New Panther Owner

[Olive2004GMLS]

Hey fellers.

Just joined the forum yesterday. Looking forward to lots of good conversation/information!

My wife and I recently purchased a 2004 Olive Green Grand Marquis LS "Ultimate Edition." The car had 60,000 miles, and had been owned since new by an older couple in rural Ohio. They garaged the car the whole time, so it is EXTEREMELY clean (pics coming soon).

I'm very interested in modifying this car. I want to start off mild, and then build to more as time (and money) allow. There are three things at the top of my list:

1. Wheels (Preferably 17" Town Car or CV LX Sport wheels)
2. Exhaust (currently single, possibly factory dual swap with performance mufflers later)
3. Shocks (CVPI or something equivalent)

I'm COMPLETELY open to suggestions, ideas, etc. along these (or any other) lines. Thanks in advance!

[Laura]

hi

[88Vic]

to GMN mang, sounds like you got a great ride. Do you know what rear end is in your car? Lower gears and limited slip is a great upgrade, you can't get a much better upgrade for the money.

[JumboFriendly]

His car should have the 2.73 rear end, same as my '03.

Welcome to the forum. The list you've got started is a good one. You may want to think about adding a rear sway bar (my car didn't have one at all) and upgrading the front. Along with shocks, and wider wheels and tires, it will completely change the feel or the car.

[Olive2004GMLS]

I have definitely thought about the sway bar.

What I really wanted was a CV LX Sport, which I believe includes the sway bar, but they are incredibly hard to find (at least around here... 2 in a 300 mile radius). The Ultimate Edition has the pneumatic suspension, which I don't mind, but my wife dislikes. I'm not sure what issues, if any, would come into play by adding sway bars and leaving the air springs intact.

A LSD/more aggressive gear would be good. I wouldn't go too crazy... moderate upgrade (not 4.10). What ratios are available?

And how much will this stuff cost? LSD, gears, shocks, sway bars, etc.?

Oh, and about the exhaust... it appears that the factory single and dual setups use the same parts after the y-pipe on the passenger side. It would seem, then, that one could buy the driver side pipe and muffler, and the h-pipe, and pop them on, leaving the passenger assembly intact. Is this the case? Has anybody else done this? Am I retarded and totally wrong?

Oh yeah, and where can one get LX Sport/Town Car wheels cheap-ish? Other than a junk yard?

[JumboFriendly]

My car is an "Ultimate" too, with rear air bags. So far, no problems with the rear ADDCO sway bar. Here's a pic of mine installed, if you're curious:



As far as rear gears, just about anything is available. If or when I ever get around to changing mine, I'm going with either a 3.27 or 3.55.

I believe the ADDCO sway bars are still available from Summit, I don't remember what they cost. I think I paid a few hundred for the bars and less than that to get them installed (half price dealership labor rate).

Your thoughts on exhaust are correct, here's what was removed from my car when the exhaust was upgraded:



I thought about doing the same thing that you're talking about with exhaust, but when locating all the parts and tracking down the things I needed became too difficult, I broke down and had a full custom cat-back with an H-pipe fabbed. I liked that a lot better:



Where are you located?

[Olive2004GMLS]

Pipes!

That sway bar and exhaust both look bad-ass.

How much did you pay for that fabrication job? Did they cut the bumper? And what in the world are those black cylinder things on the front of the y-pipe (I've seen them under mine... wtf?)?

I'm in the Cincinnati area.

[JumboFriendly]

The exhaust I'm thinking was just under $600 (I think I made a post right after I'd gotten back with better details - my memory is crap!), which included stainless tips and stainless Magnaflow mufflers.

The bumper is already relieved on both sides, they didn't have to cut it at all. I think I remember being told that the black things were some sort of anti-rattle device? Regardless, mine went on top of the junk pile and there aren't any rattles or squeaks.

I did the exhaust after the sway bars to make sure they wouldn't interfere with each other. After watching the guy bending the pipe for the exhaust I'm glad I did; it would suck to have to do it twice... it looked like a pain.

Thanks for the compliment. If you'd like to get a reference of what yours would sound like, I have a video around here somewhere....

Here's the thread when I first got things done, with a REALLY crappy video that I hope has been taken down: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...hlight=exhaust

Here is a better video: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...hlight=exhaust

[Olive2004GMLS]

Sway Bars

Got a chance to look under Olive the other day while she was getting an alignment, and indeed I do have a rear sway bar, albeit a thin one.

Summit's site does still have the front and rear Addco bars for under $200 each. They look and sound (from the instructions) like they would be something I could install myself...

My wife and I are debating whether to go with exhuast or wheels first. We're leaning toward wheels; the 03-05 (or so) wheels are my LEAST favorite Panther wheels. I spotted a set of 17" Town Car wheels online for $700, including tires. Good deal... and I think the Mercury caps on the wheels I have now would pop right on.

Opinions, please.

[JumboFriendly]

It's personal preference, really. If it were me, I'd save for aftermarket wheels; I don't really care for any factory (non-Marauder) wheels. I wanted a set of Marauder wheels for my car, and was saving to get them when I found a set of 4 Boyd Coddington wheels on eBay for $500. Since they were selling online for $400 per wheel, I figured I'd go ahead and snatch them up.

[Olive2004GMLS]

I personally like the 17" CV LX Sport wheels and any non-chrome 17" Town Car wheels. Another interesting thing, in case anybody hasn't seen them yet, is that 2008 GMs are now offered with TWO 17" factory wheels and even a 17" cover! If they wouldn't cost a buttload, I'd go that route.


I like the middle ones. Different strokes.

Is there a huge need to have the speedometer recalibrated for just a 1" increase in wheel size? If so, how do you do that?

[Olive2004GMLS]

Dash Rattle

Here's another thing. Under light acceleration from a stop (parking lot type speeds), there is a slight buzzing/rattle from what sounds like behind the center of the dash. At about 8-10 MPH it goes away.

Any ideas? Is this a common issue with 03-04s?

[JumboFriendly]

Not sure about the rattle, mine doesn't do it.

There's no need to have your speedo recalibrated if your overall tire diameter stays the same (or close). For instance:

Stock tire size was 225/60R16, I went to 245/45R18 which kept the overall diameter within .1" of original size, making my speedo .2% off at 60mph.

Find an online tire size calculator, like the one here.

[Olive2004GMLS]

Thanks. You are a wealth of information.

We grandma-car-drivin' nerds need to stick together.

Do you have more pics of your car somewhere? Some of mine are coming soon.

HOLY CROW... I just calculated the difference between the stock GM tires and the TC tires I found online... 16% difference! Yow!

[interceptor1985]