New 04 Nav Owner - questions

[lincolnelite]

I've been a long time member here, previous LS owner and a current Continental owner. I just added to my stable an 04 Navigator with 220k miles. The exhaust is very loud, the owner said that the clamp after the cat is bad (I think the new exhaust in whole was bad) it's really noisy because of the drone and vibrated a lot. It has lean codes which I suspect could be the pcv elbow or the EGR valve (got a code for that too) or EGR sensor (common issue too) The rear is all the way up because the air suspension wouldn't work anymore because of bad height level sensors (not sure which one but it's better that's its all the way up instead of down) tires in the front are shot because of this but still drives really good. There are minor issues such as window regulator not working on the front passenger side, door ajar message and check advtrac messages.

questions:
- is the 03-06 Expedition catback/muffler interchangeable with the Nav ?
- if I convert it to coil springs, will the ride be the same or will not be issue since it's old anway? each sensor is $100 and there are four (?) of them. The suncore conversion is $298 which is cheaper than fixing the POS sensors.
- if I decided to use suspension parts from an Expedition will that work too? somebody has done the "check suspension" message disable?

 

[lincolnelite]

Got some work done this weekend, I was able to get a working rear height level sensor from the junkyard. It made the rear now in correct height, it was all the way up before and now it's normal height after the change. The rear height sensor is $99 in amazon but I made a gamble on a junkyard piece which is $10. The main difference between the bad one is that it binds when moving it, the good one just moves freely. No calibration needed and I don't need to do a conversion for now.

I also fixed the exhaust issue, the left exhaust got disconnected because the clamp failed. There's a missing bolt on the flange (not sure if the shop forgot to re-install it) and caused the pipe to slide out when the clamp got rusted. This caused the exhaust to bypass the muffler, it's really quite now with only the v8 rumble which is nice to the ears... Never do straight pipe, the drone is just unbearable..

I also fixed the lean code, found oil leak on the elbow connecting the pcv valve, the rubber softened and allowed air. Added a smaller to tighten it and reset the codes.

Also fixed the window regulator issue, found a motor and cable assembly in the junkyard. Mine has a cable that snapped and destroyed the motor assembly. Could have bought a new regulator but at $25 in the junkyard can't resist the item. It was not easy trying to assemble the cable but finally I was able to make it work.

I still have pending issues with "door ajar" messages, seems to be a lot of work to diagnose which door. Traction control light is on and "check advtrac" is showing maybe because of a mismatch tire at the rear that the previous owner installed. It has 255 70 18 on all tire but 265 55 18 on the rear passenger. I think this causes issues with the traction control/abs. Will be looking for used tires this week.


pics here ...

https://www.facebook.com/diyLincolnNavigator/photos/?tab=album&album_id=970491923062829

 

[lincolnelite]

so this weekend I finally got rid of my air suspension, all of them. At first the replacement rear height sensor fixed the "suspension error" issue and it leveled the rear but I noticed the front is still leaning slightly. After 3 days, the rear sag terribly and the front has a noticeable lean on the passenger side. I tried turning on the car again and now it leans on both the passenger side. After 1 day, it's back to sagging again... the bags hold air and I suspect the height sensors on the front needed to be re-programmed properly so that both left and right are of the same height. I decided to replace the rear with coils this Saturday and still got a lean on the passenger side. I suspected that the front height are not level. On Sunday I replaced the fronts with coils and it made a difference, the lean is gone and the truck is level.. $120 to replace it with used coils from a 2004 expedition.

