Where there’s no part to spare
The seagulls in Marina del Rey conducted bombing practice for more than two months recently on Ted Field Sr.’s Lincoln Mark VIII.
Nowadays, the once regal silver coupe is a pitiful sight and not terribly useful for getting around town either.
It has been parked since winter because Field has been unable to find something called a variable load control module, better known as a black box.
Ford stopped making the part for the 1996 vehicle, saying the part is obsolete. That in turn has made the car, which has only 66,000 miles, obsolete.
The story of the Mark VIII involves many of the perils of an auto industry that is dramatically changing, as the number of models offered to consumers mushrooms and as cars become packed with modern electronics.
It is often said that cars have become computers on wheels. That sounds cool until you think about how difficult it is to keep a home computer running for a decade, replacement parts and software so difficult to obtain as the years pass. And the explosion of vehicle models has forced dealerships to stock more parts than ever before.
The module in Field’s Mark VIII controls the cooling fan and the fuel pump through an eight-pin connector into the car’s wiring harness. For whatever reason, the failure has affected only the cooling fan and not the fuel pump.
One day, the car overheated and blew out the radiator. Field put a new $650 radiator into the car. Then mechanics discovered the cooling fan wasn’t turning on as the car heated up.
The problem wasn’t the heat sensor or the fan itself, but rather the module that switches on the fan. A quick check with the parts department at a Ford dealership turned up an empty bin. The mechanics plugged into Ford’s national parts network, which can find parts at any warehouse or any dealership. Not a single module could be found.
When I heard about Field’s problem from his son, Ted Field Jr., I called Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., and asked about the company’s policy on stocking parts.
“It depends,” Ford spokesman Dan Jarvis said.
In some cases, Ford supplies parts for many years or even decades. But in other cases, the company reserves the right to stop supplying parts as soon as the warranty expires.
“There is no specific law that says how long manufacturers have to stock any part, let alone a key part like a control module or a safety part like a seat belt,” said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety in Washington, D.C. “It is a real consumer abuse.”
Field, 88, who has owned Marks almost since Lincoln introduced them, agrees.
“I am so disappointed with that darn thing,” said Field, who spent a career designing and producing Mickey Mouse hats for Disney. “That doesn’t seem right you have to throw the car away. That doesn’t make sense.”
Jarvis said the supply of parts depends on demand and in the case of the Mark VIII, demand hasn’t been great. At one time, the Mark VIII design, that of a full-size two-door coupe, was a rage. You could find massive Pontiacs, Chryslers and Mercuries with two doors. But the style is all but passe.
When The Times inquired about the part, Jarvis said Ford would see if it could find the part. But the company’s top parts people scoured the country and couldn’t locate a single module.
Field and his son have looked at local junkyards and contacted networks with hundreds of junkyards around the country. Somebody must have a module, Field thought. But no luck.
At one point, they asked mechanics if they could hot-wire the fan, so it would run constantly whenever the engine was on. At first, the mechanics agreed that would solve the problem. But after further consideration, they declined because of the potential liability for jury-rigging the cooling system.
Field’s sorry story might be part of a growing trend. To say the least, the auto parts industry is complicated.
Auto makers are being forced to stock a rapidly growing number of parts, which is a costly headache. There are many more models, even though companies are seeking more interchangeability for parts.
The aftermarket parts industry often takes over supplying many parts for cars, such as brakes, water pumps, filters and other high-wear items. Since the car makers do not give away their blueprints, the aftermarket industry has to reverse-engineer the parts.
That’s hard enough for something like an axle or steering rack. Electronics, particularly controllers, are a lot tougher. So, the original manufacturer is often the only source. The electronics industry, meanwhile, doesn’t want to make parts that were designed 10 years ago. Its product cycles are measured in months, not decades.
All of this is creating a greater potential than ever for cars to have a limited shelf life, no matter how few miles are on the odometer. That’s ironic, since cars are also lasting longer; Field’s Mark VIII has a lot of useful life left.
On a recent Sunday morning, the car was carefully driven back to Field’s house from the marina parking lot. He figures he’ll donate the car, if he can find a charity to accept it. His son recently persuaded him to buy his first non-Ford vehicle, a Lexus ES330.
“It has too many gadgets on it,” Field said. “But it’s a damn good car.”
