Well, I've always thought of this car as a 'grandma' car, so I call it Granny sometimes.

It's fun to cover up the 'rquis' of Marquis and read it as 'Grand Ma' to explain the pun in the title.

Anyways, hello. My Silver '93 Grand Marquis was manufactured in Canada and currently resides the in Metro Detroit Area, Michigan. It was purchased, two years after some Old Guy drove it less than 10,000 miles, from Auto Nation. I was a wee little guy back then. Only five at the time, I even played in the childcare center as my parents signed all the papers. Funny they paid $10,000 for a car with 10,000 miles.

Well, mah mamma drove the car from 1995-2005. Ten years of suburban traffic, towing a trailer over eight states and back and a toyota that scratched up it's ***, it still ran well, but tons of things were waiting to die. As any other 12 year old car's might, the ignition became shoddy and the seatbelt for the driver's seat broke. Tie-rod ends fell off and the back windows wouldn't go down.

It sat in the driveway until summer came around. A replacement steering column and a few new Maxi-Fuses to replace the blown ones, it was back in order. I drove it to school for my senior year.

I now have a childcare job, am going to college and average thirty miles of suburban driving a day. To get this thing back in shape, I started with the little things. Windshield wipers, steering wheel cover and the usual little things made it feel a little nicer. I got down to business and now I've got it lookin' pretty nice.

Painted up the scratches on the bumper from the toyota, installed LED brake lights (drop in replacements [smd leds, I don't like the regular ones]) and was inspired to do every single exterior light. $120 bucks later, I've got a fly lookin' car. I flash my turn signals at every turn, hoping to show off my LEDs, haha.

Here we are today. I still buckle up with the middle seat belt's receiver and there's now only one working window, but it's a beautiful boat still.

Thanks for reading and thanks for the welcome!

 

the windows are probably due to the nylon plugs in the window motors disintegrating. If you replace those with ball bearings, you shouldn't have any trouble with them in the future. Also, if you get the door panel off and see that the regulator is shot (cables are loose - you can hear a grinding noise when you try to roll the windows) then you can replace those (with some work mind you, it's not real easy) for about $35-40 each. You'll have to drill out the rivets holding the window to it and the 4 rivets that mount it to the door. You will need a small grinder (dremel) to take the rivets off or a really strong drill bit. I wore out a few bits on my doors until I ponied up for a titanium carbide bit. (I think it's 1/4" bit that's needed)

the motor is a bit tough to get out of the door and mess with just due to angles involved, but is much easier to fix. remove the gear cover with a phillips driver and just remove all the loose bits of old nylon plug. I think the replacement bearings are 7/16" diameter. They might be 3/8". you might take the gear and hub parts to the hardware store to find out for sure. A smaller size than what will absolutely fit will work, but will leave more play in the mechanism. Did that on all of my doors (have an 88 Granny and a 93 vic) and they all work great now.

 

Wow, thanks for all the info!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure all of the regulators are shot. I hear a grinding and thunking noise when the motors are operated. The windows, especially the front passenger side, had a hard time traveling. You could hear the stress on the mechanical parts as it slowed down and sped up.

I found a supplier for the window regulators and each come to ~$28.

 

do share the info on the supplier if it's on-line. the last one I found had them for $35 for the 92-94 boats.

 

I found that 'partsgeek' sells them (without motors) as new replacements at $24.99

Currently:
Front drivers side w/o motor is only $16.99
Front passengers side w/ motor is $42.99 (not offered without)
Rear driver w/o motor is $24.99
Rear passenger w/o motor is $24.99

Only the Front Driver's side window works right now, but the motors work in all three failed regulator doors. I should be fine just replacing the regulators, but I'm still looking at $95 bucks. Welp, next paycheck.


HAVE I TOLD YOU?!
I got my air conditioning serviced (rip off) for $120 (I know.. I know..). They installed an R134a conversion kit (probably just screw on connectors) and filled it with the freon and stop leak. Shut the hood, ice cold air and I'm happy as a clam.

I get home to look at the work (a quarter mile drive) and drive straight back to the shop because MY HOOD WOULDN'T OPEN. They couldn't open it because I only had 45 minutes to spare before work but I haven't had the time to return back. I need to put oil in the engine, top off the power steering fluid and check the coolant... Anyways, let this be a firm reminder to lube up your hood assembly with some grease and or spray lube (not WD40).

IF ANYONE HAS ANY RECOMMENDATIONS Please, reply.

 

since the 93 has a grill... you might be able to get a long screwdriver through the grill up on the hook and with someone pulling on the cable from inside, give it that extra bit of oomf to get it to budge. you can also try pressing down on the hood while someone pulls the lever and see if that will pop it. pretty much the only other way is to break stuff.

 

cool... i have all LEDs in my Grand Marquis. all interior and exterior lights i changed out. i suggest hitting a junkyard for your seatbelt clip so you dont have to mess with how you are doing it now. the clip part should be cheap and takes a t-35 if i remember. it is the same thing that you can use on the door striker to adjust the way the door shuts and latches.

 

Haha, aren't LEDs awesome?

To catch you all up, my transmission took a crap. Well, not totally, but first gear would shudder when taking off from a stoplight. I just dropped it off today at the trans shop and we'll see how it goes.

When it gets back, I have some more mods I'd like to do.

1.) LED Puddle Lamps - I'm not sure they were even an option on the car, but there seems to be a place for a lens on the underside of the mirror. I'll cut some heavy-duty plastic from a clear storage bin or use some leftover acrylic from another project as the lens and use a 'flank-led' as the light source. Here's the link to the LED: http://tinyurl.com/flankled
I'll wire it to come on with the key-hole illumination and finish wiring my keyless entry to add a dome light trigger which would also turn on the puddle lamps.

2.) Audi/Luxury Style Headlight LEDs - You might have an idea of what I'm talking about, but I'm going to put a row of waterproof, flexible LEDs under and perhaps wrapping up the side of the headlights. They'll be wired into the running lights, but if they look ridiculous under the yellow halogen light, I'll wire in a relay to turn them off when the headlights are on.

3.) HID Projectors - I still have a lot of research to do and this is more of a dream, but I'd like to vacuum form my own headlights and use only the reflectors of the stock headlights. The projectors would be cut into the low beam side and LEDs would fill the high beam side for flash-to-pass. The whole thing would appear transparent from the outside in the same shape as stock, but have a projector on the inside and possibly a strip of LEDs such as idea 2.

This inspires me to make a 'Modifications' thread if there isn't one already.

 

make your own thread and show it off. I need to post some pics of the "update" to my CAI that I did this weekend.

 

I got the car back today. The only thing I'm miffed about is the reverse lights. They must have messed up the linkage to the transmission because it shifts into reverse, but doesn't turn on the lights unless the shift lever is pushed up towards park. I'll go back and fix it later.

There's a screw in the tire, too. It might have happened at the shop, but luckily, when I got new tires not long ago, I got coverage for tire damage. I'll have it plugged/replaced tomorrow for free.