Ford Fairmont Problems

I would continue to pressure the dealer, ask to see the company representative who assessed your car and took the photos, and approach Ford directly through its Customer Assistance Service.

The control for the heater/air-conditioning system in those model Falcons is notoriously unreliable. I would be looking there to find the fault, it probably needs replacing.

It's not an issue that has come to our attention here at Carsguide, which would suggest it's not as common as your mechanic believes. As for a recall, they're usually associated with safety issues and the failure of a headlight switch would not normally fall in that category. Car companies do, however, have low-key service rectification programs in which they fix cars when they have a widespread failure problem with a particular part. That would be the way they would address a failure such as the one you experienced, but only if it was widespread and only if the carmaker had a community spirit.

If it is in good condition and has been serviced from new it will go the distance, but that implies that you will keep up the servicing and not neglect the car at all. Should you fail to maintain it the car will deteriorate quickly, no matter how well it drives now. And a word of caution, it is not possible to say that you won’t strike trouble in the future, but the BFII is a solidly built car that should stand the test of time.

You should be getting around 13-14.0 l/100 km in town and 9-10.0 L/ 100 km on a trip, so clearly all is not well. The first thing to do is to ensure the spark plugs, leads, air filter, throttle body are all functioning correctly, and replace them if it's suspected they're not. Have the dealer check the exhaust back pressure, catalytic converter and oxygen sensors to make sure isn't running unduly rich or have a restricted exhaust. Look at your driving conditions, for instance, do you mainly do short runs around Ballarat that might not allow the engine to warm-up properly.

That’s a lot of water to lose. If it were a head gasket that had failed I would expect the engine to be running roughly, a spark plug to be showing evidence of water contamination, and coolant in the oil. If its running normally and there’s no sign of coolant in the oil than its fair to assume the mechanic was correct and its not a head gasket. Falcons of that vintage are renowned for failing the transmission oil cooler, which is in the radiator, and if that happened coolant leaks into the auto trans. Also check for external leaks, damage to the radiator etc.

Check and adjust the park brake, they're notorious for causing a noise similar to that you are hearing.

Those old Fords are renowned for failing body ECUs, but there would have to be an underlying problem to cause three failures in quick succession like that, so I would call in an auto electrician to sort it out.

I'd say the transmission cooler failed in the old radiator and allowed coolant into the transmission. Replacing the radiator has fixed the coolant leak, but it sounds like it's too late for the transmission. Try a transmission service, you might be lucky, if that doesn't do the trick you could be up for a transmission rebuild.

I would try an auto air-conditioning specialist as they would have to deal with this issue regularly and I'm sure would have worked out a solution.