Blend door actuator is broken. This causes a serious visibility hazard do to fog on the windows that could lead to personal injury.
1998 Lincoln Mark Viii visibility complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 24 of 24, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Blend door no heat or defrost only cold air. Dt
While driving down the road, because of the weather conditions, I noticed that the windshield was getting clouded over. Turned on my ha/c to defog the windshield but only cold air came out adding greatly to the windshield fogging. I was able to stop the car before running into opposite lanes of traffic since I couldn't see out the windshield. I got a cloth and wiped it clear to procede. Took to local dealer and was told that it was a common problem to these cars aswell as town cars in that the blend door actuator causes the door's arm to break in a set position. Thus if broke on hot setting you get only heated air- vice versa on a cold setting. It was an apparently poorly designed plastic item; however the charge to fix it with another similar arm would be over $500 because they have to take the dash off the car make the repair, though the part is lss than $35.00. I could not afford the repair at that time, so a technician showed me how to lay under the dash and manually pull the door to either hot or cold. Dt
The blend door actuator arm is a common failure on these cars. Due to their poor craftsmanship, they are almost guaranteed to fail eventually. Having no heat in the winter can be a serious safety issue. Not being able to defrost windows is the most obvious safety concern. This defect should be on a national recall. Dt
Air blend door malfunctions causing no heat to blow on windshield in cold weather will cause fogged up windshield also. Both conditions cause poor visibility. Dt
Rainy day/moist conditions/heat temp. Uncontrollable causing immediate strong "fog-up" of windshield at highway speed. Mr
Actuator fails, thus never allowing temperature to change in car. Windshield fogs up causing a safety hazard. Mr
The part failure is a cracked plastic arm actuator attached to the motor that controls the flow of air to the windshield defroster. When the part cracked, the blend door motor is not able to direct air to the windshield defroster. I had the part replaced by a local lincoln dealer (they had to remove the entire dash board to replace the blend door motor and arm - not sold separatly) this year. It is a very dangerous defect, and it occurs without warning. Mr
Windshield rearview mirror (electrochromic) vibrates on rough road surfaces -and- at freeway speeds. This imparts an extremely blurred image. The original mirror was replaced by the dealership, but the replacement exhibits this problem also.
Driver's door outside mirror failed. Does not refect anymore and you see double when looking at it. Electrochromatic feature of this mirror failed. Have seen many reports of this failure but most must have been replaced under warranty. This safety defect in these mirrors could cause an accident or serious injury since you cannot see once they fail.
The on-board computer indicates that the "drivers door is ajar". The sign does not go out when the door is opened and closed again. When door locks are depressed, they pop up again and the doors will not lock at all. The only operable setting of the heater blower motor is high fan/ the headlight assembly ballast is defective and the lowbeam setting is dim. It cannot be repaired by replacing the lamp.
Front mirror oxidized due to leaks in sealing. Yh
Exterior driver's side rearview mirror assembly failed. Mjs
Rear view mirror vibrates and causes blurred vision depending on road surfaces.
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