I have recently acquired a 1999 Mercury Marquies. Great car, with a few little problems.

(1) As the day heats up, I have a little trouble cranking it. After a bit of research, I have found that if I clean the MAF, perhaps the problem will be solved. Any suggestions?

(2) The windshield wipers remain in the upright position when turned off. Research on this issue only confused me even more. Any ideas?

Signed,

A mom not afraid to get a little dirty to save $$$

 

Since your Grand Marquis is new to you I suggest you look at the spark plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor. You may actally be able to see sparks under the hood: get a spray bottle with water, when it's dark idle the engine and spray that water all over the engine and the wires. If you see spark you know for sure the wires are bad. I would just go ahead and replace them anyway.

Then you may also look at the air filter, clean the MAF sensor and maybe clean the throttle body. Always use the appropriate spray cans for these jobs.

Use some gum-out fuel system cleaner for a tank or two.

I am not sure about the windshield wipers. We once had a Geo Prism that did not park the wipers. We had to time it right or had the wipers anywhere. A new wiper motor would have fixed it for a while but we didn't want to spend $400 for that.
I don't want to guess what it takes for your Grand Marquis but it should be cheaper as you can find plenty used parts from Grand Marquis and Crown Victorias.

Be careful, don't brake a finger nail!

 

Most of the time there was a problem with the wiping fingers in the park section of the wiper motor. Some people with the time and tools were able to obtain the parts to repair the problem. Your best bet is to get a rebuilt wiper motor from an auto supply store and just replace it. Since it will be a rebuilt unit they will want your old motor assy. Shop around, different stores charge different prices. It is not a difficult job to change, but can require some patience and dexterity. Be surprised what we can do when we have to!

 

Do the wipers "freeze" on the same high point each and every time, or they end up wherever they happen to be when you turned the wiper switch off? (that is, the don't park themselves at the bottom of the windshield)

The wipers motor has three wires: hot at all times, hot from the wiper switch, ground. The purpose of the "hot at all times" wire is to feed power to the motor after you turned the wipers switch off so that the blades park themselves. The motor knows when to stop my means of an internal contact running on a cam - which keeps it powered on until the blades reached the parking spot, then shorts out the motor's internal terminals (brushes) together to brake it abruptly so the blades don't go past the parking spot. If the "hot at all times" wire is disconnected, the motor has no way to power itself after you turned the switch off, so the wipers remain up on the windshield. I bet that's your problem ... but please let us know how it goes.

Good luck!!

 

Thanks to each of you. I appreciate your insight more than you know.

It appears my weekend of grease up to my elbows in planned. Say a prayer for me, and especially the old car. I'll let you know how everything turns out.

Warmest regards,
Andi