robadr has found one of my favorite curbside sights: a Mark VIII low rider. Aren’t they all? Reminds me of a Citroen DS or CX in their lowest position, except they (usually) get up again. I suppose this one might too, but quite likely not.
Yes, the air suspension on these invariably went flat. If it was more than temporary, one could either fix it, or replace the bags with steel springs.
Most just seem to end up like this until they’re hauled away. Who wants to work on one of these anymore? Oops; I shouldn’t have asked that question here.
Here’s a more uplifting CC on the Mark VIII
Sadly with low production numbers, much of the air springs are unobtanium, and the only option is to replace with springs, thus eliminating the unique character of the air ride system. The headlights along with the 3rd brake lamp had some unique features that are somewhat unobtainable as well. I also recall issues with the remote keyless entry modules, they were susceptible to water intrusion if memory serves. Loved the Intech V8. I’d take one on if aftermarket sources were available for these issues.
Looks like we may have finally hit the tipping point for the front air-over shocks. Suncore only lists the RF as in stock and Arnott doesn’t list them any more. But the rest of the stuff except for the height sensors are still available in the aftermarket.
The headlights on the early ones just suck and there isn’t really anything that can be done about it. The newer ones with the HID suffer from bulbs that quickly went out of production and the standard halogen replacement assemblies also dried up long ago. The unusual 3rd brake light is also only on the later version. This has same bulbs as other Fords from its era.
Rockauto has both front struts.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=8935768&cc=1188547&jsn=409
Looks like someone stepped on it
Reminds me even more of the Panhard you featured a few days ago.
Air suspension: Not even once. It was too unreliable and a bad idea in 1958, and the only thing that’s changed since is we now have the technology to make air suspension outlast the warranty period.
Barely.
Yeah, tell that to my 17 year old and 28 year old Panthers that are still riding on OE equipment.
I agree Scout. I had had multiple Panthers (really multiple!) and Caddys with air ride and they were all pretty robust. What happens down here in New Mexico and the Southwest is that the dry climate cracks up in the top where the folds are and develops a pinhole leak, which triggers your sensor. There is a company in NC that sells the coils/set and a step by step of how to do it. Usually takes about 90 mins from start to finish, longer if you have car buddies bullshitting with you. They also have some good Youtube videos too. My 96 Townie actually rode better with springs and a set of tires. I could imagine something German with air ride being a pain in the assto replace, but not really with Ford or GM.
BTW, I have a 95 Mark VIII and it is a lovely car, fast and a smooth ride. I have had some fast cars, and I honestly think that the 295 hp rating on these is conservative.
I recently replaced (by myself) the cracked and dry-rotting original air springs in my ’02 Grand Marquis. The system is fairly robust and parts are readily available. It was a pain in the behind but if they last another 18 years, I won’t complain. I love the ride-height control in a vehicle that I use to tow a trailer. My only concern is compressor-dryer life, but that decays in proportion to leakage; new springs help tremendously.
Shit dont tell anyone its no good most real trucks are on air bags and have been for many years, one blew on me one night hell of a bang and the whole show lurched over double stacked Btrain on the turntable, swapped tractors with a company driver coming the other way and carried on.
All of the disadvantages of a high-end German car from that era (complexity, repair expense and poor parts availability) and none of the advantages (when you’re done you still have a Mark VIII).
I would take a Mark VII (especially an LSC) any old day but would not touch one of these with someone else’s ten foot pole.
I will say apart from replacing a couple of valves, the air suspension on both my ’68 and ’71 300SELs held up well. As did the hydro-pneumatic suspension on my ’74 DS23 Pallas. Durability always a bigger problem on this side of the pond, for some reason.
Ha ha! Lots of hate for the VIII. I drive one daily. It’s been converted so no air suspension woes. These cars were actually ahead of their time in ‘97 with LED headlights, turn signals in the mirrors, and a neon tail lamp panel. They are not bad to work on or find parts for (eBay is your friend). Yes, Paul, I have done plenty of work on mine so their are some who want to work on them. 🙂 I would not touch a Euro brand with a ‘10 foot pole’. Nothing like rolling in some good old Detroit iron. But that’s why the car hobby is great! To each their own!
Bravo. I think these are lovely cars. I liked them when new and I like them now. They are elegant and classy and a million miles from the ostentatious cars that serve the same market segment now.
No, they did not have LED headlamps, which were still two decades in the future when the Mark VIII went out of production.
The pre-facelift Mark VIII had halogen headlamps so cartoonishly miniature that Ford had to use a bulb designed for high beams in the low beams to squeak past minimum legal performance—which they didn’t keep doing for very long; they were so small that the reflectors and lenses ran very hot and roasted to death much faster than most other headlamps.
The HID (not LED) headlamps, both the mini items on final-year pre-facelift cars and the larger ones on post-facelift, used nonstandard bulbs and ballasts that were only ever used on the Mark VIII, failed early and often, and went out of production right around the same time as the car. Remaining stock was quickly exhausted, mostly by warranty repairs, and Ford gave up and issued a halogen-headlamp retrofit kit (new headlamps, adapter harness, etc). For cars not under warranty, it was extremely expensive until it, too, was discontinued—then it couldn’t be bought for any price.
The only legitimate solution is to machine a special bulb adapter—there are plans for it—so the HID headlamp (pre- or post-facelift) will accept a standard D2S bulb.
There is no fix for the failure-prone neon rear light.
These were top examples of the rubbish Ford and Sylvania proudly counted as their “lighting leadership”.
