Back in June, I posted that Ford was finally making a settlement with the owners of vehicles equipped with the 4.6L 2-valve V8 that were prone to leaking coolant by virtue of a cracked plastic intake manifold. Where as the commenting on most posts continues for a week at the most, this one still gets attention five months later; apparently, something is up with the settlement process. Our reader Muriel sent us a tip stating that the settlement was approved by the court on October 7th but is now getting hung up by one of the class members, who has filed an appeal. I haven't found any info on the exact nature of this appeal, and it was probably made on some arcane legal grounds that I wouldn't understand anyways.

What I can suggest is that anyone who may be affected by this class-action suit needs to be checking out the website for the class administration settlement website on a frequent basis (a hat tip goes out to the CrownVic.net forums for this link, where there is, of course, a thread dedicated to this topic). It appears that, once the settlement is finalized, owners will have 90 days in which to make their claims for reimbursement of repair costs. This is done by visiting your local Ford, Lincoln or Mercury dealer. If you have receipts, you will be reimbursed for the repair costs. If you do not, and your vehicle is less than seven years old, then you can have your vehicle inspected to prove that the manifold was indeed replaced. That will result in reimbursement of $735 (according to the preliminary settlement; I?m not sure if that figure will change). Just remember - you only have 90 days from the time that the settlement is finalized to make your claim!

Those that have not yet had their manifolds replaced will be covered under a seven-year, unlimited-mileage warranty, which I believe means you?re pretty much on your own if you now experience a failure in a pre-?99 vehicle.

If you?re looking for more info, you may wish to call the 1-888-826-3047 number that?s listed on the website.