Question about Mark VIII Longevity

D

DeepBlue

Registered
Hi Guys,

Newbie here, but certainly not a newbie to Mark VIII's.

Owned a silver '98 Mark VIII LSC for about 6 years starting around '99. Sold it in 2005 :frown:. Which may be my biggest car related regret ever. Replaced with a 2005 Jeep GrandC LTD/Hemi same year ... which is my second biggest car regret ever.

Finally getting to a place where I may consider getting a "fun" car in near future and despite all the choices currently available, am oddly drawn back to Mark VIII's. I've looked around a bit recently, and it seems that picking up an almost pristine example for under or around 10k is quite doable.

Which leads me to my question, with the youngest examples being 20 years old at this point, how have they held up over the years? How is ongoing maintainability looking? Is service or spare parts availability a problem? Anything else related to keeping a Mark VIII running for the foreseeable future that I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Nobody answered this, mine is now 26 years old, has 77k miles on it and still drives great even after it sat for nearly a year before I bought it, covered in bird crap and dirt. I wonder if you bought one after this or not?
 
These cars are very reliable.if you are willing to work on them and track down extra parts they are also very economical to own.
 
Rp23g7 said:
I just bought my first, a 94, with 116,000, not much wrong. I did the suspension conversion and the oil filter adaptor gasket, drove one for the first time. What a great car.
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What brand shocks and struts sis you use, If you have part numbers that would help. Thanks
 
My 97 MK VIII just started knocking from the rear at low speed but is fine at traffic speed. I had the differential rebuilt with trac-loc posi and 3.73 gearing 8 years ago. I have not driven it much as I bought it in 2017 with 62K and today it has 67. The mechanics seem stymied with the IRS as they expected a solid axle.
 
On some lockers, a "clunk clunk clunk" as you make tight turns, is normal.. But after 8 years, if yours does that, you'd be comfortable with it by now. Other thoughts..

There are a few things back there that could be responsible, but the first that come to my mind are actually the upper shock mounts. They'll definitely "clunk" over bumps when the bushings wear out.

If your knocking is more "rotational" in nature, you're obviously looking at half-shafts, wheel bearings, etc.. You have very low miles on your car, so I'd be surprised to find a bad wheel bearing..

Hmm..
 
Jd1978 said:
My 97 MK VIII just started knocking from the rear at low speed but is fine at traffic speed. I had the differential rebuilt with trac-loc posi and 3.73 gearing 8 years ago. I have not driven it much as I bought it in 2017 with 62K and today it has 67. The mechanics seem stymied with the IRS as they expected a solid axle.
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I would add some fresh friction modifier to the rear differential to see if the noise goes away. You possibly may need to make room by draining some fluid or using a suction gun through the fill plug to remove enough fluid to make room for the additive.

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