94 SC Several Questions

DavidDevlin

Registered User
My wife loves her 94 SC. It has just over 61,000 miles. Recent Tires. It is all original. It has a couple of problems and we are trying to decide if we want to keep it or sell it and get a new car.

1. It needs paint. A painter was recommended by a body shop and he want $1000 to clean up the dings, clean off the old paint and paint it black with a clear coat. He says he will paint anything that is black, plastic, sheet metal etc.

2. The brakes are good, but it gets that shuttering when light pressure is applied to the brakes. My wife only drives a few miles to work, so they do not get much exercise. Does anyone know of a good set of rotors that will help eliminate the problem. I have a quality set of pads already on the car. My tire and brake man said about $350 to replace the rotors. Is this an easy job, or are they bearing rotors.

3. There appears to be a small leak at the timing chain cover. The mechanic says about $500 to fix that. If I get it done with 61000 miles should I also replace the chain and water pump at the same time since the labor is already done.

4. The headlight lenses are yellow. A local guy says he can polish them out for $120. Ford want 200+ per headlight kit. Does anyone have any suggestions about what can be done.

I think we are looking at about $2000 to get it back in shape. Is the car worth that much money?

I appreciate any suggestion or comments.

Thank you.
 
Contact me.....

I will be glad to help you out with some of the mechanical issues if you want to get in touch with me..... (getting the car painted is a different story). It is easy to change the rotors and pads on these cars (floating rotors). It depends on where the leak is on the timing chain cover (and what is leaking). At any rate, I'm in Canton, GA so I'm fairly close to Lawrenceville....
 
I don't know what LJGriggs has/is going to tell you, but everything is not worth it and you need to sell it to me (just kidding)! Secondly, do you want to trade wives? Mine doesn't care about SC's and I am just kidding about that too.

1. Paint - Try Meguires three stage clean/polish/wax job first, if you haven't already. A big pain in the a$$ to apply three "wax" jobs, but what a shine! (I am assuming your SC is black like mine). Then see if you can live with how the paint looks from there. I know it won't take out dings, but I have similar disparities in my paint.

2. Buy KVR crossdrilled rotors (factory size replacement) from the cheapest place you can find them. I have had them for about 40K and just had to get them turned for the first time the other day. To install, find a good mechanic (other than a dealership $$), or spray the four caliper bolts with a penetrant (PB blaster, liquid wrench, etc.) about a week before you plan on replacing the rotors (drive the car for a couple of days to let it soak in). Then (pretty easily) remove the wheels, then the calipers, and the rotors slide right off. Replace them with the crossdrilled. Done.

3. If you or anyone replaces the timing chain cover, it would be my guess that it would be good insurance to go ahead and replace them.

4. Do another search in here for headlights. Other people had some really good information. I am the cheap guy....I just wax them. They are still yellow to a certain degree, but waxing them really cleaned them up.

5. Your wife have a sister (I just can't get over that some people have wives that love SC's....I think that's great....I'm still trying to convince mine)?

P.S. The car is well worth that kind of money to everyone in here!! We love SC's!
 
1) If you want to repaint your car, you can. That's the biggest cost you are looking at. Not a reason to get rid of a car, IMHO. I would, however, go somewhere else. You don't want him painting your plastic and everything else. That seems odd to me. Is your paint really that bad that it needs repainted?

2) Screw the cross-drilled rotor idea. My opinion is just to get some cheap rotors, throw them on there, and when they warp again in a few years, buy new ones. I treat the rotors as disposables. You can get front rotors for your car for $20-30 a piece, and they are a piece of cake to replace. DON'T PAY SOMEONE $200 OR MORE TO REPLACE THEM!!!!!!!

3) You are about close to replace that gasket. I just replaced mine this past Saturday. What a time-consuming job! It took us 13 hours to do it. Ford standard rate for that job is 10 hours. Be aware that you can crack the timing cover when removing it. Mine has 126K on it, and the timing chain looked great. I really don't think you'd need to do the timing chain. As far as the water pump goes, you might want to replace that just for good measure. I didn't, but I also left off that bracket that goes behind the power steering pump pulley, so if I need to replace the water pump now, it will be MUCH MUCH easier.

4) Screw the polishing deal. Go to www.headlightwarehouse.com and just buy a new set. They are about $107/headlight from there. I just got my '96/97 headlights from there in March. Super friendly, easy to deal with. You can also get new corner lenses from there, too.

