Bought Marauder today - lots of general questions...

[Ozz]

Greetings,
I completed the purchase of a 2003 MM today (VIN 2MEHM75V03X630559) and have some general questions. I appologise in advance if I am 'beating a dead horse' but I don't have a lot of time to do a detailed search of every issue and am hoping that an expert can just throw out some answers off the top of their head.

I have looked at some of the threads in the Garage section and it looks like rear gears, CAI, custom tune (chip), and intake spacers all help with power.
Is a CAI worth it or does a simple K&N panel filter perform as well?
What is the best mod for a daily driver in your opinion?

I do not have traction control and would like to get snow tires soon. What do you do for snow tires and wheels? I plan to get one size snow tire and would prefer to not effect the speedometer if I can avoid it.. Does the larger rear tire size fit in the front wheel wells or do I need to get two different sizes of snow tires also?

My car does not have the rear spoiler. Has anyone added one? Is it a bolt on or did they use adhesive at the factory. Is there any place to get one (preferrably painted) other than the dealership?

Finally, a real simple one... I see '300A' on a lot of things in here.... is that just the general code for Marauder? It's on my window sticker and I wondered...

THANKS!

[CBT]

What color is it?

[CBT]

Oh yeah, and welcome aboard!

[RoyLPita]

Welcome aboard.

As for your questions, I might have the answers to some. A majority of our group members in my area (south Florida) have the K&N setup. The K&N drop filter will work too but without any real effect. The rear factory spoiler is of a bolt on and adhesive type. Holes will need to drilled into your trunk for this. As for snow tires, look around the site for threads on sizes and wheel types. Judging by your VIN # yours is a 300A the package for your MM. Yours consists of a full size spare tire (not chromed and with a front sized tire), front seat cushion map pockets (for artillery and the like), locking gas door, stand alone clock, and auto e-brake releaase (when shofter is placed in Drive). There are some MMs out there that don't have the full size spare but have traction control. Those are called "Pre-decontented" 300Bs. True 300Bs take away all of what is mentioned above in favor of traction contol.

Enjoy the site.

[Bluerauder]

Finally, a real simple one... I see '300A' on a lot of things in here.... is that just the general code for Marauder? It's on my window sticker and I wondered...
Welcome :welcome: to the MM.Net, Ozz !!! :D You came to the right place for answers to your questions.

The 2003 Marauders had two variations. Early '03s came with a full sized spare, map pockets in the seats, remote fuel door release, and separate in-dash clock. Those models are known as 300A's. Traction control was added in the later 2003 runs and those items were deleted (or as called here "decontented") in the 300B's. In 2004, there was only a single variant so they are known as 300As; even though they are outfitted like the 300Bs from 2003. :rolleyes: There are a few "transition" models that seem to have some mix of 300A and 300B features.

"The Dealer" located here on the MM.Net can probably give you a good idea of pricing on a factory spoiler. Suggest a PM to him. A couple folks have gone to other suppliers for spoilers. Personally, I like the one that "Cruztaker" put on his MM with the integral LED taillights/highlight. :D

I will let others answer your other questions .....

[Ozz]

Yes, it is a very early 2003 car so it is black. The PO said she couldn't get the sunroof, traction control, or heated seats...

I prefer the look with the spoiler but I may take some time to 'get used' to the car before I go that way.

Thanks for the replies.

[DEFYANT]

Welcome, you are now part of the collective. The search button is your friend. Have fun with it.

[RF Overlord]

it looks like rear gears, CAI, custom tune (chip), and intake spacers all help with power. What is the best mod for a daily driver in your opinion? In this order:
1.) Custom tune from one of the excellent vendors on this site.
2.) 4.10 gears
3.) Underdrive pulleys
4.) PHP spacer
5.) CAI

Is a CAI worth it or does a simple K&N panel filter perform as well?At the risk of starting another K&N war, while their FIPK has been proven to add some HP (and bling), the simple drop-in panel filter does little or nothing. IMHO. We have a couple of other vendors that produce their own CAIs that also provide an improvement over the stock airbox, so you have some choices there.

Oh, yeah...welcome to the collective. :)

[Big House]

Welcome to the club. Resist at all costs the modification bug. That firat bite is really infectious. It spreads to the brain really fast and distorts all thinking into how you can spend every extra dine on your new found friend, (Mistress to some of us)


Big House

[423REED]

Greetings,
I completed the purchase of a 2003 MM today (VIN 2MEHM75V03X630559) and have some general questions. I appologise in advance if I am 'beating a dead horse' but I don't have a lot of time to do a detailed search of every issue and am hoping that an expert can just throw out some answers off the top of their head.

I have looked at some of the threads in the Garage section and it looks like rear gears, CAI, custom tune (chip), and intake spacers all help with power.
Is a CAI worth it or does a simple K&N panel filter perform as well?
What is the best mod for a daily driver in your opinion?

