2009 Lincoln MKS or How Much do I Hate this CAR
First off, I would have to admit that this car has been a money-maker for me so there is that factor to consider here.
But the engineering ideas on this car and it's sister the Ford Edge are right up there with "WHY".
As in why did you do this and why did you do that?
Some friends purchased this car for their teenage son to drive and of course was told by the car dealership that this puppy was pristine. I have to admit that the interior and the exterior were actually in decent shape, paint was okay and nothing hugely cosmetically wrong with it at all. Now if you could just roll a complete running chassis underneath it, then you'd have something.
I was originally asked to give the car a once over (uh, why didn't they ask that before they plunked the cash down?) so what I found was the usual stuff, brakes were okay on the front, rears were thin, the engine hadn't seen a new spark plug since it was new, the filters were shot, oil wasn't pretty, wiper blades and belts were done, the belt tensioner was not happy, the battery was on it's last legs and hey did you notice that the driver's side headlight pod was cracked, busted and taped back together? The coolant reservoir was cracked too. So I suggested - take it back - but nope that fell on deaf ears. And I was thinking, you know I didn't really dig into this thing, that was just a quick once over.
The car came back a couple of weeks later for most of the work to be done. Okay we knocked out the list and they were happy - this btw was about 14-15 months ago. Come winter last year I am asked if I would mine taking a look at the heater, passenger side is okay, driver's side not so good. I am thinking a damper motor or blend door issue going on. No luck on those ideas, it ends up that about half of the heater core is plugged up - the side towards the driver. Funny thing about this is that to replace the heater core on one of these you have take apart pretty much the entire dash which includes all of your control panels, audio stuff and the air bags. I hate playing around air bags. And what was even more interesting was the fact that you could take the glove box out and put your hands on the heater core. Why didn't they engineer it so that you could take it out without dismantling the world? I tell them this is going to be involved and expensive even for a cheap mechanic like me. I could try a couple of things if they didn't mind and see if that helped it any although I was rather sure that it wouldn't fix it. So, I did a deal on trying to unplug the core and I actually made a bit of an impact on it. Again it's not perfect but they get enough heat on the driver's side now to defrost the windshield on that side and provide some heated air to the driver.
I didn't hear about the car very much after that, but at a party I told that it was making a strange noise turning to the left now. I told them to bring it over but I didn't see it. Then I heard that it had been involved in a wreck, someone had run into the right front fender on it. So a few weeks ago the noise issue is getting worse and the battery light is coming on and going off randomly. They bring it over and it looks like we have a bad wheel/hub bearing and the alternator is on it's way out. And the front brakes need replacing now. So I order the parts and right off the bat everything is 7-10 days out. A week goes by and the only thing that shows up is the brake pads, a couple of days later the alternator arrives and then almost 2 weeks after ordering the hub bearings show up. So I finally find some time and get the hub bearings done and put the front brakes on it. All good and that annoying noise is gone. That's when I notice that the replacement alternator doesn't look right. This car takes a 150 amp one and the one I had was a 110 amp unit. So I contact the supplier and go through hell getting another one sent while I box up the 110 one and send it back. I ordered the right part number and the number on the box was right but the part in the box did not match. So there goes another week+ getting a replacement.
Today, I finally got it back in the garage to replace the alternator. The engineering ideas they come up with are brutal. The alternator is held in place with a nut at the top and a long bolt at the bottom. You have all of about 5-6 inches of space to work in and getting that long bolt out is interesting, just as it starts to clear the hole, it has to be tilted downward to enough room to finish coming out and I mean it's tight. Then as you pull on the alternator you realize that even though you took off the nut at the top there's no way to slide the alternator off of the stud. The stud has to be removed. Now that's it loose, you realize that you can't get it out past the A/C line or past the cooling fans. You have to take the main wiring harness loose that rides on top of the radiator, drain the coolant, remove the radiator hose, remove the air filter container and then take the cooling fans out. Now you have enough room to remove the alternator. I am amazed that after all these years I still can come up with some very creative words in describing how I feel about an inanimate object.
Putting it all back together is also something or an adventure as nothing seems to go back in the way it came out most of the time.
Like I said this one has been a money-maker but if I don't see it again, I am sure not going to lose any sleep over it - in fact I really hope they realize that there is still a lot that's wrong with this car but I doubt it. I'll probably see it again - sooner than I want too I am sure.
