It doesn't give mileage, just percent. That's what I meant. I think I went about 4,000 miles before it came on at 10%, but since I was using synthetic and was longer going longer I reset it to 60% based on the mileage, then when it came on again it still hadn't been as many miles as I was aiming for.

Hmmmmmm...interesting. Wait...you can reset it to a number like 60%? When I reset it just goes to 100%, no choice.

So when we bought this car it came with but one key. These LX Sport (and LXs I'd imagine) came with the PATS. When I read the manual it stated that you could make additional keys for your PATS-equipped LX, but if and only if you had 2 or more keys already. Well poop. With just the one, the manual stated that I'd need to go to the stealership.

After a little research I found that any locksmith can do the job for you. So this morning I went to the local mom-n-pop lock-n-key and they had it done in about 5 minutes. $75 later and I was on my way. Although I didn't bother to call to get a reference, I suspect that the stealership would have been twice that. I'd prefer to give my $$$ to a local small business anyway, so...

We'd like to have at least one additional key in the event that she misplaces it or that our son hides it. So now I need to go off and research how to "manually" program additional keys now that I have a second one.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know why you need the second key in order to "manually" program additional keys? This is the first PATS car I've owned BTW. Most of my rides are *intentionally* older models.

Thanks,
Jerry

My guess is its a security thing, so someone can't just program a duplicate key to the car. Either way, all Ford PATS systems are that way AFAIK. There also has to be at least 2 unique keys in the PATS module's memory at all times. So if, say, you had computer access and wanted to erase a lost/stolen key from memory, you would have to have 2 unique keys to program to it.

That price isn't bad, but not spectacular either. IIRC the dealer quoted me $75 to program a key to my '98. My buddy paid the dealer about $120 to have a key cut and programmed to his '07 Fusion, but that car used a different type of key than a Panther.

Alright so I decided to have a solid number WRT the stealership thing. And I agree with you BigMerc, the $75 that the lock-n-key charged wasn't a great price. I was just confident that the stealership would charge more and I'd prefer to give my $$$ to the mom-n-pop over the stealership any day. If there was a way to do it myself, that would have been the way I would have gone. As a software engineer, I felt confident that I could have figured it out ... but alas a quick bout of research indicated that going this way wasn't an option, so I had to pay someone to do it for me. I digress. Back to the subject mentioned in my first sentence.

I called the stealership closest to me and the one from which I bought the shocks and struts that I installed late last year and for which made a YouTube video. Their quote was $99. So it was more, yes, but not a lot more. In retrospect I went the right way; for me that is.

Anyway thanks,
Jerry

Hi y'all-

Been a while since I posted to this thread...work has been busy and quite frankly my Crown Victorias have been running without a hitch, so there wasn't much to report. I haven't had time to work on any of the planned upgrades, so there has been no new news. Until...

Fellow member Ryan put up 4 LX Sport wheels for sale that were in good condition. This is one of the primary things that I've wanted to change about my 2010 CVPI for quite some time. You see, when I first bought the car, it still had its steelies on. Normal. So I went to a local mom-n-pop wheel shop who recommended that I go with the factory wheel. They showed me what I now know to be the 01-02 LX Sport wheels. Not knowing any better I bought a set. Then I learned that they aren't actually correct. The offset is wrong and thus the wheels "stick out" from the body; noticeably I might add. I was hacked, called the mom-n-pop who reiterated that "there is only one of those wheels", blah blah blah. They wouldn't believe me even when I texted a picture showing the difference. Bunk.

So I decided that I would just find a set of the 03+ LX Sport wheels, put my still-like-new tires on them and sell the 01-02s. The problem with that ended up being that every time I found a set of the 03+s, one problem or another would rear its ugly head and ruin the opportunity. One time the wheels ended up being damaged but that wasn't visible until they were removed. In another instance the guy was "selling for a friend" and after just a bit of back-n-forth I caught wind of what he was up to and backed out. Ryan however is a square guy, knows what he is talking about and sent me a good set of wheels. Thanks Ryan.

Anyway, here are are pictures of the wheels on my CVPI:



Thanks,
Jerry

looking good

Glad those wheels are getting some use after sitting in my friends grandfathers basement for 7 years!

I love those wheels

Ok so it's official: I'm certifiably crazy about Panthers. I'm gonna go take a look at this one on Monday:









I'll let you know how it turns out. Unless there is just something way-wrong with it when I hook up the scanner, drive it and look 'er over, she is coming home with me.

Thanks,
Jerry

Update: Well the new LX Sport has her issues, no doubt. I'll get into the list later, as I'm still on the road. It was in Lubbock, TEXAS and I live around Austin, so it's about 5.5 hours each way. 'Cept longer getting home 'cause I need to drive slower. I'm sitting in Sweetwater taking a break and decided to post an update.

