The Tan Lady - A 1997 Crown Victoria

[SeanP]

Hey, I was just cruising YouTube and found this video for a car for sale that is essentially my car... it's not, but the colour and options look identical... right down to the lack of beauty shield on the engine.

[sly]

and the video is almost 6 years old. You'd think they would remove the video when the car sells... but NOOOOOOOOooooooo.

[Tiggie]

So it could be your car if the video is that old...

[Hearsesrock427]

Never got a chance to stop by there, was curious how the '85s replacement would turn out. Figured the air suspension would have age related/neglect issues and I wasn't at all surprised. Never cared for that anyway; can't blame you for just converting to straight rate coils. You were far more patient in trying to troubleshoot the air ride than I would've ever been!

I really like that shade of tan, seems to be a halfway between gold and beige. You couldn't get that exact shade on the boxes IIRC. You could get gold, beige, and cream. But not that exact shade of yours! The color coded interior with the digidash and velour seats is pretty sick too. I can't remember the last time I saw a '95+ panther without leather seats. Which is odd because the leather seldom ever lasts.... all the leather seats I've seen in panthers in the wild or in wrecking yards are all baked and cracked everywhere. YUCK. Performance-wise you're at the top of the food chain from the factory; between those HPPs and 3.55s you should have a grand old time ripping around the winding backroads. And if you want to go faster, stop faster, and grip better, there's tons of aftermarket. Sway bars, big brake kits, etc. Vroom vroom!

[SeanP]

Hey folks! Ok, so another big shake up in my car world. Unfortunately, the Tan Lady is up for sale. This isn't an easy choice to make, but I'm inheriting a car that belonged to my grandmother. She had given it to my brother, but he's moving out east and he doesn't need it, so I'm getting it. It's a 2013 Chrysler 200 Limited with the 3.6, leather, and all the other toys. It's a pretty nice ride and since it was my granny's I have some emotional attachment. But it makes the Crown Vic an extra car. I tried to talk my wife into letting me keep the Tan Lady and just fix her up here and there until she's a hot rod, but we don't really have the space for a fourth car and the money we spend on insurance and parts for the Vic could be used elsewhere. It was another one of those economical choices. That being said, if it doesn't sell, I won't be too disappointed! However, it does seem like I will be out of the panther game again in the foreseeable future... unless I can weasel some sort of scheme. Sigh. After I was just starting to like her (the car, not my wife... I've always liked/loved my wife regardless of her draconian stance on superfluous cars).

I hope you all don't start losing faith in me.

[SeanP]

Despite the active sale, I drove the car to work again today. Everything was pretty great... except when the gas got low and it beeped at me. Wasn't prepared for the beep, so I started to freak out thinking that the car was doing some sort of limp home mode or something... only without any of the performance robbing characteristics one normally associates with a limp home mode. All I knew is the car made the check air suspension noise and the 80km estimated range reading was blinking at me. Luckily I figured it all out shortly, but cripes the last thing you want on your drive to work is a car yelling at you.

[Mainemantom]

The car knew it was going to be sold and is telling you it does not like it !

[SeanP]

The car knew it was going to be sold and is telling you it does not like it !

Hahaha, probably. Well I'm not happy about it either. I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to talk my wife into just letting me keep it as my 'fun car'. She keeps turning me down though...

Oh well. No one's showed any real interest in buying it yet, so I'm thinking there's a chance we may end up keeping it anyway. Honestly, it's one of those cars that you buy and keep trickling money and time into that you know you can never get back out of it. But that's ok because you do for the enjoyment of it. No hobby should be looked at as an investment (unless your hobby is investments). As long as someone comes along to buy it and understands that, then it'll work out. The guy who bought my '85 'got it'. He was just happy as shit to have it and knew that it was a labour of love. And I was happy to sell it to him for that reason.

Anyone who looks at these cars as an investment is probably a fool. I figure as long as I do better than what I had into my 1980 Rabbit than I feel good ($1700 purchase + $400 licensing and taxes + $2500 in work over 10 months = sold for $1200).

[SeanP]

Here's the latest pics from my POM Nom... just in case you missed them:









PS - Sorry about being so ranty in my last post. It wasn't meant to undermine anyone's enjoyment of the cars nor was it a venting of frustrations over slow interest. Quite the opposite, it was a proclamation for my enduring enjoyment I get from these cars DESPITE the fact that they unfortunately aren't worth that much money. To be honest though, they really aren't that expensive to keep up so long as you can do a lot of the work yourself. You can get an entire front end kit for like $100! Get some pickle forks and a ball joint/bushing press and you're set!

[SeanP]

Ok, so I have been thinking about my MIL situation and doing more reading about the MAF sensor. I'm thinking I may not have cleaned it properly the first time, since I sprayed the sensor cleaner down the scoops of the sensor housing rather than directly on the wires. I had seen the cleaning done on a newer version MAF sensor, so I just assumed when I did mine the situation was similar. Not so. My sensor comes right out of it's plastic tomb for direct access.

Went to do that today though and the damn thing is put in with tamper proof torx. Now I have to get my hands on some bits. sigh...

As an aside, I noticed that there was an air suspension line with some sort of serious looking valve fitting or something just sitting around hanging out between my air cleaner and what I think is the fuse box. That may have been the cause of some of my air suspension problems, since I think that's the line that would have gone from the compressor to feed the system. Dammit! I'll take a picture of it when I get a chance. I just zipped it up to some other wires to make sure it didn't flop down or anything... not that it really matters anymore, but I swear if all I needed to do was reattach a line to fix my air suspension, heads will roll!

Also, if that is the case, let this be a lesson to inspect every part of a component before replacing it altogether. That being said though, the compressor may have been poopy and someone had disconnected it because there was a problem.

[sly]

pop up the air filter housing... get a flashlight... shine up into the hole so you can see what you're doing... hose the MAF. The wires should be just behind the top opening. Just refrain from touching the actual wires. Then let the stuff evaporate for about a minute before you put it all back together and crank it up.

[SeanP]

pop up the air filter housing... get a flashlight... shine up into the hole so you can see what you're doing... hose the MAF. The wires should be just behind the top opening. Just refrain from touching the actual wires. Then let the stuff evaporate for about a minute before you put it all back together and crank it up.

That's what I did the first time... basically. I have a line on some TR Torx bits, but i'll redo that (with the flashlight so I'm extra sure) if it falls through.

In other news, I'm back on a turbine rim kick.

[sly]

May just need a new MAF. So once you try again... if it needs a new MAF, you have to tools to change it.

[SeanP]

May just need a new MAF. So once you try again... if it needs a new MAF, you have to tools to change it.

There's always a silver lining!

[SeanP]

I got my hands on some TR Torx bits in a little kit from a local surplus store for $7. Did the trick. The both sensor wires were dirty, but only the back one came perfectly clean from spraying. The front one still has a film on it. That solidifies things for me that the problem is that sensor wire. I'll likely need a new MAF sensor to overcome this once and for all. It is cleaner than it was though, but I didn't want to actually touch it for fear of messing with it. Has anyone ever cleaned one of these with contact somehow? It took everything in me not to rub a q-tip on it. At first blush that's all it looks like it will take to make it all better! I didn't though, just hit it with sensor cleaner like a responsible person.