I'm considering a 2000 Lincoln Continental 4.6L DOHC car with 43K miles that sat for the past 3 yrs when the owner was too sick to drive. With his passing the car is being sold. I'm very familiar with this model as I've owned 2 of them. The weaknesses are the tight clearances in the engine bay with the transverse engine + front wheel transaxle. The transmission is the weak link of the car.
My concern is what 3 yrs of sitting could have done to fuel systems, drive train bearings, AC seals, etc? 3 yr old engine oil is not a concern to me as the car was probably serviced annually at 2K-3K miles (short tripper). It would be bad if someone turned the engine over in the garage every so often...don't know. The battery was dead. I'm sure the car will drive fine today as it has to do that just to sell it. No idea if sitting could cause issues years down the road.
Tires look good...Michelins. They could be the originals.. If so, they'll have to go. But the tread looks deep so they might be the 2nd set. AC doesn't work so that will have to be corrected. After sitting for so long, every refrigerant seal could need replacing. And access to them in the engine bay requires removing a lot of other stuff. I think several quick oil changes with a quality detergent oil could help clean up a short tripper/sitter gunked up engine. Trans fluid changes are due by 30K miles on these. So 43K is pushing that out on a trans that is a weak link.
I know what the car is worth in this condition and the asking price in the $4K's is fair once tires/AC are corrected. So are there other big risks here that could come back to haunt me? Have others bought long term sitters and had no issues later on? Or should I just not bother?
My concern is what 3 yrs of sitting could have done to fuel systems, drive train bearings, AC seals, etc? 3 yr old engine oil is not a concern to me as the car was probably serviced annually at 2K-3K miles (short tripper). It would be bad if someone turned the engine over in the garage every so often...don't know. The battery was dead. I'm sure the car will drive fine today as it has to do that just to sell it. No idea if sitting could cause issues years down the road.
Tires look good...Michelins. They could be the originals.. If so, they'll have to go. But the tread looks deep so they might be the 2nd set. AC doesn't work so that will have to be corrected. After sitting for so long, every refrigerant seal could need replacing. And access to them in the engine bay requires removing a lot of other stuff. I think several quick oil changes with a quality detergent oil could help clean up a short tripper/sitter gunked up engine. Trans fluid changes are due by 30K miles on these. So 43K is pushing that out on a trans that is a weak link.
I know what the car is worth in this condition and the asking price in the $4K's is fair once tires/AC are corrected. So are there other big risks here that could come back to haunt me? Have others bought long term sitters and had no issues later on? Or should I just not bother?