Sure you can if you're willing to void the warranty. I suspect the strut mounting holes can be enlarged and the strut nuts clamped down using larger washers. That's been done with many car models which have little or "no" room for adjustment.
Crown Vic is a good car. Sort of like a big Volvo 960 with a V-8 instead of the I-6. I suspect you can find ex-cop cars for not too much, and the cop cars get all of the handling goodies by default. Also look at the Chyrsler/Dodge LX cars (Chargnum300).
The Crown Vic/Mercury Marquis/Town Car is capable of very high mileage use with minimal repairs. Cop cars and Town Car "Limos" routinely put over a half million miles on them.
They only use shims for toe in the rear. Camber is not adjustable except by replacing the radius-rod type angled struts with a different length. Actually, most "better" makes use an eccentric on the inner end of those same rods to adjust camber.
I was told that the locator lamp is the small bulb or LED is what is at the gear shift lever to tell you what gear that you're in. In fact, in the owners' manual, the only place that locator term is used has to do with the shift lever. I have no exterior bulbs burned out. The message center only gives the message when the whether is cold...like when it's
50 degrees in the garage in the morning. Never comes on at any other time. In my old '01 Cross Country manual, because I gather that is year that you have, the section for the replacement of bulbs between pages 112 to
117 makes NO mention of replacing bulbs in pairs. And the list of bulbs on page 141 makes no mention of a locator lamp, nor does the '03 manual make any statement of that. When I went into the dealer the other day, I specifically asked if there could be a resistance between two kinds of bulbs and was told by the service manager (Not the service writer) that that is something that went out with the old bulb sensor type that was used until about ten years ago. Plus, I haven't replaced a bulb yet. Watch them all burn out when I get on the road to L.A. this afternoon! I'm in a quandry as to whether or not the dealer actually knows what they're talking about.
I'm already out of warranty. Plus, it would be easier to adjust front camber by just enlarging the upper bolt holes in the lower mounting point of the strut. And the thought of buying a 250K old police car? You should have been a stand-up comedian. I can buy an optioned Crown Vic for about 20K less than another Cross Country. The police interceptor package is available for about $500.00 if the dealer is willing to go through the trouble of ordering it for me. The Town Car Touring suspension is basically the same as the Crown Victoria police suspension. Believe me it turns the handling of the T.C. from night to day.
You're absolutely right. I know the owner of Music Express limo service in L.A. and they say that occasionally they will turn a three year old T.C. with 600,000 miles that has only had normal maintenance. Same with Charlie's here in Las Vegas. Somethmes during the Summer, they'll idle those cars for two hours at a time several times a day keeping them cool for customers. Believe me, those cars are driven hard! When you have to be on time and if the driver is late, it comes out of his pocket not to mention an irate customer that may never use them again.
It sounds like you got good information from the Service Manager.
The current balance type bulb failure sensor started disappearing with the redesign of the 760 in 1988. The 240 and 740/940 kept the balance type sensor until they went out of production, but all Volvos designed since have had a current sensing type failure relay in the rear for the rear bulbs (brake and tail) and another in front for the headlight low beam. It isn't necessary to replace bulbs in pairs to keep the failure light off with this system, but I've found that similar bulbs subject to similar use have very similar lifetimes - if one brake bulb fails, the other is usually not too far behind, so replacing them in pairs is a good idea. The high mount brake light which uses LEDs (since 1998) have proven to be quite durable.
On the downside it's really hard to change brake light bulbs the new style V70. There just isn't room to get your hand in there properly (at least on my dad's '01), so changing takes a lot more time than it should.
You're absolutely right about replacing bulbs in pairs. I've done it that way for decades. It seems that by the time that one bulb burns out, the other one already has that sooty coating on the inside of the glass. I wonder why Volvo hasn't gone to LED tail lights yet. Regarding the changing of the bulbs...they are in a wierdly placement, especially having to remove the rear speakers to get to a couple of the other bulbs. It's almost as bad as having to remove the sub-woofer to get to the spare and trying to figure out how to unplug it to get it out of the way. Luckily there is enough slack in the wiring to gingerly lift it out of the way. I wasn't able to figure out how to disconnect the sub as the manual tells you to do, since on that day it was as hot as blazes and sweat was dripping into my eyes.
My '01 XC70 had a "rear locator lamp" burned out and it was the upper left tail light. There are two tail lights on either side and my upper one was burned out on the left side. When I replaced it the message went away.
I understand your frustration but 1degree is minor ,my old Fairlane was several degrees negative on one side and several degrees positive on the other from new .I had to put in a kit to correct it .An old Chrysler was half an inch longer on one side had to pack the back shackles to align the axle.Correct me please but is one degree a big deal ,what happens when your in the car for example ,does the alignment change ? It should and was the mechanic able to show you his results ?Many are the mechanics who would milk us if they could they dont see a customer the see a wallet coming towards them when you walk in .I lived in Tasmania for almost eight years and the tricks and deceit from the Ford dealers amazed me let alone the little garages .One mechanic punctured the brake booster on cars that came in so he could replace the hissing sound with a new booster as well he was caught changing parts to use on his own cars .The worst one was caught painting old pads to look like new ones ,he was filmed doing it and shown on national television .I am an ex cabbie 25 years was enough and the tricks I have seen made me learn how to do things my self I had to so the Volvo is a sweet car to me we have three of them .P\S another (trick )was to put pads into auto Trans fluid to stop them squeaking ,they didn't brake well after that either .
"Andrew Szafran" wrote in message news:doeguk$bbj$ snipped-for-privacy@chessie.cirr.com...
Fisrt of all, I would like to thank everybody who added a penny or two. It was a great experience to ready your comments and recommendations. Apparently my post has created long and interesting converstaion. Now, a little on the subject : after considering all pros and cons I eventually ended with a 3 year lease on XC70/2006. By now I've beed driving this car for a month and I must say clearly: every day I love it more. The
2.5T/208HP engine gives me a lot of confidence. And Haldex AWD works just great. This winter in Toronto is very mild but I have already experieced extremely bad days with a lot of snow, ice and rain altogether. Driving in such conditions was like adream. You cannot compare it to FWD. There are few things I'd wish volvo improves in their next version. Perhaps the most important is not the best blind spot visibility and steering, which is a little on the heavy site. So far so good. Once again, great thanks for your help. Marek.
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