 

[lincolnelite]

finally fixed the door ajar issues, all of my doors but the driver side have broken switches. the switches are rusted, stuck and split when I wiggled them. It's made of metal and the new ones were all plastic (lesson learned)

it fixed my dome light staying on when closing and locking the doors, running boards try to slide in/out now (still have to fix this because of rust issue, it's binding when sliding out) and was able to program a new remote fob.

more fixes to do..

egr (p0401) sensor replacement
rear dvd won't eject disc
power seat stop working


https://www.facebook.com/diyLincoln...1537705291584/981537358624952/?type=3&theater

 

[lincolnelite]

egr error code is fixed, turns out that the hoses are cross wired and they are not the correct size for the HI line. 3 dpfe sensors from the junkyard and all of them are still causing the p0401 code. It turns out the previous shop didn't return the hose correctly (and I use it for reference) Bought a new set of dpfe sensor hoses (1 big and 1 small diameter) and installed it correctly, no more p0401 code. HI (close to exhaust) side is the bigger dia hose and REF (close to intake side) is the small dia hose.

the fuses for the power seats were blown (30 amp maxi, fuse #108 and #109), caused by 1 motor or gear broken. the driver side has motor for the front height making a noise (sound like a stripped/stuck gear) so it won't go up/down on the front side but the slide in/out, back height and recline works (this is acceptable for me now) while the passenger side has the slide in out not working at all (motor is dead) at it's current position this is acceptable since the recline and front/back height adjustments are working.

rear dvd player needs to be replaced, the mechanism for loading it has broken plastic which I don't know where it belongs to. somebody probably tried to force in/out the disc. normally there is a shaft that has a rubber on it that will slip when it tries to spit or take in a disc, putting an adhesive to this shaft will normally fix the issue but you have to disasssemble the whole thing.

 

[Svets96]

The Navigator looks really clean and well kept. You know electrical repairs very well may I add.

 

[lincolnelite]

I got the dvd replaced with a used one from a 2004 expedition, the plug doesn't match with 2003. I have to go back to the junk yards and get the plug from the expedition and use that to create a 16 to 20 adapter. It's just matching all the wires and discarding the rest of the connections (they were added for the wireless headphones) The replacement unit has a bad black control panel, the play and enter buttons has so much wear on them that they started to peel. I have to swap the control from my nice looking navigator rear dvd (the unit looks new) to make it look better (and match the nav interior)

I also replaced the sliding boards with a fixed from an Expedition, since mine slides out but slides back in because the boards are so rusted that they bind. Aside from rust, when I manually pull the boards out, the idler aluminum arm cracked due to corrosion. Upon inspection the boards needs to be thrown away, it's not safe to drive around with the current condition, it's an accident waiting to happen. The Expedition plastic trim won't work well in the Navigator so I have to swap the plastic trim and has to drill holes for it since they don't match. The whole assembly is just too heavy, I'm glad it's out and my wife and kids can go in and out easily and safely now. I think the main issue with these sliding boards are the corrosion and rust on the idler support, they rust and crack badly that they skew the alignment causing it to bind (and slide in)

more pics at;

https://www.facebook.com/diyLincolnNavigator/photos/

 

[lincolnelite]

The Navigator looks really clean and well kept. You know electrical repairs very well may I add.

just to let you know that this Navigator has the same engine as our Lincoln Continental (Intech 32v v8) It doesn't have the spark plug issue with the Triton V8 starting at 2004.

 

[Svets96]

just to let you know that this Navigator has the same engine as our Lincoln Continental (Intech 32v v8) It doesn't have the spark plug issue with the Triton V8 starting at 2004.

I didn't know that. I always thought when they made the face lift model in '03 the single cam engine went in. My '06 F-150 has the 5.4 I'm dreading the spark plug change on it soon here. Now that I think of it, back in '99,'00, or '04 when they started to work on the Ford GT they used an InTech 32V in the prototype car. It was called the CP1 had all the emission and NHSTA stuff on it. Also some of the Ford Daytona Protoypes' (racing class) for IMSA had InTech V8's in them. Ain't that somethin?....Found that out through a couple big brass at the blue oval awhile back, its also been on TV too.

Lincoln really out did themselves with the InTech in '92.5 model year way ahead of their time. Wish they got more credit for this amazing power plant, but now they are cause everyone wants a V8 so they pick up these older models. I hope they put a V8 in the new Conti down the road. I doubt it though. Damn govt. and emissions.

Sorry to ramble/thread hi-jack.

I'll be following this thread closely