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1996 Lincoln Town Car, Side Mirror Mounting Bolts Defective
( click on any image to enlarge )
One day while blowing the water from my freshly washed Town Car, I notice some brownish water coming from
under the drivers side mirror pivot mount !! WTF !! So I grab the mirror and pivot it backward toward the
drivers window. What a piss poor piece of engineering I found under there. The mirror mount bolt is supposed
to be plated with something slightly weatherproof, right? Guess our friends at FoMoCo decided this would be a
good place to save a few pennies, look what I found:
At the time I first looked in, it was soaking wet and the "well" there was partially filled with water. I have the same situation on the passenger
side however, the damage is just beginning, notice the water pool:
What the heck! This doesn't happen to any other vehicle, past or present. What kind of bone-heads designed this thing?
Well, what choice do we have? We love our Town Car's! Heck, we'll do just about anything for 'em.
So, let's go through what's needed to get this material flaw corrected.
First thing we need is some supplies, here's the list (metric fasteners):
* Two 6mm, 35mm long stainless steel bolts. The size is 6Mx1.0x35. Boat shop cost $0.65ea.
* Two or Four stainless steel washers. The size is 6mm x2mm. Boat shop cost $0.12ea.
* Some clear silicone sealer. One tube at the boat shop cost me $5.95.
(then when I got back to the garage I found I already had some)
Some notes regarding these supplies:
I thought I could run down to the local Home Depot, they didn't have what I was looking
for so I had to go to the Marine shop... no biggie, I do my shopping for boat parts there anyway.
I highly recommend this avenue 'cause they'll have it for sure.
You might already have a fastener distributor that you trust and carries what you need.
The 6mm washers in the bin were mixed 1.0mm and 1.5mm thick. I fished around the bin
and pulled out four of the 1.5mm thick ones. I grabbed four thinking I may want to put
two on each new bolt.
Ok, we've got our supplies, now let's get the proper tools:
* Ratchet handle, 3/8" (9.5~10mm) drive fits best.
* > 5" (>130mm) extension to be sure we don't scratch the mirror.
* 11mm socket.
* Shop towels (or equivalent).
* Compressed air is a plus for drying the area.
Now lets remove the old bolt:
* Pull the mirror back toward the drivers window. It will pivot on its base, exposing the defective bolt.
* Towel and/or air dry the entire area in an attempt to keep water from going under the bolt when removed.
* With your 11mm socket, extension, and ratchet wrench... remove the rusted, pile of crap FoMoCo bolt.
We may need to blow out any extra water that seeped below the bolt, but there shouldn't be any. Some
cleaning is now required. I didn't try anything harsh to remove the rust stains 'cause I didn't want to
harm my beautiful paint job. I cleaned the best I could with 409, Windex on a towel. If you come up with something that
works for you, great! Remember, there's now an exposed hole that goes into the door.
Here's some shots of the the mess that needs cleaning:
Ok, Now we're clean and dry. Let's install the new bolt and washers
* Prepare the new bolt with silicone sealer. This will prevent any further damage.
* Apply a thin bead of silicone sealer around the underside of the hex head.
* Add one flat washer to bolt, apply a bead of silicone sealer to underside of installed flat washer.
* [optional] Add another flat washer to bolt, apply a bead of silicone sealer to underside of installed flat washer.
** Note: The last flat washer installed should have it's entire underside coated with silcone sealer
so that it can seal against the oversized bore it will seat against.
* 18mm to 26mm (distance from the head) area on the new bolt is where it will thread into the door.
I felt it would be important to seal that area as well, to prevent further damage to the door.
* Install new SS bolt assembly and torque to factory specification. 8-10 N-m (71-88 lb-in).
The finished job will look like this, or better if you can get all the rust stains out:
Here's some other shot's that didn't add to the story line:
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Last Updated August 20, 2007
What the heck! This doesn't happen to any other vehicle, past or present. What kind of bone-heads designed this thing?
