I bought a 2002 Lincoln Town Car in Nov. Of 2010. It smelled like air freshener inside and appeared like new.
Problem 1:
A week after getting the car home it began to smell like mildew. I pulled up carpet and found that the padding on the front driver side and front passenger side was soaked. After pondering for a moment I realized it was probably rain water since Houston had recently had a very heavy rain storm. It took me two days to dry it out with my yard blower. I removed the cover and checked the drain ports below the windshield and found that leaves had completely blocked both holes to the drain tubes. I cleaned them out and the problem is solved.
Problem2:
When I bought the car I made a deal with them that I paid them $300 and they paid $300 to replace the lower ball joints as part of the purchase. The car steering was slightly stiff, but I didn't think much of it, as it wasn't too bad and the car is used, after all. Well the steering stiffness got worse, and felt like it was fighting back when you turned and would over-compensate in a turn, then again to the other side. I then replace all front end "wear parts" such as tie rods and pittman arm, replaced all four tires and had it aligned. It chewed up those new tires in about 7 months. I put two new tires on the front two weeks ago, and had it aligned. I still was not satisfied with the steering or the alignment. I parked the car for two weeks, then took it back to my mechanic. This time, a different mechanic drove it. He said it had symptoms of tightness somewhere in the front end, as the steering was sticking and not smooth. My mechanic tore it down and found that the front left lower ball joint had a crack in the shaft, was way over tightened, and found the reason it was over tightened was that when he loosened the shaft nut, the whole ball joint fell out of the mounting hole in the lower swing arm. Ball joints are pressed in to the swing arm. My mechanic ordered an over sized ball joint, but even it was too small to be pressed in. I had to buy a new swing arm with new ball joint.
The car now drives like a new one. Normal wear and tear could not have caused that problem. It is a problem that was there when I bought the car. They should have told me about it so I could fix it at that time. If that ball joint shaft crack had broken all the way it could have been a catastrophic failure and killed my whole family.
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