I do not have traction control and would like to get snow tires soon. What do you do for snow tires and wheels? I plan to get one size snow tire and would prefer to not effect the speedometer if I can avoid it.. Does the larger rear tire size fit in the front wheel wells or do I need to get two different sizes of snow tires also?

My car does not have the rear spoiler. Has anyone added one? Is it a bolt on or did they use adhesive at the factory. Is there any place to get one (preferrably painted) other than the dealership?

Finally, a real simple one... I see '300A' on a lot of things in here.... is that just the general code for Marauder? It's on my window sticker and I wondered...

THANKS!
Hi Ozz!
Welcome to the world of Marauders. I just had my rear decklid spoiler installed last week wednesday. The dealer (Elmhurst Lincoln-Mercury) ordered the primered spoiler kit (they come in primered, pre-painted Dark Pearl Blue, and pre-painted Black). The total cost was $ 480.00 lot installed. My Marauder is Dark Toreador Red, otherwise known as 'DTR'. I like it, and it looks really cool. It makes a small sporty statement, plus it is one more OEM item that helps to differentiate my Marauder from a Grand Marquis. Enjoy your new Marauder, I sure enjoy mine!
Jim
___________________________
2004 MARAUDER 300A - DTR
**** BORN 04/19/04
1994 TAURUS SHO - DK GREEN

[gpfarrell]

In this order:
1.) Custom tune from one of the excellent vendors on this site.
2.) 4.10 gears
3.) Underdrive pulleys
4.) PHP spacer
5.) CAI
At the risk of starting another K&N war, while their FIPK has been proven to add some HP (and bling), the simple drop-in panel filter does little or nothing. IMHO. We have a couple of other vendors that produce their own CAIs that also provide an improvement over the stock airbox, so you have some choices there.

Oh, yeah...welcome to the collective. :)

I'll second the motion on those mods... just did the custom tune 2 weeks ago and I love it... I think I'll bypass steps 2-5 though, and just keep puttin' my pennies in a pile until I can get me a hooper-charger. Step 1 though, and perhaps Step 2... seem almost mandatory. I haven't tried Step 2 yet, but please-oh-please don't anybody make me go back to the stock tune.

Btw, you'll still have to search. Slow down a bit and enjoy the car; we all like things a bit different, and what you like in a snowtire might not be what I like, so you'll really get the best answers by searching.

Cheers,
G

[DEFYANT]

Welcome to the club. Resist at all costs the modification bug. That firat bite is really infectious. It spreads to the brain really fast and distorts all thinking into how you can spend every extra dine on your new found friend, (Mistress to some of us)


Big House
Too late BH, the bug bites when you buy the car. If I may sum it up:

"Resistance is futile"


We are Mercury Marauder.Net.
Lower your shields, and surrender yourself.
You will add our technological
distinctiveness to your own.
Our culture will consume and service yours.
Resistance is futile.



Freedom is to modify is yours;
Options to modify are limitless;
You must comply.


Total horsepower is irrelevant.
Chioce of power adder is irrelevant.
Your defensive capabilities
are unable to withstand us.


Resistance is futile.
Your Marauder, as it has been, will never be the same.
From this time forward, you will relentlessly modify your Marauder.

[maraudernkc]

If you plan on supercharging down the road than I would go with the 4:10 gears and a handheld tuner right now. They won't set you back too much. If a blower is not in your sites go for an upgraded exhaust system.

[RF Overlord]

If a blower is not in your sites go for an upgraded exhaust system.Greg, I would think that an upgraded exhaust would be beneficial both with and without a blower...? I've heard that a freer-flowing exhaust will actually make a bigger improvement on a blower motor, no?

[ckadiddle]

Welcome to the site! These folks are a great community to belong to.

[MERCMAN]

I disagree with the gears for a daily driver. Gears only give you more low end grunt. I have done exhaust, programming, stat, plugs,U/D. If you like to have the power off the line gears are a must do. You will sacrifice mileage and if you decide to put in a Trilogy S/C in the future, you will have plenty of low end torque without giving up top end speed

Just one mans opinion I could be wrong,your results may vary, residency requirements , side effects may occur above 150MPH:up:

[RF Overlord]

I disagree with the gears for a daily driver. Dan, I respectfully disagree with your disagreement... :P :D When we put the exhaust and gears in the Blackbird, our net mileage only dropped by about 1 MPG...we lost some on the highway, but gained almost as much around town due to not having to "put my foot in it" as much to launch the car. So unless one does a large majority of driving on the highway, the gears are *almost* a wash. IMHO. YMMV. etc.

[MERCMAN]

but would you have installed gears if you had known you were going to S/C?

[RF Overlord]

That's a good question...since we originally had little thought of installing an S/C, doing the 4.10s was a no-brainer. But if we had planned on a blower from the start, I would have aksed for opinions and gone from there...if I HAD to guess, I would say I might have held off installing the gears until after the blower went in and decided at that point whether the gears would make enough of an improvement. :dunno:

[Big House]

YES...It cannot be said better.




Too late BH, the bug bites when you buy the car. If I may sum it up:

"Resistance is futile"




We are Mercury Marauder.Net.

