My wife's car, garage kept, low mileage well taken care of. The defroster grill came up on the driver's side, thought it might be a broken clip, no such luck. went to this site and see it is not an uncommon problem.
I thought I was buying a gem, the engine went and the dealers said it was a bad hose , the dashboard is in a mess. The manufacturers need to take some responsibility.
Lincoln has been consistent with horrible problems with this vehicle. It is terribly wrong that we as consumer's continue to be taken advantage of by the faulty workmanship by these manufactures. If this manufacture would accept responsibility for negative and faulty products it uses in its automobiles then we would appreciate what we have paid for a quailty car and name. When defects happen it is their responsibility to fix these problems, but we foot the bill to pay for these eloquent vehicles that they want nothing to do with you after the purchase. Stop avoiding the issues and fix our problems..
I have never heard of this happening to a car. With the name Lincoln on the vehicle I would never had expected this type of problem. I had to pay $2500.00 to fix the transimission a couple of years ago, I had to spend about $1500 to fix an area around the windshield that was rusting. Again with the Lincoln name I thought the quality would have been better.
- Elaine B.,
West Des Moines, IA, US
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A few months after my 3 year 36,000 ran out I noticed the center of dashboard started to buckle....the dealer shop foreman said it would cost about $5000 for a replacement. I asked in 2010 if there were any dash recalls he Said no but several times he had tried gluing and repairing this type problem to no avail. I was told the only solution was to replace. Who has $5000 to fix a car bought Brand new with zero miles on it??? This car is garage kept and never abused. I noticed last week the area on top of the clock and CD player ( that no longer works btw) is now buckled and starting to warp! Wth? Why haven't Lincoln recalled this dashboard? I am in my late 40's now and only driver of this car, it is only outside while I'm shopping or working.
At approx 55,000 miles the dash above the center console bulged upwards. The gap between the bottom center of the dash and the upper edge of the console was approx 1 inch. At approx 65,000 miles the right side of the defroster vent seemed to popped up from the dash. The cause was a warp in the front right center of the dash near the vent.
The dealer indicated replacement would be around $3,000. Otherwise, the car is in excellent condition with a significant hit to any resale value.
If I remember correctly, the Zephyr existed for a short time and was replaced by the MKZ (?) which had a longer model run. I wonder about the interchangeability of the two dashes or if the same dash was used in other cars. That is, could the problem in the Zephyr seem less significant than it really is?
My dad fitted a metal strip horizontally just above clock with screws that caught the dash and kept that part of it down. For the part of the dash that warped and lifted at the defroster I shoved two sand filled hand weights that I had used for a Zumba class as far forward as I could. One is on each side of the defroster vents. This keeps that part of the dash pressed down. Sometimes they work out and I have to shove them back.
Just purchased this vehicle for my daughter, at first thought the vent had popped out, but closer inspection shows pad has lost seal around vent and will not lay down and cannot put vent in place. Plan to try some adhesive with wedges to hold down while curing.
Pretty bad, I have a 1993 Lincoln in better shape.
Vent come off first, now dash warped where vent is, plus above radio causing foam to show. It makes driving a Lincoln an embarrassment!!!! Dash is expensive plus almost 7 hours labor, not sure what to do.
All the money I paid for this car and this happens? Lincoln is not such a top notch car anymore...hardly worth the money....If I have to put up with this and then if I want to replace it, it is gonna cost at least $1800 just for a dashboard plus the cost of the labor to install...ridiculous!
How shameful, especially if the defroster is the cause of the problem.
The dash near the defroster vent started lifting about a year ago and now is fully lifted to where the vent won't stay in place and the foam is visible. I don't know where to take my car to be fixed for an issue like this and it seems to be a common problem...
The defroster vent on the dash fell off because the Dashboard cover and foam pad warped. The auto is in excellent shape but now the vent cover is laying on the dash and you can see the foam sticking out. I tried to fix it but you have to replace the Dash. Not going to happen.
I was going to go and buy another Lincoln but after this happened I don't believe I will. I read on line that I am not the only person this happened to.
We had saved money all of our working lives in order to purchase the car of our dreams!!!! Specifically a Lincoln, one of the"best" brands in the world. But I was so wrong, the car's dash board started to lift, first from where the clock is and as months passed it lifted more and more and more. It looks like the freaking dashboard is hungry and it has its mouth open.
I took it to the Lincoln dealership and they had the balls to tell me that it was our fault it lifted ...I did not complained once, twice, three, four ,but five times and the same thing happen, I got no where. No one cares. The truth of the matter is that the quality of this car is very poor. I think that the idiots that put it together were stoned or drunk when they put it together, The Lincoln Zephyr is a piece of sh*t.
I am totally appalled that Lincoln has not recalled these vehicles with warped dashboards. It is a hazard, defroster is not operating properly due to the dashboard being warped. I would expect better quality merchandise in a so called luxury vehicle. This problem is also beginning to affect my instrumental panel, something needs to be seriously done!
FOR THE PRICE THAT THIS CAR IS BEING SOLD FOR, A PERSON SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO REPLACE THE DASHBOARD FOR THE VINYL SHRINKING. THIS CAR SHOULD BE MADE WITH A HIGHER QUALITY PRODUCT THAT WILL BE DURABLE AND NOT SHRINK. THIS PROBLEM IS NOT ONLY AN EYE SORE, BUT IT CAUSES ME TO NOT BE ABLE TO SEE OVER THE HOOD OF MY CAR.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
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We noticed the problem shortly after we bought the car. The dealer told us it was a common problem from heat, condensation.
- Michele P., Carlisle, PA, US