My 1st 100 days owning a Marauder.

[320busdriver]

I decided to buy a Marauder recently. I wanted a daily driver that was different, big, comfortable and RWD. Its my 1st non GM car I have owned in 15+ years. My explorer purchase was a disaster and I swore off ford/merc for a while.

little history: black 300a with 93k. Formally a police chiefs car out of Tenesee.
Nitto 265' on the back. 245's on the front.Makes for an even nicer stance.
She is everything I want but a few issues I have noticed.

1. takes a long time to warm up on colder days. where is that damn 'stat anyway!

2. lurches very easily on accel. I don't really care but drives the wife nuts!!:mad2:

3. cruise and horn do not work. I searched forum but no help. Is there 1 thing that would affect both. I r/r relay 201 and checked all fuses..no help!

4. a/c and vent control cycles to defrost then back every so often. the blend door was just changed prior to purchase.

5. how do you get recirc air to blow aside from using max a/c? Pollen galore in Georgia this time of yr.

6. 2200 rpm at 70 mph seems a little high. normal??? or did someone r/r rear gear.

7. my mpg is only 17.5 ish 50/50 city highway driving. Guilty of being a bit of a lead foot. no hiway roadtrips yet. whats average for y'all?

8. came with CAI from previous owner. nice sound especially at higher revs.

9. Its quite fast once you get the revs up. see #7. :D

10. paint bubbling off the roof. WTF!!!

Like to hear y'alls opinion on these items. Also,what 1 thing would u do to improve performance. ie. best bang for buck. tune...gear swap..etc.

[ChiTownMaraud3r]

Some input,

1) T-Stat is under the motor unlike the SOHC which is right on top easily accessible.

2) :confused:

3) Not sure about cruise but horn should be simple swap behind the grille.

4) Blend doors suck on these cars, mines bad and have put it off.

5) Max AC is the only way to recirculate air, GM takes Ford on HVACs

6) That RPM sounds about right. You might have taller gears, 4.10s will increase by about 200rpms

7) My city MPG has always been low but I once achieved 27.5MPG on the hwy one tank after installing the mach 1 chin spoiler(may or may not have been related)

8) I love my JLT intake.

9) Nice pull from 4k RPM up.

10) My paint is also bubbling on the roof. Problems with curing I suspect **** paint job from Ford.

Tune, intake, gears are the best mods to begin with in that order as well. Have fun.

[Raleigh Marauder]

RPMs sound about right with stock gears. Also, 300a's had paint issues from the factory. Mine has never bubbled, but after 10 years, it's in need of a repaint

[Curless]

Your a/c / heat issues may be the EATC it needs the o-rings changed or the vac source under the hood has a broken line

Mileage is about right, I said the same thing and I will tell you the same thing I was told DEAL with it, you bought a performance car.

Horn and cruise, I'd verify that when you push the horn button that there is power going to the horn...if not then I would say the clockspring is bad in the column under the air bag. Is the airbag light on? The clockspring could affect all three of these.

As for the driveability, clean out your throttle body, I'd bet its carboned up and its sticking. Get a tune, Lidio, Marty O, Zack etc etc they all have great tunes that make this car run like a totally different beast...

[Limited360]

RPMs sound about right with stock gears. Also, 300a's had paint issues from the factory. Mine has never bubbled, but after 10 years, it's in need of a repaint

I've got one quarter sized spot that bothers me... Not bubbles but the typical clear cracking look to it...

I turn 2100-2200 in the 70mph range on stock gears.

Intake is an awesome addition!

For the surging I might just clean up the intake tract, throttle and such. Pretty sure there is a sticky here somewhere on that.


I always start with the cheap easy things to help diagnose it.

[Limited360]

Your a/c / heat issues may be the EATC it needs the o-rings changed or the vac source under the hood has a broken line

Mileage is about right, I said the same thing and I will tell you the same thing I was told DEAL with it, you bought a performance car.

Horn and cruise, I'd verify that when you push the horn button that there is power going to the horn...if not then I would say the clockspring is bad in the column under the air bag. Is the airbag light on? The clockspring could affect all three of these.

As for the driveability, clean out your throttle body, I'd bet its carboned up and its sticking. Get a tune, Lidio, Marty O, Zack etc etc they all have great tunes that make this car run like a totally different beast...


Beat me to the clock spring! I wasn't positive on these cars but I've had them go bad on multiple other cars and it can take out the whole wheel basically.

Any airbag lights on?

[Mr. Man]

I decided to buy a Marauder recently. I wanted a daily driver that was different, big, comfortable and RWD. Its my 1st non GM car I have owned in 15+ years. My explorer purchase was a disaster and I swore off ford/merc for a while.

little history: black 300a with 93k. Formally a police chiefs car out of Tennessee.
Nitto 265' on the back. 245's on the front.Makes for an even nicer stance.
She is everything I want but a few issues I have noticed.

