it but I guess that would probably make it an even stiffer feel.

 

[abe_lincoln78]

when I switched from my '80's model to my '93 I noticed a significant difference. And with new shocks on it now it really seems stiff to me. The upside is that it handles much better than that old '89 did, so you win some, you lose some.

 

[mscs]

Sounds good. For me, I would actually give up a little of the handling to get the soft "Town Car" ride and right now I'm just not getting that. My driving style is on the opposite side of the "lead foot" style of driving. Even though I'm in my mid forties I probably drive like an old man. Freeway is about 65-70 mph and pretty much the speed limit on the city streets. Any suggestions on what can be done to make it a smoother ride?

 

[bigltc]

I went from an '86 to an '01 and I found the ride a bit stiff and bumpy even though the '01 only had about 30k miles. I couldn't figure out why pot holes and bumps in the road felt so annoying. I finally replaced the shocks when one of the front ones started leaking. I used motorcraft. What a difference! Who would have thought low mileage shocks would ride so crappy! I wish I would have done it sooner.

Another poster proclaimed the benefits of getting his driver seat re-stuffed. Better handling, more control and more comfort! Go for it!

 

[SSmith440]

Ride Stiffness

Hello; I have a 2006 Town Car that I bought new and now has 7,500 miles on it and I also feel that it rides too stiff for my tastes. Yes the sales stuff said the car has a "pillowy" ride. That is not an entirely accurate description of the cars' ride. It is certainly softer than say a honda civic or similar car but I want this car to have much more floaty and cushiony ride. I am not at all interested in a performance type of handling with this car. For that I will drive my 2004 Mach1. I previously had a 1994 Mercury Grand Marquis LS and it had a softer ride than the '06 T.C.. In high school in 1985/86 and a few years following I once owned a 1972 Lincoln 4Dr Sedan that I bought dead from a wrecking yard and brought back to life and that car definately had lots of float to the ride. Sure it was heavier by an easy 1,000 pounds and had a 460 and got about 12 or so mpg but it did float and that is precisely what I desire when driving a Lincoln Town Car. I have yet to find any one who manufactures suspension springs for this body series that have softer spring rates than the stockers. I have seen some data for softer rear shocks and front struts but they seem to only be marginally softer. When I am driving my Lincoln I want a soft, quiet and cushy ride. If you know how I can obtain this or where to purchase the parts or have them installed please let me know. Also my Grand Marquis had two sun visors - a larger one you could unhinge and fold towards the drivers window and a smaller one you could flip down in the typical fashion. Is such a set up available on the Lincoln Town Car? Thank you, Scott
SSmith440@hotmail.com

 

[dRock95MarkVIII]

The ride firmed up considerably for 2003+ because of the redesigned front suspension, and the watts linkage rear suspension on 1998+ models.
The 17" wheels don't help any, either.
It's a trade off.


2006.5+ models are a little smoother than 2003-2006.5 because of a change to the lower front control arms to a less rigid design (stamped steel vs cast aluminum), but they are still much firmer than earlier models by comparison (ESPECIALLY 1997 and older)



There isn't much of anything you can swap to soften it anymore than it is now, it already has the softest shock valving and springs (front coils and rear base-rate air) for the platform

Swapping to a 16" wheel set from a 2003 or newer Grand Marquis or Crown Victoria, along with some smooth-riding tires would help a lot, though

 

[bigltc]

ssmith---Did you put Dynamat in your cabin or just your trunk? How do you like it? I dis like the engine noise in my TC.

 

[SSmith440]

