Unfortunately, it's been exhibiting a weird problem lately. It won't hold the road, nor will it hold a line in a curve. It feels like it's "wandering", requiring constant steering inputs to stay in the lane. It's quite disconcerting. Fortunately, my second son is an ace auto mechanic. I had parked the car over the summer, using the pickup truck or several months to complete summer projects. Now, though, both my son and I have finished several of our individual projects, and it's time to see what's wrong with the front end of that Mercury.
Hopefully, in another couple of weeks, I can put the Merc back on the road. I really do like that old car. With proper maintenance, there's no reason that I can't drive it for another ten years. I like driving a car that doesn't have a car note.
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I was starting to have that issue on my Little Black Truck, a Mazda (Ford Ranger clone) with 160K miles. It was also starting to make knocking noises coming from the front suspension. Local front-end guy diagnosed it, and $590 later I had tie rod ends and a new control arm assembly + thrust alignment, and it's like brand new. Bonus: I had thought I was going to have to do struts, but it turns out they are fine.
Book says that expense is about 28% of the wholesale value of the truck, so it just sneaks by under the One-Time Repair Allowance formula that fleet managers use, but the engine is perfect, only thing on the horizon MIGHT be a power steering pump in the future. It still gets 23-25 mpg combined city/highway driving and STILL has the most comfortable cab of any pickup I've ever driven.
Same with your Grand Marquis. I bet you have some similar wear, and with all that expert, young help you have at your command, a long day will set it right, then a trip to the line-up shop, and you are good to go.
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