April 17, 2018 – Be your own Powder Puff Mechanic - or

How to stop a water leak in a Lincoln Towncar coming in through the air intake vent making your passenger floorboards wet.

         Yes, ladies out there, you too can become your own Powder Puff Mechanic.  For a few years, I have had this mysterious leak in my Lincoln Towncar.  Sometimes when it rains, I don’t get a drop, other times, I have to sop it up with a beach towel and then air the car out for days.

         On more than one occasion we have taken it to a garage and they have “supposedly” blown out some sort of vent or drainage tubes. Within a few rains I don’t see that they have done anything other than take my money and shove it in their pockets with a big smile.  I often have to revert to the beach towel soak up treatment or take an old shower curtain and toss it over the car and hold it down with magnets when I am expecting rain. [Poor little me doesn’t own a garage.]

         Last month I took it down to the Lincoln Dealership in a nearby city and left it overnight for them to fix it. The “water leak” man comes every few weeks, and I had made the appointment. They said they would call with an estimate.  When they called, they wanted between $2,600 to $2,800 to fix the leak. They thought it was a “whatever” leak and said they would need to pull the dashboard out.  I quickly said, “No thank you.”  I think they were shocked when I said no, and I immediately thought – they just want me to buy a new car – for that sort of ridiculous price.

         That afternoon I searched the web and found half a dozen you tube videos showing the process of how to fix it.  This is a common situation with the Lincoln Towncars.

Look at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct8iNfEl2DI

It is one of many videos out there showing how the average mortal – or even a woman - can open up the hood of her car, take out the windshield grill, then the next plastic piece to get down into the car within a matter of minutes. 

I counted two screws for the grill, which were no longer there – must have been that dealership thinking they were going to make an easy $2,600 on me. Then two 5/8^th nut top screws and four 3/16 nut top screws to take the second piece of plastic off the air intake.  My husband was a dear and located the proper tools – they are called socket wrench screwdrivers  – pictured below.  When you have the right tools – everything is easier.

My rubber gasket had also disintegrated just like the video.  As instructed by the video, I took a putty knife and scraped the rest of it off; then took a razor blade scraper to get the residue off. I wiped it down with a paper towel and some rubbing alcohol. I had a copper scrubber pad, but didn’t need it. I did the same to the intake area – cleaned it up ready for the next step.

I obtained the rubber gasket suggested in the video and made a new gasket. You only need scissors for that and a gentle touch – measure before you cut – adding an inch and then when you get closer to getting to where it connects – you cut it exactly to meet.

Then basically, put it all back together in reverse order and screw them in with the socket wrench screw driver. Voilà, you are done.

Let me give you my very own Power Puff tip – be sure you are wearing pants with pockets which are easily accessible.  When you screw off the large bolts, put them immediately in one pant pocket and when you screw off the smaller ones, put them in the opposite pocket.  When you need to put them back on, you know exactly where they are – they are not lost, they are not on the engine, they have not fallen on the ground.  “Capisce?”

Now, let us see if it fixed the issue.  I can now dream of how I am going to spend that $2,600 on something – new wardrobe, trip to France. . . oh yeah, I didn’t have the $2,600 so I did it myself.  Also, I didn’t break any fingernails and my hands are actually clean enough I could fingertip a hoagie sandwich and not wince eating it.

My total cost $8.97 for the rubber gasket stuff, and time – less than an hour actually under the hood.  It took me longer to assemble the tools and put them back.

Hubby did help. He made me lunch before I started, he tried to talk me out of doing it. He then acquiesced and found the tools when I started to dig in his toolbox.  There must be something secret in there; he wanted me out of it immediately.  He dug out the right tools.  He also was an extra set of hands to pressure the plastic back where it was supposed to be so that I could get the nut top screws in. That was a good thing.

In the end when the job was done, I asked him to shut the hood.  He smiled and called me "my powder puff mechanic".

Moral of the story – if I can do it – so can you.