The Tan Lady - A 1997 Crown Victoria

[SeanP]

Well, here is the official Reader's Ride thread for my new (to me) Crown Victoria. I have been hunting seriously for the last month or so, as many of you know, and this is the result. I'll post more details later but for now here's what you need to know:

I'm the third owner - bought off of original owner's grandson who I believe is in his late 40s-early-50s. 169,000ish kms. As rust free a body as you will find on just about any car, ever. A dirty but rip free cloth interior. HPP package (I think). Trailer hitch (may be tow package?). Dual exhaust with resonators. Tan exterior/interior - I'm sure someone will chime in with the actual colour names. Basically everything I wanted.

The crazy thing is

The bad:

The ride height is all messed up on my air ride suspension (Chuck Norris suggested the ride height sensor). You can see the rear end is sitting extra high on this thing.

The door in the HVAC is malfunctioning and cannot seem to divert anything but heat through the vents... it is constantly trying to close or open.. you can hear it thunking away in the dash.

Stinky air freshener.

Here are the first of the pics:








(My dad in the background)

The car is going to live at my in-laws farm until I sort out the junk with the air ride and the HVAC.

[gadget73]

Moisture in the air system can also cause it to stick. If the vent solenoid gets stuck, it won't vent out properly. At this point in time you're due for a dessicant renewal anyway. The top of the drier will unscrew, and you can dump the beads into a baking tray. Stick in the oven at the lowest temperature it will go for about 20 minutes, or until they go from brown to white-blue and you're good to go.

[IPreferDIY]

Well done! To make it last, oil spray the crap out of it with a rust inhibiting oil. The biggest areas of concern would be the front parts of the frame near the cats (I've seen them referred to as "torque boxes") and the front fenders. Use a flashlight to look into the holes in the frame to get the most thorough coverage. For the front fenders (if like my 2000), you should be able to take out the fender liner bolts at the top of the wheel wells and spray the canned stuff through an S bend in the plastic straw. When I did my rusty ones, I used WD-40 first, then the red runny Rust Check, then the thick Rust Check. That pretty much stopped the rust from spreading.

For the HVAC, I don't have personal experience, but from what I've read, it sounds like a blend door actuator problem, particularly a broken gear. To do it properly, you would normally have to drop the dash (which would be a good time to replace the heater core if any doubt about it), but I've seen shortcuts.

Your ride height doesn't actually look like an issue. I adjusted mine to give my car a bit of a "rake" for better aerodynamics, and it looks about the same as yours.

+1 for dessicant renewal, though it would probably be easier to just replace the dryer if you have the cash and don't want to mess around with stuff. You could still keep the old one and do the renewal when it's time to change it again.

Here's a link for the dessicant renewal that I did:

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?53206-Rehabbing-the-Rear-Air-Suspension-Compressor-Dryer&highlight=

[pantera77]

For the HVAC, I don't have personal experience, but from what I've read, it sounds like a blend door actuator problem, particularly a broken gear. To do it properly, you would normally have to drop the dash (which would be a good time to replace the heater core if any doubt about it), but I've seen shortcuts.

It does sound like a blend door actuator, but you don't have to drop the dash.
Pull out the pass side air bag, glove box, ducting, some other stuff, and you can get in there. It sucks, but can be done, I've done my fair share of them this way.

[Chuck Norris]

Yay! Pics mean it happened!

Nice looking car SeanP! I hope she gives you years of enjoyable service. I am also a fan of the raked rear look. I thin you found a winner!

[SeanP]

Thanks for all of the input already, mangs!

This car has had the crap oil sprayed out of it its whole life and I intend on continuing to treat it to such a service.

I'm completely new to the whole air ride suspension. My father-in-law has some experience installing aftermarket kits on a few of his hot rods, so he knows the basics. But if what I'm reading is right, the dryer beads wear out and the moisture builds up and messes with the vent solenoids? So the system cannot evacuate the air in the bags? And baking the beads solves this problem? I'm willing to try anything once, but is there anything else I need to do while I'm at it? I read the thread I was linked to, but it's all a little new to me so I was having a hard time following along.

I don't think I would want to buy a new dryer, since it's half the cost of a spring conversion kit and if it doesn't work I would rather have spent that cash on the conversion kit.

