Time for some midlife TLC

[Paragongx]

Good evening all. I've been lurking around for a while on the site, finding some good info on the few problems we've had with my wife's bonnie. Now as it's nearing midlife, it's time for a little...OK maybe a bit more than a little...time in the shop (our garage). I've got the following on the books for it: Strut replacement, sway bar link and bushing replacment, maybe a wheel bearing replacement (gotta do a bit more investigative work on that one), probably some new brakes (everything will be apart might as well), lower intake manifold gasket replacement, new plugs & wires, supercharger re-build, new motor mount (will probably stick with original style) and intermediate steering shaft replacement. That's what I've got figured out so far. Any input, advice, recomendations on other items I should look into on an 8 year old vehicle with 85,000 miles on it? I'd like to do as much stuff at one time as I can so if you have any advice on other things to check at this point in it's life please let me know. This looks to be a very friendly, helpful site. Hopefully I can chime in here and there on topics I'm familiar with (which right now are kind of few as the bonnie thus far has been a pretty easy car to live with). Thanks in advance for your help.

[Archon]

Transmission and filter change, if it hasn't been done recently.

[00Beast]

Looks like a good list, and I agree with Archon. You can probably get away with greasing the ISS, instead of replacing it. Look in Techinfo for write ups of the various things you will be tackling. I know brakes is in detail for 00+, the LIM gasket write-up is a good outline, but different for an 00+ SSEi, obviously, ISS replacement is shown in detail, as well as the procedure for transmission pan drop and filter change. Lots of good information here, if you look in the right places.

[Paragongx]

That's what was missing from the list. I had the bonnie in the shop for a new tranny PCS and I thought they'd do the filter and fluid change but when I went to pick it up they told me they did their tranny flush procedure and that doesn't require dropping the trans pan so they felt no need to change the filter. Didn't make me really happy but we needed the car back so I took it and figured I'd do it myself later. Maybe whilst I'm down there I'll put a shift kit in too. Gotta love maintenance on older cars. I'm ok with it though kinda enjoyable, especillay when everything goes right.

[Mark Fahey]

It would be very unusual for the supercharger to need anything more than an oil change and possibly a new coupler so you might be able to cut down your list a bit.
When your doing the strut replacement, will you be doing the mounts and bearings at the same time?

[Paragongx]

Yeah new mounts all around, new bearings and spring seats on the front as well. If I've got something that far apart, I figure I might as well replace what I can and possibly save myself from having to do it all over again sometime in the future just cause I wanted to save a couple bucks. I've had plenty of issues in the past, before I started doing most of the work myself, with having to have a mount or bearing replaced after I just got new struts 6 months ago. "If they were gonna go bad that soon, why didn't you just tell me they needed to be replaced 6 months ago? Now I have to give you another $500 to have something changed that would have cost me $50.00 had you replaced it before?" Lessons learned from my younger, dumber Mercury Mistake...I mean Mystique days. I shouldn't call it that, she's got over 200,000 hard miles on her. I push my cars but I try my best to take care of them as well. The only reason I was gonna change out the bearings on the SC was because I was gonna replace the coupler and I figured I might as well replace...why am I repeating myself...see above statement. Thanks

[sonoma_zr2]

the sc coupler is a good bet at that mileage, but I wouldn't mess with the bearings. they generally don't go out. I have almost 350K on mine and my coupler is just starting to chatter. the couple can be done on the engine easily, but everything is easier off.

you can test the coupler by grabing the sc pulley and turning it back and forth quickly. as in 1/4 in to the right and then to the left and repeat. if you hear a click/knock/any noise, then it is going. what is happening is the coupler holes are elongating, causing play in the drive pins.