2003 Lincoln Town Car - Signature Series (TecNickal)

[TecNickal]

After driving my silver Taurus for 6 years and accumulating almost 200K miles, felt it was time for a slightly lower mileage newer car. Taurus is sticking around for now as a work car, since commute is short.

Decided I wanted a rear wheel drive car. Wanted a Ford Motor Company vehicle. Wanted it to be a 4 door - putting me with Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis and Town Car.

You can see what won. I spent many hours scouring all over the United States looking for a Dark Blue exterior and a Black interior. Bonus if it had a moonroof. I got lucky and found this 2003 Lincoln Town Car. Signature Series in Nokomis FL at a Ford dealer. Just under 50,000 miles when I bought it. Colors are True Blue Metallic outside and Black inside. Only two options - Moonroof and Cd changer.

Has a few minor issues but nothing really major (rear wheel bearing, air spring slow leak). Otherwise it's a very clean car and I hope it'll serve me well for however long I keep it . So far I really like it a lot.

[miamibob]

Best of luck with it - would be a tough sell here in South Florida. Black interior is just too hot in the summertime!!

[marquisman]

Nice town car. I'm sure you will enjoy it for many years to come!

[79lincolnlover]

True Blue Metallic is an awesome color.

[Mainemantom]

Nice blue Town Car. You got the one with the hood ornament. Wish you the best with it

[SVT98t]

Every one after 03 had the hood ornament.
Looking good! I'm jealous of the black interior because I wanted one like that! I was lucky though, to score a Florida car in NY.
I think the other two options were HIDs and DVD navigation. Not sure though.
Still, a low mileage beauty!!!!
Keep up on it and keep it looking clean!
Congrats!


-ryan s.

[LithiumCobalt]

Nice score! I am a sucker for dark blue cars. I've had many. Just can't get enough of them. The black interior looks a bit odd to me, though. Seems like it should have a dark blue matching interior? Anyways, enjoy!

[Piece-it pete]

Looks great!

Pete

[TecNickal]

Thanks guys! Been told it's an 'old man' car, but people that have riden in it so far have had to retract that statement :lol:

A dark blue interior would be nice...shame cars dont have interior colors anymore. I'm tempted to look into nav and HID, but right now I got other things to address on it first of all.

Color is going to look awesome once I compound, polish, and wax it

[LithiumCobalt]

Been told it's an 'old man' car....

I get told that all the time about my '87 and the two Town Cars I owned prior, but I don't care! These cars kick ass!

[TecNickal]

Installed a new Ford coolant reservoir cap yesterday (I replace them, the old ones usually don't hold proper pressure).

At moment, here's the task list:
General Vehicle Operation Repairs/Maintenance
-Rear end wheel bearings, and possibly axle shafts. Will install a Trac-Loc rear while in there since I have one in the garage from a 90 Mark 7.
-Rear air spring replacement (p/s)
-Power pedal gear replacement (have brass wheel in transit)
-Rear Park Assist Module behind bumper cover replacement (Park assist worked last night, but hasn't since or before last night)
-Driver door lock actuator rivet replacement (old one busted off somehow!?), actuator is banging around in door cavity right now.
-Coolant flush
-Transmission fluid flush
-Brake fluid flush
-Power Steering flush
-Check tie rods/ball joints. When turning have a clunking noise on d/s going over rougher pavement. No noise when going straight.
-Check brakes, turn rotors if needed and replace pads if needed.

Future modifications
-Add tweeter speakers from a Town Car that had them (THX models iirc)
-Auxiliary Input for radio from Crutchfield
-Paint calipers black and paint silver Lincoln insignia on them
-Replace chrome strips inset on bumper cover (some are cracked).
-Swap steering wheel buttons out for better condition ones
-Factory HID headlights maybe?

[LithiumCobalt]

Sounds like you have quite a good list of stuff to do. From what I have read elsewhere, apparently the 2003's had defective rear axles. I think I vaguely recall this was for fleet models, but I don't know how Ford would know which models would eventually become fleet and which ones wouldn't so I would guess they're all bad in that year. Maybe "fleet" was a term used because these cars rack up more miles than the typical retail customer? Dunno. Would be worth checking out the TSBs for 2003s, though, to see what you can find.

[SVT98t]

Factory HIDs are killer expensive. We're talking $500 a headlight assembly on RockAuto. That's over $1,000 for stock HIDs.
Ford knows which ones go to fleet. Most of the fleet Town Cars were Executives and Executive L's.
I would definately do the rear axle bearings when you do the Trak-Lok. It makes sense.


-ryan s.

[jaywish]

All the axles were the same. They worded the tsb to give free axles to the best repeat customers "taxi, limo & police" the rest of us could suck wind as far as ford went. Private owners would generally take years to show the problem as the fleet cars racked up the miles fast.

My axles are original but I only have 26Kmiles on the car.

[TecNickal]

Then I need ballasts, etc for the factory HIDs. Not high on priority list.

Am scheduled to do the axle saver bearing tmrw, as well as, the power pedals fix, and the door lock actuator. Hope to be a productive day.

I'm going to pick up the Ford kit if I see a good deal and stash it for the day when the axle saver bearing can no longer help.