Lower your shields, and surrender yourself.
You will add our technological
distinctiveness to your own.
Our culture will consume and service yours.
Resistance is futile.








Freedom is to modify is yours;

Options to modify are limitless;
You must comply.







Total horsepower is irrelevant.

Chioce of power adder is irrelevant.
Your defensive capabilities
are unable to withstand us.







Resistance is futile.

Your Marauder, as it has been, will never be the same.
From this time forward, you will relentlessly modify your Marauder.

[MaLo03]

Welcome.......................

[DEFYANT]

Well. as you can see, there is general disagreement on which mod comes first. Sorta like the chicken and the egg. "Which came first"?

"Freedom to modify is yours"

[1stMerc]

Too late BH, the bug bites when you buy the car. If I may sum it up:

"Resistance is futile"




We are Mercury Marauder.Net.

Lower your shields, and surrender yourself.
You will add our technological
distinctiveness to your own.
Our culture will consume and service yours.
Resistance is futile.








Freedom is to modify is yours;

Options to modify are limitless;
You must comply.







Total horsepower is irrelevant.

Chioce of power adder is irrelevant.
Your defensive capabilities
are unable to withstand us.







Resistance is futile.

Your Marauder, as it has been, will never be the same.
From this time forward, you will relentlessly modify your Marauder.

The mod bug bites you when you first hit this site and see all the goodies. If you can convince yourself you are happy with the tranny then you might be able to resist "The Mod Bug" although very unlikely.

Welcome to the COLLECTIVE Ozz, the DARKSIDE awaits:banana:

[jgc61sr2002]

Ozz - Welcome to the MM site. :welcome: You came to the right place. :D Enjoy your new ride.

[04funmerc]

Welcome and enjoy yur MM. The hardes't thing is waiting for the piggy bank to fill ao you can MOD. and I fully agree on what ^^^THEY SAId^^^ Chip First.
and make a long range plan.. N/A or SC and go from there, Just don't rush into the mods.

JIM

[Ozz]

Thanks for all the replies.
Since this is a daily driver (and my wife will be driving it as well) I plan to keep it NA. I have a couple of Mustangs (a '91 GT Convertible with 300 hp at the wheels NA, and a '69 Fastback with a recently rebuilt, warmed up 302) that I have poured money into over the last few years and use to help keep the mod 'sickness' at bay. :help: They are pretty much done but I am still thinking basic bolt bolt ons and a tune for the MM... The MM replaces a Dodge Dakota 5.9 R/T - it stayed stock except for headers, K&N and a chip (for awhile) so it maintained good street maners and got a little better mileage than normal.

Looks like gears, chip, CAI, intake spacer are the things to do... in no particular order.

[CRUZTAKER]

Where is Ozz from.....?

:welcome:

[Ozz]

Plymouth, Michigan (1/2 way between Detroit and Ann Arbor)

[BillyGman]

Thanks for all the replies.
Since this is a daily driver (and my wife will be driving it as well) I plan to keep it NA. Hey Ozz, it's your car and all, and whatever you want to do to it is fine by me since it is your car. But just so you know, my Marauder is my daily driver, and it's also my only car. This thing gets driven in the snow too, and I have the Trilogy supercharger on it now for the past 20,000 miles ( the car has 31,000 total) and it's perfectly tame, reliable, and just as driveable in heavy traffic as it ever was. Because of the bypass valve in the supercharger unit, the boost pressure doesn't kick in until just before the half throttle position. So it's only when you get to about the half throttle position that the beast from within begins to take over, and even then it's a smooth transition, and it only gets real hairy when you hit full throttle. So don't rule it out my friend. I really do wish that the Trilogy supercharger was my first modification, because had it been, it might very well have been my last one.

To answer your question about the snow tires, many of us (myself included) have purchased the 16" Michelin Arctic Alpine snow tires, and they work good on all four corners, but for some reason Michelin has discontinued them. Therefore I recommend the Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50 tires. I think that the P235/65/16" ones will be the best for you on all four corners along with the 16" slotted black steel wheels that are available since you probably wouldn't want to use your polished mags in the snow, and there aren't any 18" black steel rims available. And you can use these tires on all four corners with no problems.

The Blizzak WS-50 tires in the size I've mentioned above are very close to the same outside diameter as our factory stock 18" tires are, so they would be perfect for you, and I've heard many people say that the Blizzaks are excellent in the snow. Just make sure that you get the "WS-50" ones since they're the all-out full time snow tires, so they will be better in the snow than the other Blizzak models. the P235/65/16 size has an outer diameter of exactly 28.0", while our stock rear tires are 28.4", so that's very close. And since I've used the back tire size on the front of my Marauder, I know that as long as you do not have traction control, having the same size on all four corners will be fine, and that it doesn't effect the ABS.

here's a link to the snow tires that I'm talking about........

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Compare1.jsp?performance=W&width=235%2F&ratio=65&diameter=16&x=10&y=11