1. takes a long time to warm up on colder days. where is that damn 'stat anyway!Could be a bad t-stat. If you pull it out put it in a boiling pot of water and see if it opens fully. If it is sluggish or doesn't open fully change it out.
Wouldn't hurt to change out the anti-freeze with new. Remember to burp the system to get all the air out

2. lurches very easily on accel. I don't really care but drives the wife nuts!!:mad2: May have a tune already. I take it you didn't get a hand held tuner when you bought the car? If you still have the phone # of the guy you bought it from might be worth a phone call to find out what mods the car has.

3. cruise and horn do not work. I searched forum but no help. Is there 1 thing that would affect both. I r/r relay 201 and checked all fuses..no help!
Not sure here but try the advice already given
4. a/c and vent control cycles to defrost then back every so often. the blend door was just changed prior to purchase.
The o-rings in the EATC have split. Need to be replace with some 7mm silicone ones.
5. how do you get recirc air to blow aside from using max a/c? Pollen galore in Georgia this time of yr. MM didn't come with a cabin filter so not sure what to do here.

6. 2200 rpm at 70 mph seems a little high. normal??? or did someone r/r rear gear.

7. my mpg is only 17.5 ish 50/50 city highway driving. Guilty of being a bit of a lead foot. no highway road trips yet. whats average for y'all? I get 20ish in mixed driving but my MM is mostly stock, which leads me to believe you may have some mods your not aware of....or a very heavy foot :D

8. came with CAI from previous owner. nice sound especially at higher revs. Filter needs an occasional cleaning and while you clean the filter clean the MAF with some MAF cleaner.

9. Its quite fast once you get the revs up. see #7. :DModular engines are cammers so they like to be above 3500rpm to shine.

10. paint bubbling off the roof. WTF!!! This was an issue from Ford. Common and not much you can do about it now. Repaint will be on you so depends how much it bugs you as to the final result

Like to hear y'alls opinion on these items. Also,what 1 thing would u do to improve performance. ie. best bang for buck. tune...gear swap..etc.
Like I said before I would try to find out what mods the car already has then go from there. Tune, gears, and CAI are usually the first mods.

[RF Overlord]

I'll just add my $0.02 by saying: ^^^what they said^^^.

Thermostat is in that "UFO"-looking thing in the radiator hoses in front of the power steering pump.

The "lurching" you feel may be the throttle plates sticking in the bores in the throttle body, causing you to have to bear down harder on the pedal. It's pretty common. Get some TB cleaner that says it's safe for coated throttle bodies and clean it all up. No need to remove the TB, just get everything you can see with small bits of rags and Q-tips.

As to the cruise and horn, you may have a bad clockspring.

Unless you have a maintenance history that indicates they've already been done, it would be a VERY good idea to change the fuel filter, PCV valve, and the ATF.

[L.Mark]

2. lurches very easily on accel. I don't really care but drives the wife nuts!!:mad2:


MIne has done this since I bought it...maybe the Throttle Postion Sensor...

[320busdriver]

WOW ...... great info and quick too. gotta learn what a EATC and clockspring are. I will be working hard on the car all week so I shall post what I find based on what has been posted so far.. anyway off to search forum for intel on clocks and eatc thingys!!!

[MyBlackBeasts]

1. takes a long time to warm up on colder days. where is that damn 'stat anyway!

This seems to be a characteristic of the 4.6.

Both my MM & F150 w/4.6 take 3 time the distance to reach full operating temp than my 3.8 Tbird (or any other car I've owned).

Sucks in the winter! :(

[justbob]

1. takes a long time to warm up on colder days. where is that damn 'stat anyway!

This seems to be a characteristic of the 4.6.

Both my MM & F150 w/4.6 take 3 time the distance to reach full operating temp than my 3.8 Tbird (or any other car I've owned).

Sucks in the winter! :(

I always thought the same. Takes long to cool off as well it seems. i noticed the iron block I put in warms up and cools off in half the time!


Self proclaimed Builder Of Badassery.

[320busdriver]

I called the previous owner. no tune installed. he said he averaged 20-21 combo driving so mpg is on me!!!! I cleaned out the intake and throttle body. lurch is gone. y'all hit that on the head.

I do not have power to horn or cruise module. Can someone tell me some relays to check other than 201 which i changed.

thanks for intel on warm up time. ill leave well enough alone on the stat. which i did find. odd location.

where are the orings for eatc? if i pull it out are they in back of it? i figured it would only be an eletrical plug behing it.

thanks again guys

[marauder mama]

The EATC o-rings are inside the unit, you have to take it apart to get to them.
But it's easy, I've done it!!

http://www.crownvic.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2438760

[320busdriver]

THANKS O rings on order from my ford buddy. ill have them next week.