1988 Lincoln Continental Signature from North America - Comments

Please read carefully: I am recording the things that DID NOT go wrong. EVERYTHING ELSE BROKE!

1) Transmission

2) Exhaust.

I get a great deal of pleasure reading Internet feedback on ownership of the 1988-94 series Lincoln Continental. Misery loves company! Incredibly, I kept this car for 7 years/45,000 miles. I think it was some sort of Socratic (who had his Xanthippe) discipline for me. Someday I may write an essay about this car. That Ford Motor Co. could have produced such a junker in the 1980s explains why Toyota/Honda/etc. are taking over the industry. Just two examples of the incredibly poor design: The driver's exterior door handle broke off. It was made of pot metal. I reasoned that the driver's door was used 10 times as much as any other door handle, so after replacing that I assumed there would be no more problem. No, the next year the PASSENGER door handle broke the same way! And replacing the handles requires having the painted to match the car. Second example: the 1988 ABS, believe it or not, does not use a master brake cylinder (I believe this is unique to 1988). If electrical power is cut to the the high pressure brake booster motor, THE BRAKES DON'T WORK! In my car, ignition switch was faulty and when the temperature/humidity was high, the car would start, but the circuit to energize the brake motor sometimes would not close. Result: no brakes. Turning off the car and restarting usually fixed the problem. If you are a mechanic you may think I don't know what I'm talking about, but I promise you it is true. I wrote Ford Motor Co. but the letter never made it to anyone who understood the problem. After several years of scary incidents I decided to replace the ignition switch. The problem never recurred. Final war story: The float in the gas tank used to stick if the tank was completely filled with gas. Result: THE SPEEDOMETER WOULD NOT WORK! How crazy is that? We learned not to completely fill the tank (and finally replaced the gas gauge float sensor, which fixed the speedometer problem). Hope readers get a chuckle out of these completely true anecdotes, as I have chuckled over others'!

Here's a postscript: The CV joints last about 20,000 miles. The motor mounts last about 40,000. The power steering hoses/pump last about 40,000. The side window glass is glued to the mounting brackets and will fall off after about 6 years' use ($500 repair). The air struts get very floaty after 36K. ($800 a piece to repair.) The radio also had to be fixed twice for a dropped left channel, then broke again intermittently. The steering wheel bearings wore out ($350 replacement). The suspension air pump wore out. The automatic trunk closer broke when car was new and dealer couldn't fix it. The heated windshield relay broke. Oh yes -- the dashboard lights burned out every two years. Factory replacement bulbs were $8 each, and the dashboard used about a dozen of them. What else? The windshield wiper mechanism always sounded as though it was on its last legs, although it never failed. The AC compressor bearing froze at 90K. The timing chain stretched, causing the engine to knock. The water pump and cylinder head gaskets were replaced at 36K. The rear disk brake calipers froze up at the 5 year mark.

Sounds like decent service to me!

I recently Bought a 1988 Continenal for 100 bucks it has 98k on it and the only thing that was wrong with this baby was the fuel pump car never had an issue I think its all on how you handle your goose.

I am the slightly less than proud owner of a 1988 Lincoln Continental Signature Series. I like to refer to the color as morning movement brown, but it might technically be considered maroon. I named here Myrtle because I bought her off an older lady, and this is 2009, and she's an old lady herself.

About 3 days after I bought Myrtle I realized that she wasn't going to start for me every day, so I had the alternator replaced, then I realized that it still wasn't the answer to my problem, so I had a huge Die-Hard gold series battery installed. This worked well for about 4 days.

I noticed that whenever I filled up the gas tank, I couldn't get an accurate read on the fuel gauge. I also noticed that every time I turn the car off there is a fan inside that continues to run for long periods of time.

Aside from all that, the DCL (digital communication link) is always sending me tones saying "check DCL" "check engine" "air ride control".

My passenger door handle broke on day 8, I have trouble with the drivers side, the rear windows don't roll down at all, the radio and CD player don't work, I can't open the glove box due to some problem they had fixed before I owned it.

And that brings me to the the brakes, recently they stopped working for a moment, I was able to get her back in the shop and the mechanic told me that I needed a new master brake cylinder at a cost of over $2,300. That's when I saw this website, I read about the ignition and will try that soon. As of right now she's running and that's all I can hope for.

Given the fact that I don't have the means to fix it right now, and I need to drive it this may be the last time you hear from me (if the brakes fail again).

Any mechanic shouldn't be trying to charge 2300 bucks for a master cylinder.