A newbie with a newbie question...

I just bought a 2001 Grand Marquis LS with 77,000 miles on it that still has the original nylon composite intake manifold. I've read about the failures that have been experienced and the class action law suit, etc. My question is will this manifold fail 100% of the time or is it a relatively rare occurrence, albeit, still a pain in the butt? Are there any signs or symptoms that a potential failure is upcoming or does it just happen out of the blue? I would just as soon not replace the manifold when it seems to be working just fine, but on the other hand getting stuck out in the middle of nowhere sitting in a puddle of coolant doesn't sound especially appealing either. Your thoughts?

Thanks and cheers,
Steve

 

Your 01 should have come from the factory with the aluminum crossover pi intake.

Here is what it looks like...


This is the older all plastic style...


If yours looks like the one from the bottom pic then it's gonna fail on you eventually. I have heard of them failing anywhere in the 50-200k mile range.

Oh and failure of the intake is more like a big cloud of steam, not just a puddle

 

Hi, i had 99 intercepter had this problem, didn't leave me stranded, had water leak for weeks before fixed, was coverd under recall, cost nothing

 

Well, it's moot point now since I've got a new intake manifold ordered and I've taken the old intake manifold off. I'm also replacing the plugs and putting in a new water pump. It's not what I had planned on doing when I bought the car, but things have worked out for the best. I should be good to go for another 100K, the good lord willing and the creek don't rise!!

 

I just bought a excellent condition 98 grand marquis. The guy had it for sale for 950 bucks bc it had a skip and he didnt know what it was.
He said he had the car put on a computer and they told him is was misfiring on cylider 3, he replaced the coil and that fixed the skip for about 2 days. I looked at the engine and seen a crack that had epoxy on it at the thermostat housing.
I asked him what happened there. He said the crack happened and he epoxied it. Then a few weeks later the car started skipping. I went ahead and paid 950 for the car and took it home and looked down in the spark plug holes and almost every one of them were filled with coolant and the boots on the coils were full of coolant. I paid 200 bucks for a new Dorman intake with the metal crossover, i bought new plugs since I was already having to remove the coils and 2 gallons of antifreeze and 6 to 8 hours later I had a perfectly running 98 grand marquis!

This was the first time I have ever replaced an intake on a 4.6 and it wasnt as bad as I thought.

 

Just keep in mind one of the other major problem with this year range guys, the timeing chain guide's were also made of plastic and they will fail eventually. Listen for a sewing machine sound from the chain cover area, if it's very loud then you have an immediate problem.

As far as the intake goes, the recall expired in 2007. Which was a couple of months after I bought my car, so I'm SOL on a replacement. My car just hit 90k tonight and it's still holding up well.