The dealer was a nice enough guy, but drove a hard bargain. He was asking $3000 for it originally. I brought my AutoEnginuity scan tool and laptop, a multi-meter, a floor jack, a drill, and well you get the idea. I looked it over and then looked him in the eye, saying "there's no way this is worth $3000." He agreed, I offered 2, he said he had 2.5 into it and couldn't take a loss. I didn't believe that but didn't want to quibble over a few hundred after driving that far and with some work this car could be a decent ride again. So that was that, bought it for $2.5K and am on the way home.

More later.
Thanks,
Jerry

Made it home about 1 am or so. What a trip. Too sleepy to delve into the list of issues I found with this LX Sport, but I will get to them. The most noticeable of which, however, is the drive and handling. Put this thing in gear and it *launches* like it was coming off of an aircraft carrier. The first time I had it in reverse I was sure as hell that I hit something. Fortunately that was negative.

And then there's the handling. This thing wallows side-to-side like a used-up, old boat I once had. The roll is so pronounced that I think my wife would get car sick after one turn. Then when I loaded it on the trailer, sheesh but did that front end bounce like a rubber ball on concrete! I checked the ball joints and tie rods (the reason I brought a floor jack) and they're ok, so that's something. One thing anyway.

Ok enough. A couple of pictures of it loaded onto the UHaul trailer (lol - need to find a friggin trailer that I like!):



Although there are a number of ways to address this:


I think I'm just gonna replace it with a spare that I have for my CVPI, painted to the factory blue color naturally. The front bumper, driver's side has similar rash, so it appears that I'm in the market for a front bumper too. Sigh. I did look underneath, no damage there, cosmetic stuff only, or so it appeared. We'll see.

Ok enough (again).

Thanks,
Jerry

ps-And just let me say for the record that as much as I like my Crown Victorias, I *really* like my F450! That thing was just a beast today. Pulled the new LX Sport like it wasn't there, no hiccups, just wow. Anyway...lub my Ford trucks too!

Ok so a quick run-down of stuff that I have found wrong thus far:

1) Interior is "well used" (to quote my wife)
2) Bumpers are toast and in need of replacement
3) Transmission lurches (gear ratio code)
4) Handling S-U-C-K-S (roll and yaw are excessive)
5) Windshield fluid reservoir unsecured (because plastic is broken)
6) Core support damage
7) Non-normal sound on startup
8) Some type of cannot-communicate-with-CAN DTC
9) Hood/fender alignment is off
10) Headlights suck and so does their mounting
11) Trunk is also "well used", no cover over spare tire
12) Some aftermarket stereo system with wiring all over the D-A-M-N place to include some large-ass speaker/woofer crap in the rear window shelf
13) Misc body damage in a couple of places (small dent in the roof right above the driver's door area - WTF??!??!)
14) Damage to pax rear and driver's front (see below) that I don't know how far it extends, which makes me a tad nervous
15) A/C doesn't work and this is TEXAS! Compressor engages, but no cold air, could be any number of things, usually the compressor but we'll see
16) Driver's fender and front bumper (possibly both bumpers) are replacement units that I think were originally white. I understand a bit why someone would paint over the plastic bumpers, but the fender? Gheez but if you're gonna do something do it right!

Ah, don't get me started.

And I have more. But I'll stop there. You get the point. This ol' girl has been given a hard-ish life thus far. The previous owners were tools who didn't appreciate what they had nor would they have cared I suspect. Why do people do that to their cars?!?!???! Couldn't tell ya. It was also repossessed once according to the CarFax report. So that tells you a lot right there. To speak openly I would have walked away, no check that, RUN away from this car instantly except for one thing: it's an 06 LX Sport. Those are getting hard to come by. This dealer wouldn't have known the Sport from a CVPI, but whichever.

On the positive side of the equation, I don't see much in the way of cheap Chinese parts thus far, fortunately, but that doesn't mean that they aren't there. Time will tell. The paint is actually a factory paint. I had a couple of guys swear up and down that it was a re-spray. It didn't appear that way to me, I mean the door jambs looked good with no over spray. So I checked the VIN tag. Paint code is DX. Upon lookup that is "Dark Blue Pearl" and is a Ford factory color. So that much is to-the-good. It does start and run, though how well is TBD. I haven't removed the wheels to see if there is any damage yet, but that's on the list.

So. What did I decide as my goals here? Well as it turns out my wife likes the factory dark blue pearl better than the white on the other 06 LX Sport, so she wants this car. At least for now, she is prone to changing her mind. Therefore, although I considered just getting rid of it, no I have decided to restore it to its original (or thereabouts) glory. Ergo to eliminate all of the crap that other a-holes have done to it before it found a good home with us. There's a LOT of work to be done now that we've decided to progress in that direction. The interior is not in as good of condition as the white 06, and not by a good margin at that. So one possible quick fix would be to exchange interiors. And by that I mean seats, console, etc. Probably not to include a dash swap.

So where to begin? I'll pick the story up in the next post...

