Had beautiful weather here today, so I did some stuff that's been piling up. First, I cleaned up that ugly piece of tape over the VIN on the strut tower.



Then I painted the ignition coil cover and polished up the valve cover again.



And painted the computer cover too.



Installed the MRZ door sills.



Then I looked into my dash following the replacement of my heater core last week. Nothing went back together straight. So I started taking panels off to look for problems. And HOLY **** did I find them. I was appalled. EVERY electrical harness was just stuffed up behind the dash and not clipped to the frame like its supposed to. Then I found out why the dash wasn't sitting right.



There are two of these bolts at the top of the dash near the windshield. This is one of them. Both where missing. Not even there! They are the PRIMARY support for the entire dash frame.

In removing the passenger air bag, I found the wiring was pinched under the mounting bracket. Its destroyed. So that's gonna be replaced.



Here is a pic of the top of the dash with the panel removed. Lots of room for gauges.

 

Holly crap, you really tore that interior apart.

 

I had to find out what all they screwed up. It actually comes apart fairly easy.

 

You would think that when the dealer is supposed to fix the car they would do it right. At least you found what was wrong and are correcting their laziness and lack of care. Good luck.

 

Sweet...I wondered what it looked like under the dash...do a how-to on taking it apart if ya get a chance!

 

love the valve cover,I'll be sending you mine.LOL

 

That's why I have a kick azz tech that I stick to at one particular dealership out my way..

 

The valve cover looks amazing... I was thinking about just painting the whole thing red, but now I wanna do what you did.

I wanted to take off that piece of tape on the strut tower for a long time... I started peeling it off, but it took some of the number off with it so I stopped. Does it matter if some/all of the number is removed?

 

I have actually had a polished valve cover for a while now. My car is a daily driver however, so the winter stained it badly. I just cleaned it up again.

I learned that painting the ignition coil cover is pretty easy. That cover actually comes off of the coil pack itself, making it a very easy part to paint.

You can't remove the numbers from the strut tower. They are engraved into the steel. You will probably leave behind the adhesive residue from the tape. Goo Gone baby.

As for having one dealer, one tech, I have always done that as well. That's why I was surprised to see how bad of a job he did. I'm going in right now actually.

 

I just fineshed a heater core at my work on a band new Lincoln MKZ, let me tell you what a pain in the ass, and of coarse since this car is brand new, i was the first person to take the dash apart, I coulndnt ask for any tips or tricks. But in the end everything went back and didnt have any major problems.

 

Got any Tips for pulling it apart, Clips? Screws?

 

It's actually very obvious as you work. Once you remove the coil pack, you will need a torx bit driver set. The ignition module and cover are held to the pack with Torx screws. The only thing in painting the cover is one of the screw holes has a grounding plate in it that you need to mask off. Again, it's very obvious when you see it.

 

in this pic, what is the distance from the vents to the vent tube..?? 4 or 5 inches..?

 

Probably about that. The duct comes straight up from behind the radio and turns over top of it.

 

WOW! Looks like fun.

 

Thanks, that what I thought from your pic.

 

Getting ideas Doc?

 

I took this one today. Bad light and crappy cell phone, sorry. This is the dealership taking my car back apart to fix all the problems from the first time. Yes, that is my steering column laying on the floor.

 

oh yea...I sure am.

 

hmmm......