A Grand Marquis far from home - Life with my 1988 Mercury Grand Marquis GS

[Arquemann]

Thanks for the info. Didn't know that. I thought EVERY car, on Euro roads, had to have the "newer" plates. Guess it is similar to getting "antique" plates here in the States.

I think Germany hasn't made non-EU plates since the EU plates were introduced, but the old plates are still valid. Probably some other countries too.
Dunno what is required for the US antique plates, there's no requirements for the non-EU plates in Finland or Sweden.

Though if you don't have EU-plates you're required* to have a country identifier when in other countries (*exceptions apply).

[Tynnerstroem]

Thanks gents! friskyfrankie like Arquemann has already touched upon, it's old plates on it from before the EU-plates were introduced. In those days cars here would commonly have plates like mine and an oval "S" sticker on the trunk or rear window to signal country-belonging. I do however believe that at least here I can't order new plates that lack the EU-branding, but I'm not sure how that is for my Finnish neighbours. There was a short-lived plate specifically for vintage cars here in the 2000s but thank god they scrapped that monstrosity as it looked awful.

87gtVIC those are truly some impressing numbers! My car should have the sub-3 rear axle ratio so I feel it should be doing a bit better, a criticism I've had since buying it. I've kind of run out of repairs I could imagine helping the fuel mileage now since I can't find any more vacuum leaks and all the sensors are replaced. It's not a huge deal but it'd be nice to not have to stop so often. But one could always buy a Camry Hybrid instead right?

[Arquemann]

I do however believe that at least here I can't order new plates that lack the EU-branding, but I'm not sure how that is for my Finnish neighbours.

Ah, I have outdated info on Sweden's part. Wiki says EU plates were an option when they were introduced, but the old plates were phased out in 2014.

In Finland we can freely change to either plate, with or without the EU-stuff. There's also plates with inverted colours for cars older than 1971 and/or with historical vehicle status.
Generally speaking the EU plates look out of place on older stuff, and many aesthetic-minded people switch to non-EU plates on newer cars for a cleaner look. The bright blue can really clash.

I had ridiculous two-row EU plates on my Caprice, which I changed to single-row standard plates for a whopping 15€.

[DerekTheGreat]

Great pictures. Some fugly lookin' golfball like cars in some of 'em, but really cool to see that thing tankin' over there.

What's your timing set to? How is your MAP sensor? How much ethanol do they put in the gas over there? My '88 Town Car will net 24.xx mpg between 60 & 65mph. That's on mostly flat roads and with a 3.23 rear gear. I only monitor MPG to keep track of how the engine is running.

[Tynnerstroem]

Thanks DerekTheGreat ! The smaller cars get, the funnier they look these days what with crash standards and all. Happy to do my bit to improve the appearance of the traffic landscape

I too monitor the MPG to try and gauge the health of the motor. They put 10% ethanol into the gas here, and the MAP-sensor I've swapped out for a new one (along with the vacuum line that goes to it). When it comes to the timing I haven't the faintest clue but I haven't touched it. For all I know it's untouched but the car has done 119 k miles so who knows if someone else has been there. How would I go about checking that? Is it one of those things I'd need a strobe light for or can it be done something else?

[Arquemann]

How would I go about checking that? Is it one of those things I'd need a strobe light for or can it be done something else?

Timing light is needed, the timing pointer can be seen from between the AC compressor and water pump. Timing marks are on the balancer, which might be hard to see if it's old and crusty.
Before checking timing, you need to disconnect the SPOUT wire from the distributor (single pin connector).
I think the spec is 10° BTDC for all efi 5.0s.

[DerekTheGreat]

Thanks DerekTheGreat ! The smaller cars get, the funnier they look these days what with crash standards and all. Happy to do my bit to improve the appearance of the traffic landscape

Indeed, yuck. That car definitely stands out amidst all that rabble, take it you get a lot of looks while driving it?

I too monitor the MPG to try and gauge the health of the motor. They put 10% ethanol into the gas here, and the MAP-sensor I've swapped out for a new one (along with the vacuum line that goes to it). When it comes to the timing I haven't the faintest clue but I haven't touched it. For all I know it's untouched but the car has done 119 k miles so who knows if someone else has been there. How would I go about checking that? Is it one of those things I'd need a strobe light for or can it be done something else?

