1987 Ford Crown Victoria ltd from North America - Comments

The front doors do not lock.

The Glove box latch broke.

Replaced power steering hose.

Sometimes the car dies suddenly and then is unpredictable when it will start again.

I bought the car from my grandmother. She loved her Crown Victoria and kept very good care of this car.

I had the car for one week and started to experience trouble. The car would drive down the road and the motor would quit running. Then the car would not restart. It was very unpredictable.

I took the car to a mechanic. The mechanic replaced the fuel pump. That did not help. Then the mechanic replaced the electronic ignition module. This did not fix the problem either. So I asked the mechanic for my my money back and was fortunate to get a refund for his work The car still has this problem. I have been told it may be the catalytic converter.

It sounds to me like the problem with your car is not in your catalytic convertor, all they do is change bad exhaust gases into good exhaust gases-an emissions thing. The only thing that could cause your problem with the catalytic convertors would be if they are severely clogged up, which would require replacing them. One thing that I can think of that may be causing your problem is vapor lock-fuel turning into a vapor before it reaches the engine. Fuel as a vapor won't flow through fuel lines, causing your engine to die. After you let it set for a while, the fuel turns back into a liquid, and you can start your car again. You said you think the problem may have to do with your catalytic convertors, so check the fuel line by them to see if the heat from them is vaporizing your gas. Another solution would be to use gas that doesn't have ethanol in it, which it sounds to me like you are currently using. The only other thing I could think of is that your fuel pump may be overheating.

Hello, I have the same model and year and I'm experiencing the exact same problem. My mechanic replaced the distributor and some computer modules, neither of which fixed the problem. This car is really making my life difficult. I was hoping to find emails with the comments, because I wanted to know of the original poster of this ever got the problem fixed. If anyone can help me/us with this car please email me spookyboy45@hotmail.com

Thank you!

WE SPENT 1500 FOR SIMULAR REASONS ALTIMETER ,TUNE UP, FUEL PUMP, TRANNY SERVICE,WE DID IT THEN FINALLY REPLACED THE DISTRIBUTOR.NEVER HAD SUCH GOOD CAR . DUAL EXHAUAST S MODEL HANDLING PACKAGE EFI 5.0 PEAPLE STILL MOVE OVER FOR OUR 1987 CROWN VIC COMMING UP FROM BEHIND SLEEPER STYLE IN CANADA

They must keep police cars in service a lot longer in Canada, eh?

Nobody in the US would be fooled into thinking an '87 Crown Vic was anythng other than, well, just an old car, certainly not a police car...

I had the Problem, there is a fuel shut off button/valve in your trunk on the left hand side near the trunk hinge, when your car dies, go back and press and hold that button for 5 seconds, then press your choke and start it, they will switch on if you hit a bump to hard or something like that, they are very sensitive, to prevent fuel from traveling to the engine in the case of an accident.

Happy driving!

I too had intermitant problem until one day it would not longer run. As well in damp weather I experienced hard starting and poor idle.

I checked the distributor and found no spark from the coil.

I replaced the coil from the auto-wreckers and have being happily motoring since. I believe since the coil is located on the front of the engine and the heat from the rad caused the coil failure.

Well, for starters, the unexpected stalling of the car can be a number of things. My few guesses would be the IAC valve is sticking, which leads to stalling issues, and the air flow sensor.

The IAC (idle air control) valve is located on the throttle body on backside. It is held in place with 2 bolts and it looks like a cylinder thing with wire on bottom of it that plugs in. Many times after years of use, it gets carbon buildup in there and causes the little piston cylinder in there to get hung up and can cause issues. The IAC can be cleaned by removing it and cleaning it out with some carb cleaner. If you really want to clean the carbon out, you should remove the upper plenum/intake and clean the plenum and all accessories connected to it. I use B-12 cleaner to clean all this stuff out and a small wire brush the size of a toothbrush. I also clean the lower intake ports while the upper intake/plenum is removed. After reassembling, the car will want to start rough and will blow out lots of black smoke due to the stuff you cleaned in the lower intake being burned out of the system.

The air flow sensor is mounted on passenger side under the cowl looking thing. It has a rubber smaller rubber hose and wire plug sticking out the front. Many times they can go bad and cause the car to run wrong. You can get a couple from the junkyard to swap out that with and solve that problem also.

I, personally, have owned 5 Crown Victorias and a Grand Marquis. I have learned much about them, and they were all 1987s. My girlfriend has a 1989 Crown Victoria and her son has a 1986 Grand Marquis. I guess you can say I am familiar with working on these cars since we have a small fleet I maintain.

I forgot to mention in last post. One of the 1987 Crown Victorias I had would do this also because of a malfunctioning fuel pump relay. It is the greenish looking one located on fenderwell under the hood. While you are at it, there is a brown relay that messes with the system also. My Crown Victoria 2 door I have did this to me on the road and messing with relay wires, it would start. When the car was started, I would mess with wires again and it would shut off. Sorry that I forgot to mention the relays in previous post.