2007 Lincoln Navigator

[John_Conrad]

thanks bd:

the originals lasted what 8 years, which sounds good for me, but is there something else at play here? my 97 olds still has it's original cat con.

 

[SatinSilver]

How does it run otherwise? I maybe tempted to leave it esp if the miles are high.

I have some free black electrical tape I can send you to cover up the light.

 

[John_Conrad]

mileage = 74,000 there abouts

AFAIK it is running ok, just the CEL and what she says is a faint smell of gas, the gas smell is what worries her.

i will post back when she lets me know about any misfires either whether she notices or the mechanics mentioned it.

the vehicle is no longer at the dealer, they had it in and out and told her she need cat con.

hope to know more she should get in touch with me soon.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: John_Conrad
thanks bd:

the originals lasted what 8 years, which sounds good for me, but is there something else at play here? my 97 olds still has it's original cat con.



Probably a hung open fuel injector. They would hang open and cause a cylinder to bend a conrod when it hydrolocked. Then that hole would have a misfire which takes a cat out.

Also if a bad VCT actuator or solenoid is not addressed, there will be misfires which also burn up the cats.

We have also seen cats go out from customers putting off replacing the spark plugs. They don't want to pay to have a broken 3v plug extracted so they put it off so long that 3-4 cylinders have spark misfires which flood the cats with fuel.

 

[SatinSilver]

Are these the engines that have the spark plugs buried deep within the motor? Where a lot of it has to be taken apart to change the plugs. If so I'd be leery about pouring money into this truck. I saw one taken apart at a shop while getting tires installed.

 

[John_Conrad]

yes, the spark plugs are a pain to change,,,

they had a recall on the plugs and she got them changed out but i don't know the date she had it done, thinking this year.

when was that recall issued bd, i think your on the right path. thanks

 

[bdcardinal]

I don't recall any recalls on spark plugs on the 5.4L 3v. There was an extended warranty on the fuel injectors where if bad enough we would replace the short block and cats.

The plugs in any mod motor in a SUV are hard to get to. The 3V ones break off if the proper procedure is not followed.

 

[John_Conrad]

this may be what she is referring to as a recall on spark plugs....

http://www.fordsparkplugsettlement.com/

which was not a recall, but she knows little to nothing about cars.

how ever, she was a good teacher for over 40 years!

 

[John_Conrad]

more info, regarding question on miss fire asked earlier.

she said she experienced a miss fire last month while passing a vehicle and that the check engine light came on then went away...shortly after the check engine light returned and she had the spark plugs changed, while there they did the O2 sensors also because the cat con inefficiency code was already showing up.

 

[Lyman]

Federal emissions warranty is good for 8 years or 80,000 miles. Is She under that? My Daughter had hers done when She was just under 80k. It cost her zero $ to have her CAT replaced.

 

[John_Conrad]

i don't know but i will ask. thanks

 

[ford46guy]

If she is smelling gas the cats are probably near death. I would get that issue taken care of first, there may be a small chance the cats may come back. Misfires cause excess gas to get into the cat. The gas is burned in the cat and the temps skyrocket. The scan tool can find the offending cylinder. Please take care of that ASAP. The grand marquis in my sig had a misfire because of a leaking manifold when I bought it. It was shorting the coil. Gas would pop in the cat when you shut it down and smell like a gas tank. I checked the cats with a scan tool before I bought it and fixed that issue the first day.



Like others said:
The plugs in this engine SUCK to get out, make sure they were all changed.
There are also fuel injector issues.

The cats may still be factory warranted (I know in NY its 8/80K on that part). Others may know better for Texas.

I would open an issue with ford ASAP, especially considering the injector issue. Maybe they will work with her.

Cats should not fail if the car is maintained. All of the vehicles below have factory cats.

 

[John_Conrad]

thank you all very much for your help from the bottom of our hearts.
i know the battle is just beginning, but at least we know the path to follow.

there may be other questions

thanks again

 

[John_Conrad]

Some good news, but first an odd twist in the story:

As my sister wanted to fix this issue asap, when she was at the ford dealer, a member of this particular dealership informed her that he runs a muffler shop and he could do the work for her out side the dealer for half price. My sister said ok, and had put down a $400 deposit with the muffler shop.

Last night i spoke to her and informed her of the information provided here by you good folks, I told her to get to the dealership first thing in the morning and open this issue up with the 8 year 80,000 mile warranty right away before it's too late. Ford dealer apologized and said they had entered one number wrong into the computer so that it didn't show this warranty for her. Wow!

Whether honest mistake or not, i don't know i am not dealing in person with them. So i can't say. She has cancelled with the muffler shop.

Moving on, they are going to replace cat cons under warranty, no charge. And begin looking into the cause-hope this turns out to be positive and not another challenge.

 

[bdcardinal]

We had an employee that would offer to do side work for customers. They are no longer employed at the dealer. Part of the company policy on side work is you cannot perform and side work on Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, or Mazda vehicles unless it is direct family. Doing such is considered theft from the owner.

 

[sleddriver]

Be sure she gets her $400 back!

Good to hear FoMoCo will cover this under warranty

 

[John_Conrad]

she sure did, other wise, based on what bd explained, the muffler shop owner probably knew he could get in trouble if my sister mentioned it to the dealer ship.

 

[John_Conrad]

Follow up question.

So apparently only one catalytic converter is showing up as bad, and will be replaced by the 8/80 warranty...

Is that on the level?

 

[DoubleWasp]

It happens. My driver side cat on my 07 Navigator looked like a freight train ran through it. My passenger side was fine.

I just cut them out and put resonators in place. I doubt I'll have a cat problem again.

Doesn't make people happy, but Ford wasn't going to back up their product past 80k, the Feds don't mandate past 80k, so I saw no good reason to care either.