Dale
 
It doesn't sound like your wife is TOO hard on the brakes. You could probably get by with the same budget upgrade as I did.

Buy Lincoln Mark VIII calipers and caliper brakets and buy new Mark VIII rotors. These are very easy to change, just unblot the old, bolt on the new, and bleed the brakes. The rotors were about $35 new I think, I got the other parts used. About $150 into the whole project.

The Mark Rotors are a bit bigger, and tend not to heat soak and warp as quickly.
 
Thanks for the information

First off I would like to say how much I appreciate the replys I have received to my post about my wife's car.

In response to the guy that wanted to trade wives, I thought about that long and hard. There are some days I would take you up on the deal, and even throw in the SC as an incentive, but then I got to thinking about it and remembered she pays all the bills on my Harley.

Paint: When I mentioned the guy was going to paint plastic, I meant the bumpers and anything that should be painted. I do not think a good rub out will solve the problem. It has white oxidation marks on the roof, and the dings are getting numerous. The big problem is that it will start getting dinged up again soon after the paint. People have no respect.


Three different opinions on the brake rotors. I don't think I want to change out the calipers, and I think that inexpensive rotors will go bad right away, so why bother. My understanding is that the cheap rotors warp from getting wet while they are hot. I really feel I should look for a good set that will not warp so easily. My wife is not hard on the brakes at all. Much of the problem may be from her not getting on them hard enough to keep the crud off of them. I may still have a problem after changing the rotors because of that. It doesn't bother her, but it really gets on my nerves when I drive it. AND I love to drive it when she lets me.

Not sure about the timing case leak, I have a mechanic that has a busy shop, and is a friend. He has done work on the car before. He is not cheap, but not as expensive at the Ford Stealerships. I think I will take his judgment on the timing case and water pump.

I have found numerous headlight places on the internet, and will probably go that route.

You guys have convinced me to keep the car. When I get it done I will take some pictures and post them somewhere.

Regards and Thanks

David Devlin & Sharon Feldman
94SC
 
Most rotors warp because they haven't been properly "seasoned" when new. In other words, they need to be tempered. When you first install new rotors, you should drive the car for a while in normal traffic conditions (living in Lawrenceville, GA there ain't any "normal" traffic, but do the best you can) in order to get the rotors up to operating temperature. Then park the car and let the rotors cool completely. This allows for a full heat cycle which tempers the metal. I have had the same front rotors on my '92 for about 3-yrs and they are still true.....

Timing chain cover leak could be oil from the front seal behind the balancer, possibly from the oil cooler, or maybe a bad gasket on the cover.... Could be none of the above.... maybe leaking out from the valve covers and dripping down. The valve covers are known to loosen up and leak a little.... Hard to say without taking a look.

Like I said, if I can every give you a hand with anything, just let me know (there ain't many of us SC owners around the Atlanta area that I'm aware of.....)


Who do you use as your mechanic over in Larryville? (I used to live over in Snellville so I may know him)
 
You can get new lights at Autozone for around 140. While your there you pick up some Meguiars Headlight polish and conditioner to keep them looking nice.
 
hey

hey Dale Puumala, where can u get stock rotors for 20-30 bucks..? Id love to solve my warped rotor squel by buying new rotors for that little price... thanks--- B TW, im pretty sure it's just the front rotors causing the squel problem,, thanks again
Damon
 
I put them on my '89 1.5 years ago (40K miles) and I still show no signs of warpage (yes, I did the break-in procedure). I know my '89's were $20 each.

I called some prices a few weeks ago around here and here's what I got:

AutoZone - $29.99
Advance Auto - $20.00
Arnold Motor Supply - $22.69
O'Reilly's - $29.99
Jocko's - $25.98

Dale
 
Before you spend the $ on new headlights, I would recommend using some rubbing compound to polish them by hand. It really does a great job of removing the yellow from the lenses. Follow that up with a nice coat of wax and they'll stay clear for quite some time.

-Rod
 
You can also try the meguiars headlight polish From Autozone. I haved used it and have had some good results from it. It is also a prevenative step to keep your headlights from yellowing and cracking.
 
Cleaning and polishing yellow lenses will make them better, but it won't make them close to a brand new set....if you want to pay the money for a brand new set.

Dale
 
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