What Arquemann said. Just be sure you pull the SPOUT connector out with the key off and you make adjustments with the engine at operating temperature. If it's already at 10° BTDC, bump it to 12 and see what happens. We have 10% ethanol here as well, but all I can get away with timing wise is 10°, as even then I'll hear a smidge of spark knock under load part throttle.

[Tynnerstroem]

Thanks as always gents. I believe my dad has a timing light in his garage, I'll add it to the list of things to be done.

DerekTheGreat plenty of looks, a few thumbs-ups but the real kicker was the guy on the freeway during my commute to work one sunny day who slows down next to me, honks his horn, waves and then gives me an energetic thumbs up/wave combination. He just looked like a thrilled kid haha, but I guess that's how I myself looked the first time I saw the car. We've always driven cars like this (big Fords, big Caddies) in the family so it kind of catches me off-guard sometimes, since these feel like second nature to me. When I was a kid my dad always used to say (when people would twist their necks after whatever car we had then) "what, don't these people have a TV at home?"

[Tynnerstroem]

Finally Cars & Coffee season is here! I went with a good friend of mine that has a fully loaded 1996 Grand Marquis, beige with the beige leather interior. It's funny because when I met him he was all-in on Euro stuff, but I believe that started to change when I gave him a ride in my 1996 Grand Marquis Bayshore edition I had like 10 years ago. Look at him now, daily-driving that thing! I wanted a shot of our cars next to each other but forgot to take it, so here we are in out Panther-caravan through the city before everyone else has woken up.


Commuting this morning brought standstill-traffic, which there so rarely is here. The more I drink coffee in this car, the more the lack of a cup holder is driving me nuts. Can't get those big cups at the coffee shop either since they'd probably be too big to fit on the door panel, which as you see here serves as a stand-in for a cupholder.

[DerekTheGreat]

That is cool. Looking out over your hood makes me want to look out over mine. Glad to hear people over by you are excited to see those things and that people like you keep 'em on the road. My dad was very similar, always had a "cruise car" and a "race car" as he called 'em. He's passed that invisible torch to me, only I'm happily stuck on cars of that period.

[Tynnerstroem]

DerekTheGreat the view out over that hood is the highlight of my morning commutes.
My dad has been like yours ever since he gave up on his street racing days and started driving big Cadillacs and Fords instead - a commuter and a weekend car. I am for the moment a bit torn. I love driving this car but would also like to have something else so that I could park this thing and give it the attention it needs, but that’s hard now that I don’t really have access to any other cars. I keep my eye on the market and just missed a 1999 Bonneville SSEi that would’ve been a super cool second car. We shall see.


I finally replaced the door strikers on the car and my goodness do these doors shut wonderfully now.


What’s not as nice now is how the doors open. I have to yank them open and it feels like the door handle is out of synch now, which it didn’t feel like before. Is there any sort of door handle or door latch adjustment that I would need to do for this to properly work?

Also, the little plastic cap for my coolant reservoir is on its last leg, to the point that I hesitate to open it. Can I find a replacement somewhere, or can you replace it for something else? Have you guys managed any good fix?

[Arquemann]

Door latches aren't adjustable, only the strikers. Verify that your doors shut properly, if the door strikers have been adjusted without the bushings, the adjustment won't be good with the bushings.
The handles have a lot of dead travel before actually pulling on the rod enough to unlatch.
If you really need to yank on the doors to open them now, you might need to lube the latches and/or sand down the bushing diameter a bit. When I put new bushing in my doors, one of them was too thick and the door really stuck shut, had to elbow it open from the inside.

New coolant reservoir caps don't exist as far as I know. Tanks neither. You're best off finding something that just fits the hole and stays in place. Maybe a conical pipe plug?
Mine has a cap from an old pressure washer with some random rubber seal. The tanks aren't pressurised, cap is only about how much coolant you want to keep from splashing out.

[WagonMan]

A cork works great too! WagonMan

[sly]

Rubber or plastic body plug for the hole. Just measure the size of the hole and order/purchase (hardware stores might have them) that exact size. A rubber stopper would work as well.

[GMUE03]

When I did the door strikers on my 89’ I bought new Dorman ones. I noticed that the outside diameter on the new bushings were a hair too big. The door would get stuck when I shut it. See if the door latch is digging an imprint into the new bushings. If so you can sand them down until the doors open and shut nicely.