Just to pamper my relatively-new car, there are several things that seem to have come up repeatedly as a topic of general maintenance.
I'm still a noob, and sadly the chilton/haynes manuals don't always show photos of MY car (usually a more recent crown vic), and, only up-close photos that never put the part in context. Just for example, when I did my shocks last month, all I knew was that they were near the spring, which would be near the wheel... took me half an hour to figure out where they were bolted, to begin to unbolt them; didn't help that they were covered in black grease and blended right in with everything else!
So anyway:
where, in detail, is the PCV valve? Is the PCV element the same as the filter, that is supposed to be down in the hose and extractable with a woodscrew? Or is the element a separate part?
Someone said it was behind the intake manifold... is that the cast iron piece on the very top of the engine?
Where is the O2 sensor? Salvo said I have just one. Something about the exhaust manifold.. what does that look like/ where is it? Do I get to it from the top, or from under the car?
Given that the car is 20 years old with 112,000 miles; seems a wise thing to just take care of, and know that it'll be good for quite some miles to come.
Where is the TV bushing? Where is/ what is the throttle body and what does it look like? Neither salvo nor autozone even knew what the throttle valve bushing WAS, might just have to go to the ford dealership...?
The transmission was rebuilt before I bought the car (had receipts to prove it), would they have already redone the tv bushing with a brass one when the transmission was reinstalled, or not necessarily...?
Since I lost a little bit of fluid replacing the radiator, and just because I'll need to know at some point anyway: where do I refill the transmission fluid? Does it take type F (like the power steering pump: in which case I have some extra), or another kind of transmission fluid? And-- I did find the transmission fluid dipstick. It was hard to tell where the line was, it wasn't black like the oil. Do I need to read it while it's hot?
Hmm, any other maintenance to know about? Do I need to change the axle fluid in the pumpkin, ever? How often do I do transmission fluid? Other maintenance? I've now done coolant, plugs & wires, oil; presumably the transmission was done when it was rebuilt, about 4000 miles ago. Looks very clean too, so I don't doubt that it was done.
Anything else.. oh! how do I check the AC fluid? And, people have asked in other posts about engine timing: as long as I got the cap on correctly and the wires matched up, the timing will be perfect? It's controlled by computer, right? And if I didn't get the cap on correctly or mixed up a wire, I'd KNOW it?
...or is spark plug/ engine timing one of those things that needs to be tuned up a bit more subtly?
thanks!!
-Bernard
I'm still a noob, and sadly the chilton/haynes manuals don't always show photos of MY car (usually a more recent crown vic), and, only up-close photos that never put the part in context. Just for example, when I did my shocks last month, all I knew was that they were near the spring, which would be near the wheel... took me half an hour to figure out where they were bolted, to begin to unbolt them; didn't help that they were covered in black grease and blended right in with everything else!
So anyway:
where, in detail, is the PCV valve? Is the PCV element the same as the filter, that is supposed to be down in the hose and extractable with a woodscrew? Or is the element a separate part?
Someone said it was behind the intake manifold... is that the cast iron piece on the very top of the engine?
Where is the O2 sensor? Salvo said I have just one. Something about the exhaust manifold.. what does that look like/ where is it? Do I get to it from the top, or from under the car?
Given that the car is 20 years old with 112,000 miles; seems a wise thing to just take care of, and know that it'll be good for quite some miles to come.
Where is the TV bushing? Where is/ what is the throttle body and what does it look like? Neither salvo nor autozone even knew what the throttle valve bushing WAS, might just have to go to the ford dealership...?
The transmission was rebuilt before I bought the car (had receipts to prove it), would they have already redone the tv bushing with a brass one when the transmission was reinstalled, or not necessarily...?
Since I lost a little bit of fluid replacing the radiator, and just because I'll need to know at some point anyway: where do I refill the transmission fluid? Does it take type F (like the power steering pump: in which case I have some extra), or another kind of transmission fluid? And-- I did find the transmission fluid dipstick. It was hard to tell where the line was, it wasn't black like the oil. Do I need to read it while it's hot?
Hmm, any other maintenance to know about? Do I need to change the axle fluid in the pumpkin, ever? How often do I do transmission fluid? Other maintenance? I've now done coolant, plugs & wires, oil; presumably the transmission was done when it was rebuilt, about 4000 miles ago. Looks very clean too, so I don't doubt that it was done.
Anything else.. oh! how do I check the AC fluid? And, people have asked in other posts about engine timing: as long as I got the cap on correctly and the wires matched up, the timing will be perfect? It's controlled by computer, right? And if I didn't get the cap on correctly or mixed up a wire, I'd KNOW it?
...or is spark plug/ engine timing one of those things that needs to be tuned up a bit more subtly?
thanks!!
-Bernard
That was over a week ago now. Noticed some extra power after I did so; the valve and filter were original!
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