our 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis

[tbear853]

Is this forum still "a thing"? We bought our Mercury in 2001 for several reasons, my MIL was traveling some with us to see family that were far away, and after driving a '98 CV on duty a couple years, I had come to appreciate the toughness of the cars. I did not then give a thought to to mods of a new car as it was. In 20 years it has taken us all over the USA ... and brung us home. When in warranty, the steering wheel leather started peeling and the heater motor control went bad, both were fixed under warranty.

Over the years, I modded and added. It has Addco 1.25" front and 1.00" rear sway bars, Bilstien HD shocks, Air-Lift bags in rear coils for loads, a Reese Hidden Hitch that uses a 3/4" thick 2.5" wide flat bar draw bar and it hugs the lower bumper cover. Car has a factory dual exhaust minus resonators salvaged from a 2001 CV-HPP car that was spun out on a rain slick interstate highway one Spring break weekend in 2002 (I worked the wreck) and I got the Lacey Spoke (HPP) wheels and Goodyear tires then too. Car was totaled as air bags had popped, and all 4 corners met the guard rail. I also added a docking station for my XM SkyFi receiver. Unless out on the road, the car is always covered even under a carport roof.

A few years ago, I finally replaced the Lacey Spokes that had replaced the Teardrops with 2001-2002 17x7 Sport style wheels and the 225/60-16 tires with 235/55-17 tires. At near 94,xxx miles, still has OEM brakes. I have changed oil and trans fluids on schedule as well as fuel filter, J-modded medium and added a extra trans cooler last time.

[87gtVIC]

Looking good with the LX sports on there. I have a set myself and really like the look.

[tbear853]

Looking good with the LX sports on there. I have a set myself and really like the look.

Thank you. I had collected some like new but used 235/55-17 tires, and the Mercury was needing tires sort of, not desperately but the need existed. I had found the wheels I wanted for a couple years on Ebay, it was either buy the 4 wheels for the 17" tires or buy 4 new 225/60-16 tires. Easy choice as our Mustang uses the 17s too.

The tires are take offs from police cars, most have maybe a puncture and no longer fit for state service, and if disposed of cost a disposal fee. Got a couple buddies at shops let me know if good candidates for a slow driven, never in pursuit again tire or pair come in. Often an officer or his supervisor will strictly adhere to the "replace in pairs" rule and a perfectly good tire is removed along with the one needing a plug. The Mercury has but one plug in the 4 tires, it just takes careful looking. I use "patch-plugs" usually, but the gooey brown twisted ones are OK, but I have had too many black twisted ones leak. I think the brown goo is stickier.

[Mainemantom]

Your Mercury is sharp. I love that color and the mods. The similar policy applied to the cars we had. One nail and the tire was taken out of service. Don't know what happened to them. High quality and high dollar tires too. I used to bid on the totaled cruisers once in a while. They were great for spare parts.

[tbear853]

Thank you for saying so!

Back during a coal strike in SW Va in '89, we were getting a lot of flats from "jackrocks" placed in the roadway, at rr racks, in water puddles, even hid in woods and pulled them into the road with monofilament ... and it was a major hassle to leave the assignment and drive 50 miles over mountain roads to a state highway dept. shop to get an otherwise good tire replaced. You couldn't get local shops to do it during a strike of that nature. One day my Captain caught a jackrock flat at a local high school parking lot. He was furious and said loudly "It takes a low life Son Of a B.... to jackrock a school parking lot and none of these SonsOB....s qualify!". He was my First Sgt. some 10 years earlier, nice guy he was too, so I offered to plug it for him as I had done some others. He asked if I knew the policy, I told him yes, but if plugged he'd have a spare if he wanted to go get a new tire. He laughed, asked how many I had plugged. I told him I wasn't sure, but that I replaced any emergency plugged tires on my car when I got back to my regular area after my tour. I added that I wasn't likely to be running high speeds on these mountain roads or working radar. The next week they halted "the policy" for the duration of the strike.