Yeah I messed that up. Wrong technology. It was early and no coffee is my excuse :). You can get replacement ballasts for the neon tail lamp though ( got that technology right). Mine still lights up the night sky! Lol
Also, here’s my Mark VII for JP. Lol
Air suspensions are one of my taboos… despite the excellent performance on many cases I will avoid them. Too many cars seems to be prone to failure. Lincolns, most obviously (I’m not old enough for a Lincoln anyway), but I see many Rovers and big Benz CUV’s either slammed fully to the ground… far below the low parking height… or sagging at one or more corners. This will change as engineering improves, no doubt, but for now I’m no fan.
This happened to my Jaguar XJ8 after my wife left the windows down and it got rained on (and into). After drying it out I found it on the bump stops. I brought it to the local garage and while there it mysteriously fixed itself. I guess it just needed a little more drying time. The problem never reoccurred.
I’ve never seen both versions by each other b4: WOW! What a dramatic difference and stylistic IMPROVEMENT the Mk VIII is!! Both are good looking, but the Mk VII becomes a BRICK alongside the Mk VIII!! 🙂 DFO
I never seen one before here in Europe and I really like this car, especially since I believe its ancestors were ugly and teutonic as hell. This is a very elegant looking car and I can imagine how difficult it must be to make such a big car look nice.
We only have a few of those ugly Lincolns overhere that look like the car. BŔRRRRRRRRRRRRR
In the LCOC, the VII is seen more than the VIII, some parts, even for club knowlegables are an issue for the VIII…headlights, neon rear brake lights, air suspension, rear window surrounds, it’s a terrific car, but the Mark VII is much easier to keep up.
There’s a six year old Mercedes-Benz CLS 550 in my parking lot that does the same thing when its owner goes out of town for a week, at least the back of it does. Another neighbor asked me why Mercedes do that, so I explained it to him.
…
So far from the original Continental concept of long hood/short deck. Did not shed a tear when these last Mark Continentals production ended.
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Aside the Mercury Cyclone / Montego, both Mark VII and VIII are the Americans of my heart. I didn’t know about all those issues with the head lamps! It has a plenty of space in the bumper for a pair of high beams, it would solve most of the problem.
It’s really a shame the white LED technology went so late.
I forgot these had the air suspension and a unique V8. I looked up the cost difference between this and a Thunderbird V8 for ‘94 and it’s huge. The insides aren’t that drastically different in materials, so was the unique setup really that much better? I’m honestly kind of floored that these were a humongous $17k jump at starting price.
Dunno. They are both not worth much these days. My title on my Mark says it stickered for 38k. I got it in prime ‘basket case’ condition for $600. It’s come a long way. Funny thing is it was actually pretty solid mechanically. Body paint and interior were another story.
I thought that the In Tech engine was a four valve, DOHC version of the standard 4.6 modular V8. The DOHC motor was used in higher tune in the Mustang Cobra. The Lincoln engine was not quite as powerful as the NorthStar in my STS. Hopefully it was not as problem prone. I think that you have to treat air suspension system components as “normal wear” items, replacing them well before they usually fail. Between the VII and VIII I prefer the styling of the VII. The interiors seem more upscale while the VIII is a lot of plastic. The old 5.0 is a good reliable motor easy to work on, though both cars share the air suspension. I went to go look at a Mark VII last year. I liked it, but it did remind me of a bigger version of my ’84 Cougar.
Yes the In-Tech engines in the Continental, Mark VIII, and Aviator were 4v 4.6 sharing many parts with the Cobra engine.
The Intech was not plagued like the Northstar.
Specific differences between the Intech and Cobra(non supercharged versions) was the crankshaft was Forged, the intake cams had about 10-14 degrees of added duration and the Intake manifold was a higher flowing design.
Intech vs northstar is no contest. You have to work very hard to blow headgaskets on a Modular of any stripe, and there’s no phantom oil leakage coming from a Rube Goldberg designed engine block that is the Northstar. It’s just as durable as the SOHC in 500,000 taxis.
It wasn’t until I was studying the pictures above that I realised how odd the rear windscreen looks. Maybe it’s just the angle of the photo and the cut-lines of the bootlid, but the bottom of the screen looks too wide and too square for the car. Sort of like they needed to use a rear windscreen from something else (wider and more angular perhaps) and just butchered the opening until it fitted. It doesn’t flow like the rest of the design, and now I can’t unsee it!
A few years ago I was on the road during a snow storm, road covered with 3-4 inches of snow/salt fluff. The fast lane was backed up, I came up on the obstruction. A Lincoln MKIII, with bald tires and flat on its belly fishtailing back and forth trying to make some forward progress as it plowed snow. Very sad, struggling against the elements.
That “leading edge technology” is a problem as the vehicle ages, can’t get the parts.
Coaches have been riding on air bags since the ’50’s very reliable. It was funny though that you had to make sure they were not parked to close together because when they leaked down some would lean left, some leaned right, you didn’t want them leaning against each other. IIRC the buses had a single air valve controlling the front axle height, the rear suspension had separate valves for left and right sides, this helped minimize the leaning in the cornering.
As is often the case, I didn’t know this was ‘a thing’. I just thought it was bizarre, my perception likely affected by a stopover at Main Street Brewing and with the awareness that it was sitting (lying?) next to Dude Chilling Park (which is also a thing). Thanks to Paul for my continuing education.
I should have included a photo of the park sign. It adds to the story.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dude+Chilling+Park/@49.2643807,-123.0988204,243m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x548671b2c3155583:0x1edec2bf78b48b90!8m2!3d49.2637197!4d-123.09684
robadr
Hey man…good to see Vancity represented on here. First my Biscayne and now this Lincoln. All around the local craft brews. Would like to talk cars over a beer.
The Biscayne was a hit I think – it got a lot of admiration here.
Feel free to get in touch sometime. You can use my handle, with gmail.