beautiful 97 Lincoln Continental transmission DESTROYED

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luxurypranks
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Nov 18, 2017 10:15 am

beautiful 97 Lincoln Continental transmission DESTROYED

Unread post by luxurypranks » Sat Nov 18, 2017 11:07 am

My car has been having alternator problems, and I've fixed it for the third time. First time I had a friend do it, second time I brought it to a monro muffler for a warranty, then when I brought it to another monro muffler recently they still charged me for service as I didn't buy the part from them originally. I upgraded to a Duralast Gold to replace the Duralast alternator that had failed after being replaced for the second time.

I'm at school away from home and my alternator went for the third time. I was busy, so I let the car sit in a parking lot from the beginning of October when it was warm, to mid November when it got to around freezing (not continuously freezing, but this is the first cold weather I've had with the car.

I had a lot of AAA towing miles left as I'm the only one in my family who drives a non-leased car. When the truck driver came with the flatbed, the car started up and ran since there was still juice left in the battery. The truck driver was able to drive it up on to his flatbed, but he hit the bed HARD on my long wheel base car when he was driving it up his flat bed. It did not make a nice noise. I'm talking you could see the bottom of the car flexing a fairly decent amount. He had to give it a lot of gas when it got stuck. I'm pretty sure the car's supposed to be towed on a dolly now, or a longer bed. This is where I think it may have happened, but I was not there for when they got the car off the bed.

So in order for the tow truck driver to get the car up on the truck, he would have had to give it power and would have said something if the gears were slipping.

When I got the car back from being fixed, the guy at the shop called me up and said the transmission had a minor problem. When I get there, he tells me it only goes in reverse and you have to give it power to move it. I don't know why I paid before I inspected the car, I guess you're supposed to trust people you're already paying hundreds of dollars to for a simple alternator job.

The second time I had it towed, after I got to the shop, AAA called a driver with a much longer bed that was much less steep, and the car wouldn't go up in the gear it's stuck in. It had to be dragged on, opposed to when the guy just drove it up on the bed the first time.

If someone could point me to some possible liability laws in NY on the tow truck drivers part or the shop's part, let me know.


I played with the transmission a bit to try and figure out what's wrong; had to get some details even though it would most likely damage it more. I don't care about damaging it more since the car's worth, at max, was $2000 when the transmission was good. I also don't really need a car.

[b]The progression of the problem:[/b]
When I first picked it up, it would only go in reverse. When it was in Drive, you could floor it and it wouldn't hit the rev limiter and it wouldn't move.

I drove it downhill for a 1/2 mile away from the shop. Then it got weirder. I was sitting in a parking lot moping that my beautiful classic luxury American automobile was destroyed. I got frustrated and floored it about 4/5 the way to the red line in drive when it wouldn't go forward. It lurched in to gear and would finally start going in 2nd, and it wouldn't shift when it should, only stayed in 2nd. At this point, it would no longer go in reverse.

I got the car towed back to my school. I drove it to the liquor store 2 miles from my school because it was a Friday night and I wanted to show how badly my car was messed up to my friend. I was trying the reverse again to get out of the lot when it kicked back in. A new situation arose: I could go in reverse, but I could also shift the car in to 2nd. It would stay in 2nd until it felt it was supposed to shift, when the gears would slip and I'd lose power. I had to keep it under 2500 rpm to prevent it from attempting to shift and slipping.


I bought this car from the son of a 95 year old ex-cop who probably died in it. My parents knew the old guy, and he most definitely babied the car. It only has 107k miles on it and there has been regular maintenance with only synthetic oil. My car NEVER had a transmission problem for the 1000 miles I've driven it. I drove it across NY from Buffalo to NYC.

The car is in beautiful condition. There is only minimal rust. With the care and preventative maintenance I had taken with the car, it would have lasted me to 300k; these old 4.6l v8's are built like tank engines.

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carriedi
Posts: 2573
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:42 pm

Re: beautiful 97 Lincoln Continental transmission DESTROYED

Unread post by carriedi » Sat Nov 18, 2017 6:04 pm

not sure what you are looking for but if it for legal advice you should contact a lawyer. Automotive advice, I would say it would be hard to blame the tow truck driver unless there is visible damage to the transmission that you can contribute to the tow. The skid plate is exactly that, a skid plate. It is made to protect the part of the car that it is underneath of. (the oil pan or trans pan)

what does your transmission fluid look like and smell like? How is the fluid level?

Have you looked at a used trans if yours needs to be replaced?
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