possibly looking at a 1989 lsc

[lincoln_lurker]

as the title says I am looking at getting a 1989 vii lsc. I was wondering if there was anything (beside the basic things you look at in any used car and excluding air suspension issues) that I should look for on these cars. I'm not too familiar with them but I like the style of them a lot. Thanks in advance!

-Lurker

 

[Elessee]

Nothing special.. a car is a car.
I'd be more concerned about my ability to fix whatever goes wrong after the purchase. The last time I tried to take mine (an '88) into a dealership they refused to work on it.. to even look at it.. due to it's age. They may no longer stock certain parts and will not even start a job..

So, some things may need to be fixed by you or your mechanic. If it's you, find a complete set of shop manuals. If it's a mechanic he (or you) may need to search for some parts.

Just be forewarned. Understand what you're getting into. The thing is 20 years old.. guaranteed something or other will break after it's yours. It'll need to be fixed. Not long afterwards, something else will cause a problem. That will need to be fixed. There's no end to this.
There's no "Nothing went wrong with this car for the first 8 years I owned it." as might be true of a new vehicle..

The cars were top of the line in their day. Repairs and upkeep should be commensurate with what a fine car deserves. If repairs are neglected it won't be long before the car is just another poor performing, uncomfortable, unreliable headache.

 

[OldSchool1]

KindaSortaYeah

...Just be forewarned. Understand what you're getting into. The thing is 20 years old.. guaranteed something or other will break after it's yours. It'll need to be fixed. Not long afterwards, something else will cause a problem. That will need to be fixed. There's no end to this.
There's no "Nothing went wrong with this car for the first 8 years I owned it." as might be true of a new vehicle..
...

I kindasorta agree with E with the exception of, "There's no end to this."
All vehicles eventually need all of their regular wear items (rubber and paper and fluid) replaced. Once replaced, expect the life of the new product to be what the manufacturer suggests be it by time or distance. It's possible to have a maintenance free Lincoln Mark VII for 8 years if you only add 2000 miles to it

On the other hand, I think that what E was trying to get across is that Mark VIIs have a more FREQUENT maintenance schedule than today's throwaway vehicles. An oil change every two to three thousand miles and a spark plug replacement and drive belt change every 30,000 miles and a PCV valve change every 50,000 miles or so are common with our cars and should be expected.

 

[Elessee]

Yeah..you're right old school.. after re-reading it, i did paint a pretty grim picture.
My car had troubles from the get-go (got it for "free"). And it had not been maintained very well.. and it had over 200K on it.. And I do round trips to Vegas often (1000 miles). So, transforming it into a comfortable, reliable road warrior required extra effort.

But these things are like a box of chocolate.. you might get lucky but i think it's best to prepare for a soft, cream-filled odd tasting chunky mouthful..

i always carry tools, lighting, and some spare parts in the trunk.. got a new belt back there and have read the manual.. (garage guy said it was squeaking a few months ago but it seems fine to me) i think i can change it on the side of the road in the dark if required.

 

[Frogman]

Make sure the Blinker Fluid bottle isn't leaking. They are hard to find.

Make sure the trip computer buttons work. My old 87 LSC, I had to tear the damned thing apart and clean the contacts on the buttons. That's about all I can suggest.

Make sure it's Black. They are sexy in black.

 

[lincoln_lurker]

thanks for the info guys, it seems like they are like most other 20 year old vehicles, which I'm ok with.

Frog- they are sexy in black if they are CLEAN in black, haha

 

[Elessee]

I got to thinking this over and there are a couple of fairly common trouble spots that a buyer needs to be aware of..
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The brakes are powered by a hydraulic fluid pump. Pressure is accumulated (in an accumulator as one might expect) and maintaining that pressure is important. The system is not unique to the Mark7 but it is fairly rare.

If i were to buy the car, the brakes should work perfectly... no warning lights staying lit more than a few seconds after starting the engine.. no warning lights flashing while driving, etc.
But if you're familiar with the vehicle and know a brake problem is somewhat likely, and you know how to diagnose and fix the problems, then perhaps ignore it. A Lincoln dealer will likely not be helpful here..
Vibration from a warped rotor is not what i'm speaking of.. i mean things related to the power brake system.

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Another troublesome thing is the air suspension. Again, this should work perfectly. Read the tiny glove box owner's manual and know what it's expected to do (like not drop the car door on a curb while letting out passengers).

Leaks are another thing. If any corner of the car is very low (you can barely get your hand in above a tire) there's a leak. You will need to buy a rebuild kit and install it... little O-rings and stuff. Lincoln had them in stock the last time I needed a kit. If i owned a leaker for sale, I might get the car running a while to pump it up before my mark.. err.. customer arrived.

Anyone who frequents this board knows the air suspension system can be problematic, and it's not always easy to fix. A small industry has grown around R+R-ing the system with solid springs...

Of course if the car has been modified and has solid springs then ignore the above.. my condolences go out to those not having the pleasure of the air-ride.
----

Lots of the switches get filthy dirty inside the contact mechanism. The ones on the door that control seat movement... door locks... the ones on the console that control window - mirrors, etc. Why the engineers put them in places exposed to hot chocolate and filth is beyond me, but they are.

Aside from stuff that gets slopped onto a switch, i think they used a switch lubricant that congeals into a solid after 20 years or so.. it just dries out. I found a couple instances of this. The solids left behind prevent contacts from making good electrical contact..