I decided to start with #14, the damage to the front and rear areas. Seemed as good of a place as any and damage is something that I prefer to evaluate first anyway. First up was the driver's front bumper area. I removed the bumper itself to get a closer look; and a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Or should I say several funny things:

1) Windshield bottle is completely unsecured and is missing the hose that runs to the "sprinklers" - what a load of irresponsible horse apples.
2) The headlights were missing their mounting brackets, or should I say that 3 of the 4 brackets were missing.
3) Driver's headlight was held in place by small chord around one of the adjustment screws. That was it.
4) Both side markers were missing their internal nuts and were held in place solely by the externally-accessed screw. Ergo, anyone could have approached the car, undid the screw, disconnect the wiring and walked away with these side markers. And the side markers are cracked AND chipped. More crap.
5) On the bottom, rather than the factory-installed 8 mm bolts and washers that are used to secure that bottom to the car, someone simply used friggin hardware screws to accomplish that task. You GOTTA be MOTHER LOVIN kidding me. I shudder when I see this half-assed crap!
6) Front bumper was originally white and NOT original to the car, unless Ford used white primer which I don't think they did. Same goes for the driver's fender.
7) When I finally removed the bumper the section of shock absorption furthest on the driver's side fell out with it. So that means that someone just crammed this crap back inside the bumper, screwed the bumper in place with those AWFUL screws and called it a day. What a tool.
8) There was damage to the internal bumper on the driver's side.
9) Core support cover (plastic) was torn in three places, one of which was so severe that it was about 2 inches away from splitting the friggin thing into separate pieces. Sigh.

After witnessing the damage and the completely HALF-ASSED repair job that ensued, I must confess that I was wondering what I had gotten myself into. I thought again about selling it on with full disclosure. However as mentioned the wife had seen it and decided that she liked the color better, so the die is cast. When I do repair the thing, I will do it with all Ford genuine parts, not the cheap Chinese crap and I will NOT half-ass my work ... sheesh but that goes without saying. Can't believe some folk do that BS. Ok I'm starting to repeat myself, so I'll stop.

Here are some pictures. The driver's front side once the bumper was removed (note the shock absorption material on the ground ... yeah it wasn't secured AT ALL:


Side view of the damage:


Evidence that the driver's side fender was originally white (or had white primer put on it at the factory):



Hood mis-alignment. Note that on the pax side, the hood-to-fender gap is wider near the windshield than near the front valence and vice-versa on the driver's side. Not sure what to attribute this to, but dear Lord I hope that the frame hasn't shifted or been twisted:





Here's the cabling that was used to hold the driver's headlight in place:


And the screws that were used to secure the front bumper from below:


Ok this post is also getting long, more in the next one...

Core support damage:


Ok enough. So what did I get done about it today? Well I paid a visit to the guy who sold me my CVPI. He buys and sells cars for a living and has Crown Victorias sitting around his house for folk to take parts when they need them. So I went out to see what he had. Turns out that he had a ready-to-go solution for the core support/front bumper issue. Some hot rodder wanted the suspension and frame section from a CVPI but didn't want the front of the front clip (if you will). So he had that lying around. It had everything I needed: in-tact and non-damaged internal bumper, all shock absorption panels still riveted in-place and an undamaged core support:


So I snatched that up and quickly. It'll be some bolting and unbolting but all-in-all it will be a straightforward swap. And that's much easier than a repair of the existing support, so it was an easy decision to just buy the whole enchilada from the outset. I also got four new headlight mount brackets:


And a new core support plastic cover, which he had sitting in an old detective's CVPI and which was in pristine condition:


Finally - and this is something I forgot to mention in my original update tonight, I noticed that the pax side lower window trim was/is sticking up a bit at the aft position:


I knew that pushing it down wouldn't do much and it didn't but I had to just-try anyway. So I checked with the parts guy and he said that he thought there was a special tool that you needed to both undo and reseat those trim pieces. Does anyone know if that is accurate and if so how can I get that tool? And which tool is it?

Ok that's enough for tonight. Thank you for reading...more to come.

Jerry

Ok regarding the bottom piece of window trim...I did a quick search and found conflicting information, but the gist of it was/is that there is no special tool for removal of that particular trim piece. It is held in place by either one or two (thus the conflict in info thing) nuts that you access through the door after removing the panel. They reportedly have 8mm heads (unconfirmed). Once those nuts are zipped off, the trim can be removed by hand. Sounds straightforward. Ok so I'll look into that further down the road. Small potatoes at this point.

Mom is experiencing some health stuff, so I may have to bolt up there. TBD. Thus not any time to get started on the blue beast. I did however find time to remove and inspect the wheels. They are in quite good condition:



So that, at least, is some good news. I expected to pull one or more of them off and find cracks, chewed-up sections, missing sections or other damage. Not so much as a scratch. I'll take all of the good news I can with this car!

Y'all take care, not sure when I will be back on the project, gotta see what is going on back home first.

Jerry