I won’t have it home until Thursday, but I might as well start a thread. It’s a 2006 ex-NOLA PD detective car - I even have the detective’s name(and one of his shirts in the trunk) - with 123k on it.
It runs & drives nice, the interior is pretty clean, and the exterior isn’t too bad - especially coming from New Orleans.
There are a couple issues I need to deal with:
- The HVAC blend door motor isn’t working. I need to investigate if it’s bad, or is related to the pic below.
- The cup holder/ash tray door is missing.
- The overhead light is missing, none of the interior lights work, and the air bags were disabled by the PD.
- The windshield is cracked.
Eventually i I want to swap the steering wheel for one with cruise control & get it programmed too.
Having spent a ton of time in Detroit and Cleveland, I have never seen roads worse than New Orleans. How's the suspension?
In the '90s I was under the impression that the roads in Louisiana were crappy because they wouldn't raise their drinking age to 21 -- which made Congress pull their federal highway funding. Is that true or just '90s BS?
I was wondering if cruise control could be retrofitted.
I loved my 98 p71. It had a blue connector under the glove box that made all the interior lights stay off. Plug it in and they all worked as normal. Something to check out
John Welsh said:
Having spent a ton of time in Detroit and Cleveland, I have never seen roads worse than New Orleans. How's the suspension?
It feels nice & tight. The RR tire is a bit more worn than the rest & has a slight bit of noise. I need to investigate the spare & see if it matches the others.
GCrites80s said:
In the '90s I was under the impression that the roads in Louisiana were crappy because they wouldn't raise their drinking age to 21 -- which made Congress pull their federal highway funding. Is that true or just '90s BS?
I’ve never heard that, but I’ll ask around.
bigfranks84 said:
I loved my 98 p71. It had a blue connector under the glove box that made all the interior lights stay off. Plug it in and they all worked as normal. Something to check out
Thanks! I’ll look for that while I’m dealing with the blend door motor.
at 123 thousand that's like less than 3 years service, How DEEP did it flood that year, I do like them though, up here every body's Cousin has one. brush guard's are popular. REALLY LIKE THE MARAUDER.
These are always on my mind. Seems like a good family car.
We call ours "The Road Sofa" when it comes time for a road trip.
It's due for a suspension overhaul this winter. But at 250,000 miles, who can really complain?
sleepyhead said:
Pete Gossett said:
John Welsh said:
Having spent a ton of time in Detroit and Cleveland, I have never seen roads worse than New Orleans. How's the suspension?
It feels nice & tight. The RR tire is a bit more worn than the rest & has a slight bit of noise. I need to investigate the spare & see if it matches the others.
Time to LSD it up?
I’m trying to avoid scope creep, but if one just happened to end up in my garage...
SkinnyG
UltraDork
10/31/18 9:49 a.m.
Stampie
UberDork
10/31/18 10:31 a.m.
Cheap enough for a gastropod/CAM entry?
Ex-detective car from New Orleans? Your new car's name is now "Bad Lieutenant"
In reply to maschinenbau :
Ha!
APD Found a bunch of the overhead lights in the Dumpster at their maint. facility, Heads rolled not legal to have here.
Now you are required to wear a polo shirt tucked into khaki slacks and rocking mirrored aviators while driving that.
Nice score! 
Pete Gossett said:
sleepyhead said:
Pete Gossett said:
John Welsh said:
Having spent a ton of time in Detroit and Cleveland, I have never seen roads worse than New Orleans. How's the suspension?
It feels nice & tight. The RR tire is a bit more worn than the rest & has a slight bit of noise. I need to investigate the spare & see if it matches the others.
Time to LSD it up?
I’m trying to avoid scope creep, but if one just happened to end up in my garage...
My understanding is 03+ P71 cars were all LSD.?.? don't remember where I heard that though so.....
In reply to barefootskater :
I’ve heard it was an option & a rare one at that. The seller stated it has an open diff, I’m sure I’ll find an opportunity to test it out.
Hey a fellow panther platform thread! I too have to do a blend door actuator...
In reply to Pete Gossett :
I very well could be misinformed. I do know that roughly $200 will get you a new Ford Racing gear set in just about any ratio you want...cough cough4.10 cough cough.
A couple of things.
My 06 has a LSD, so at least some of them do come with it.
I have done the blend door motor. It sucks. By the book, it's a 6 hour job because a lot of the dash has to come out, like all of it. I cheated on mine. I pulled 3 of the screws holding the motor, cut the plastic stand for the 4th screw, and reinstalled it with 3 screws and a hard foam wedge. Total time was under an hour because the only thing that has to be removed is the glove box. It was a cheat, but it worked and has been for over a year.
A lot of newer P71 have "Dark Mode" activated in the body control unit. That turns off all the interior lights when the doors are opened. The only way to get it to turn back on is to take it to the dealer and get it reprogrammed. I haven't bothered to do that. The overhead light in mine has a switch. I just turn it on when needed.