Whatever the cause, when the contacts are dirty whatever they control won't work.

Cleaning a switch's insides is delicate and tedious work... but if you know a external mirror's not moving is likely due to this simple problem you might discount the problem and fix it after purchase.

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Do read the little owner's manual .. Tell the seller you want an hour or two to go through it and go through the car. If he objects he may be hiding something.

It's a small book but it provides a list of everything that's supposed to be working, like the auto-dim rear view mirror.. where the spare tire is. Is the jack there? How about the custom lug nut key? Gas cap cover switch working? (ignition off or on) Or will you need to open the trunk, pull the carpet trim aside and pull the rip cord every time you gas-up?
All sorts of stuff in the manual.. It will clue you into something that might be missing or something that's not working properly.

-------
What's a fair price to pay? I'm gonna say.. about $1,000 for a car in great condition.. straight body.. everything works.

 

[raider50]

Well i am in the same boat as the originator of this thread. I am looking at getting a 89 lincoln mark 7. here is the link to the ad http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/1354818641.html.

It is some distance away from me sence i am in northern wyoming so if i go down there i must be totally ready to buy it. I have been looking at other cars all over wyoming montana and south dakota, and the mark 7 seems to be a steal. It was top of the line 20 years ago and it is just the right age where it hasnt begun to start going up in value, but is old enough it is dirt cheep.

If i maintain that car how long could i expect it to last?

Dose it share the mustang 5.0? How strong are the transmitions?

Are they drivable in the winter (i.e. snow packed highways and such) Gas milage?

These cars dont seem to have any glaring weeknesses other than the air ride, so how bad is it to have leaks on the air ride?
Dose it do any real damage?

Sorry for the 95 questions i am just looking to you all to see what i should ask the seller.

Well i hope to get some good news these seem like they could be really cool cars. Thanks everyone

 

[Elessee]

Individual cars are different and have different quirks.. you can never really know a car until you've been married to it for a little while..

---------
At first, i turned down my 88 M7 .. it was mis-diagnosed by Lincoln as needing a complete new brake system at a cost of about $3,500. I didn't want to deal with it and had nowhere to put it.

Eventually I took the car.. Since I had the time and means to actually investigate the brake problem, the problem cost me $6.50 to fix (a junkyard fluid reservoir). From there on, while minor problems continued to expose themselves on occasion, it was a joy to own and well worth preserving...
--------

The air-ride is far from "weak". 20 year old rubber air springs are weak, just as 20-year old rubber anything is weak. Ozone and ultraviolet exposure take their toll on rubber.
New ones are available for about $50 if i recall. Mine came from a low-milage junker and were practically new and considerably cheaper.

The air suspension is one of the best things about the car.. simple to fix.. almost no tools required.. and the ride is great almost regardless of load.
I once packed about 1000# of crap in the trunk and, while steering was noticeably squirrely on the freeway, the car stayed level and drove straight all the way to the dumps..

Damage? When my front springs were leaking bad, I'd sometimes park over a concrete wheel barrier, curb or similar, and then the car would settle to the ground.
I'd back away and it scraped and bent the plastic trim under the radiator, but that's about it. I had to remember to let the springs pump up before driving off. Finally got new springs and all was well. You don't want to drive without any springs on any car. That's begging for trouble...

----

afaik, the engine is the mustang high performance engine.. 88 and later has electronics that can automatically adjust to improvements in fuel and air intake.. correct air-fuel mix is easy to retain and i guess it'll still pass smog.. but i never messed with it..
(The high performance people around here are welcome to correct me if i'm wrong.)

All i know is i opened the hood and saw headers!!!! on a stock car... and the freakin thing took off like a rocket ship.. left my brother in the dust when i first drove it to my home..

----
I never had a transmission problem of any kind.. never noticed any problems.
One weird thing that's not bad enough to mess with is a strange flat spot that happens only at 70MPH and only while climbing a hill at steady speed. It only happens rarely.
It feels like a clutch slippage that lasts a quarter-second or less.. not long enough to lose any speed.. the tachometer doesn't jump any RPMS.. I'm not even sure it's the tranny at fault.

-------
imo, $1500 is about $500 too high.. other than that, you can't go far wrong, especially if you really like the car's style, understand it's got 140K on it (mine has 250K), have some mechanical ability, and are somewhat committed to keeping it going.

 

[Scott Adams]

If the body's in good shape, BUY THE CAR!

My '89's been a wonderful vehicle. I bought it new, shipped it to Jack Roush who put the 5 speed T-5 World Class in it like the 11 others they built for Ford and in '93 they put in a GT40 5.0 L in it. 20 years later, I just replaced the original (from '93) plugs. The car has 235K miles on it and the plugs could have gone double that. A lot of Mustang stuff fits (same platform). I've replaced all of the suspension airbags just once, a couple of years ago. They're great. The only down side is that the bottom cup that holds them in place eventually rubs through them and they start to leak at that point. I've lost the electrics in the steering wheel due to the wear of the rotating contacts (expected at this age) but I never used the cruise control any way. The driver's door electric lock is gone, but so what? I've replaced the console mounted electric mirror control 'cuz I left the moon roof open during a rainstorm. It works perfectly now. It's triple black (the best for this car) and I love the look on the face of that pimple faced teenager in the Camaro next to me when the light turns green and the old fart next to him with the white leaves him in a cloud of blue smoke. I get offers to buy the car all time. It's not for sale.