As far as the HVAC goes... blend door actuator sounds about right. I know it's a door and I know it's not able to do it's job. I will search out how to access this without taking the dash apart as per pantera77's suggestion. Is there an illustrated write up on this?? I'll look, but if someone knows a link off the top of their head and wants to throw it at this thread, I would be most obliged!

And thanks, Chuck Norris! I like the raked look ok, but I also know it's because something is broken... so it's spoiled for me! I really can't wait to clean up the interior a bit too... it's dirty in there! But nothing crazy bad. Just needs some elbow grease.

[Tiggie]

Aeros with HPP wheels look really good. It's kind of like when the nerd girl gets a makeover for prom. Looks like a nice ride.

[SeanP]

So is this the part I need? Would it be a good idea to replace the door too? Or are those heartier?

[SeanP]

Aeros with HPP wheels look really good. It's kind of like when the nerd girl gets a makeover for prom. Looks like a nice ride.

Hahahaha, thanks! I'm sourcing a second set with summer wheels. Right now she's running 3 snows and 1 all season. Keep the 2 good snows and will get some replacements for the others. The all season will make a nice spare

[mcninetyone]

If the blend door actuator is what you need, the job is just shy of doing a heater core replacement, not fun.
But there is a way to replace it without loosening the heater core plenum.

[jaywish]

As mentioned earlier the height seems within reason but maybe not to your preference.

To check if the vents work.

get three people in the back seat. Close doors, turn on car. It should pump up the rear to level the car.

Have the people exit, close the doors, leave the car running.

After a short while the car should vent and the rear height drop to where it started.

Your choice about trashing the system, many do, but many others find it one of the nice features which make the HPP special and worth keeping.

If the system works and you don't like the height you can adjust it. Make sure you tale your time and use rust penetrant.

[gadget73]

I actually was going to convert my coil spring car to air ride, but the frame won't let that happen without serious hackery. Its a dead simple system to fix and maintain. People make it out to be a much more complicated boogeyman than it truly is.

[Chuck Norris]

I actually was going to convert my coil spring car to air ride, but the frame won't let that happen without serious hackery. Its a dead simple system to fix and maintain. People make it out to be a much more complicated boogeyman than it truly is.

I think part of the problem with people vilifying the air suspension system is that they may have never had a car with the system before, so they know very little about it. That leads them to research it, and they see it cost someone $1000 to fix it, and they get scared as crap. As long as your compressor hasn't crapped the bed and you know how to turn a wrench, it won't cost you anywhere near that. But people are reactionary. We get our collective undergarments in a knot and flip out.

I have a car now where I eliminated the factory air shocks (not the same system as the CV, as it has air "springs" of sorts) and it definitely lost ride quality as the new shocks settled in. It's a high mileage pile in terrible condition, so ride quality doesn't count for much as long as the car gets me from work to home, but it is still worth hearing the experience of someone who has been there. You lose a lot of ride quality!

[tjc78]

Nice Aero! That car was definitely special ordered. HPP, cloth interior and digital dash aren't commonly seen together. Most cars that loaded have leather.

[SeanP]

I really have nothing against the air ride itself. Actually really glad to have it. Just it is another system to maintain and the goal is to keep costs and time under the car to a minimum. Not that I have any ill-conceived notions that a 19 year old car will be 100% maintenance free, mind you.

If it is just a matter of baking the beads, that's great. For those who have done this, how long until this corrects the issue? Also, how does the dash light go away? Does it need to be cleared?

Some more details too;

The rear does go down a bit after I turn off the car, but certainly nothing low like the ones I have seen with leaky bags (sounds painful). So there is something happening in terms of vents... I'm going to try that many folks in the back test too see what happens.

The height itself doesn't bother me. If the ride height was like that and there was no dash light, I never would have even bothered bringing it up.

I will do some trouble shooting based on what I hear/heard back from the super mangs on here and what I have found on the forum and online.

Re: the blend door actuator. Based on what folks have said here and what I've found on YouTube, it looks like this is the culprit. I am concerned a bit that the gears in the actuator may have been stripped due to an obstruction in the blend door (possible mouse nest). If when I get in there to swap the actuator out with a new one, should I just wiggle the pin to see if the door moves freely? I figure its also just as likely that a 19 year old car has stripped its plastic actuator gears.