Ford Reviews

Any time an Australian-made Ford of this vintage has a problem with its door locks, suspicions will turn to the car’s body computer. This is a known fault in these vehicles and will probably require a new body computer as well as somebody who knows what they’re doing to fit it.

The body computer controls all sorts of functions including the wipers, light, security system, climate control, entertainment system, and the central locking.

But before you book the car in to the auto electrician, try this: Disconnect the battery and leave it overnight. Next morning, reconnect the battery and see if that has sorted the problem. In some cases, this will reset the computer (kind of like a return to factory settings function) and the car will work properly again. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t and the results aren’t always permanent. But it’s free and definitely worth a try.

This is actually a job you can tackle yourself. The holes should become visible when you open the sunroof and look at the mechanism from outside the car. Usually, there’s a drainage hole at each corner of the opening in the roof, within the tracks or slide mechanism. With a length of malleable wire, you can simple poke that down into each hole and unclog the drainage holes in just a few minutes.

You can then check your work by pouring a small amount of water (using a small funnel is best) into each hole and making sure that water comes out underneath the car, and not into the sunroof opening. This is a surprisingly common complaint, and you could also take the car to a workshop for the same fix if you’re not confident yourself. The workshop may use compressed air to achieve the same result, but the science is the same.

This is a pretty common fault on modern cars and it will usually lead a mechanic to one line of enquiry. And that is a check of the fuel pump.

Electric fuel pumps have a finite lifespan and when their time is up, they just stop. So the next time you try to start the car, it will turn over normally, but there’s just no fuel getting to the engine.

So try this: turn the ignition key until you get dashboard lights and then listen carefully. You should be able to hear a faint buzz or thrum that is the sound of the fuel pump whirring away. If you can’t hear it, that’s a strong suggestion that it has died. The other thing to try – if you’re a bit more mechanically minded – is to disconnect the engine’s intake trunking and spray some starter fluid down the engine’s throat. If it fires and then dies straight away (once the starter fluid has been consumed) you’re definitely looking like a new fuel pump is in your future.

This problem could also be about a hundred other things, of course, but eventual fuel pump failures on cars like yours are about as certain as death and taxes.