Welcome to the Crown Vics ETC blog!

On April 6, 2000, I purchased a 1998 Ford Crown Victoria LX HPP with 23,490 miles. I decided to start a little website for it featuring a running log of my experiences with the car. Vic 1.0 was retired in 2015 due to rust and electrical issues. Vic 2.0 was a 2006 P71 in Blue Pearl that belonged to my boyfriend. It was a Ford demo and never saw actual police use. It was damaged in September of 2018 with well over 186,000 miles. It was replaced by Vic 3.0 in October 2018, a 2008 P71 in Silver Birch with 120,971 miles. To read posts prior to 2010, click a link at right, or go to Crown Vics, ETC.

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

UPDATE: Oil and Refrigerant

5/7/26

Vic's A/C had been acting strange.  I remembered that last year, it would take a while to kick in and blow cold.  This season, the few days so far that have been warm, it would take anywhere from 10-60 minutes to go blow cold!  Thing is, I didn't hear the compressor go on and off like usual when the refrigerant is low.  For kicks, because it was on clearance, I tried one of those DYI rechargers.  The built-in pressure gauge was pinned to the max.  Wellp, long story short, "Taxi Guy" is up from Florida for the season and working at a local repair shop, and they did an oil change and filled the refrigerant.   They told me if I notice it ever acting up again, to come back in since they used a UV dye to detect any leaks.  Next week it's supposed to get into the 80s, so it will get a good test!


5/13/26

Over the last month or so, I've caught a whiff of gas odor when parked in the driveway.  The other day, it seemed even stronger.  I didn't see any drips anywhere on the ground, and the filler-neck was also dry.  My boyfriend actually got under the car yesterday after I said "what about the fuel filter?".  Taxi Guy was able to replace it today.  He said he actually needed help removing the old filter without breaking anything, it was so stuck onto the fuel lines!  He thinks it may very well be ORIGINAL... Should be interesting watching for any changed in fuel mileage and acceleration.