Ride/NVH

hi again; how would 16" wheels provide any softer ride than a 17" wheel/tire combo on a 2006 Lincoln TC? the tires on my car are the stock michelin ww optional tires. other model cars that have 18" and up wheels are limited in suspension travel plus have harder tires and typically have awful ride characteristics. the 2006 stock springs and struts may be at thier factory limits on softness and this is why aftermarket stuff that is softer still than the stockers would in my mind provide a softer ride. as for the dynamat, i installed in in the complete trunk compartment less the underside of the deck lid. and installed also on the rear deck panel and down the rear seat back and stopped at the rear seat bottom. i did not install dynamat under the front or rear carpets or interior eventually i expect i will do so i also installed dynmat in three layers within the front and rear doors along with a speaker upgrade. in the rear deck i stayed with the stock cut out size of 5X7/6X8. i am thinking that eventually i will have the holes cut larger to fit a fairly robust set of 6X9's. if i disasseble the car and take it to car toys they can cut the openings for about 25 bucks. i replaced the stock 8" paper subwoofer in the rear deck with a stillwater designs poly cone 8" sub with dual voice coils and was able to make it fit in the stock plastic box and rehooked up the stock amps which are waaaay lame to push a sub so i will likely get a 350 or 400 watt amp and run that for the sub alone. i don't like to feel the road but i do like to feel my music. btw...i bought the dynamat on ebay at about 1/3 the cost of retail. noise from the engine compartment is not to bad at all but could be less. Scott here's a few more pics of the dynamat and the window tint was installed before the dealer got the white wall tires on it

 

[abe_lincoln78]

16's will give you a softer ride because in order to get the same overall tread diameter you will need a taller side wall. The result is a smoother ride. I doubt your '72 weighed any more than 500# more than your '06. They're much closer than you think (imagine how much more steel etc goes into a new car to make it 'safe,' its actually quite appalling.)

As far as everything else, all looks nice. I wish I could afford that kind of car, new.

 

[Lincoln Pimpin']

Yea i have noticed if your car has more tire it is a much stiffer ride. 16s on 32-35 psi is very nice and that was on my 79 Continental.

On my 97 Town Car I had the stock 15s with the air ride was the nicest ride I had ever been in. Then I put 20" chrome rims on with low pro tires and the ride is much stiffer and you feel alot more in the road. So with 20" of rim then the psi on the tires needs to be 45 so you can go over a bump without the tire flexing and destroying the rim.

With the stock 15s it felt like I was on a cloud of pillowy softness and with the 20s it's not nearly as soft. But I like the look of them and the shocks still do their job.

I have never ridden in a newer town car but I know that some of the newer ones were stiffer and the seats are firmer. But for a smooth ride you definately want more tire with the lower 32-35 psi.

 

[mscs]

That's a nice 2006 T.C. with the white wall tires, looks sharp. Is that the T.C. covered in snow? What a picture!
That is an interesting comment someone made about the 16" tires running smoother than 17" tires. I guess you'ld have to use old rims from an older T.C. I was talking to someone about getting a smoother ride for my 2007 Town Car and he suggested maybe lowering the ride height a little bit. He said it's pretty much a one bolt adjustment near the rear axel of the car, takes a couple of minutes to do. I do notice some town cars have different ride heights. Does anyone know what happens ride wise if you lower the ride height? Do you think it would ride smoother? more floaty? It sure looks like the 1999-2003 t.c.'s, the ones I have seen are sitting a lot lower in the back when you look at them. Sometimes I'll see 2005-2009 t.c.'s with a large gap from the top of the back tire to the bottom of the back fender. Any thoughts on this?

 

[SSmith440]

i have heard nothing about the lowering thing you mentioned regarding the rear and yes that is the '06 under the december snow last year. currently replacing the alternator on my 1977 T.C.
scott

 

[Lincoln Pimpin']

That's a nice 2006 T.C. with the white wall tires, looks sharp. Is that the T.C. covered in snow? What a picture!
That is an interesting comment someone made about the 16" tires running smoother than 17" tires. I guess you'ld have to use old rims from an older T.C. I was talking to someone about getting a smoother ride for my 2007 Town Car and he suggested maybe lowering the ride height a little bit. He said it's pretty much a one bolt adjustment near the rear axel of the car, takes a couple of minutes to do. I do notice some town cars have different ride heights. Does anyone know what happens ride wise if you lower the ride height? Do you think it would ride smoother? more floaty? It sure looks like the 1999-2003 t.c.'s, the ones I have seen are sitting a lot lower in the back when you look at them. Sometimes I'll see 2005-2009 t.c.'s with a large gap from the top of the back tire to the bottom of the back fender. Any thoughts on this?

I do not think i've heard of lowering the height of the car helping the ride be more soft. I think I will look into that tho.