Ford Falcon 2002 Problems

A good quality 10W40 engine oil should be perfect for your car, Carol. Always go for a known brand of oil rather than the cheaper, Brand-X supermarket stuff, as quality varies enormously. Keeping clean, fresh oil in your engine is the absolute best piece of preventative maintenance there is.

Don’t forget to change the filter at the same time as there’s just no point putting clean oil through a dirty filter. By the way, the correct oil filter for your car is a Ryco Z9 or brand-equivalent.

An engine that runs well when cold but misfires when It’s warmed up is often a victim of poor air-fuel mixture. That can be caused by an air-leak (such as the intake manifold gasket you’ve already changed) a crack in any of the intake plumbing, faulty fuel injectors, a worn fuel pump, a corrupted ECU (computer), blocked fuel line or about a thousand other things.

But in this case, knowing the Ford AU Falcon’s engine, I’d be taking a close look at the ignition system, specifically the coil pack. These have been known to fail regularly, often displaying their problems including a rough idle, once the engine has warmed up; precisely the symptoms you’ve noted. That said, rather than rush out and buy a new coil pack, have the vehicle scanned electronically to rule out any other potential source for the problem.

Computer-controlled engines like the one in your Falcon, Tony, require a range of sensors to provide the information to the computer to allow the engine to run properly. If just one of those sensors sneezes, the engine can shut down without warning.

As well as a throttle-position sensor, there are also camshaft-angle, crank-angle, air temperature, coolant temperature, oxygen sensors and more. So the best advice is not to start replacing the sensors one by one, but to have the computer interrogated electronically. The computer will be logging problems as they happen and should be able to tell you exactly which sensor is nodding off intermittently. A Ford dealership along with many independent workshops will have the computer-scan gear to do this. It will save you time and money in the long run.

For what it’s worth, since the car cuts out completely, my hunch would be the crank-angle sensor is overheating. So, if you want to persist with a home diagnosis, try this: Carry a bottle of cold water in the car. Then, the next time the engine cuts out, pour the cold water over the crank-angle sensor. If the car suddenly restarts, you’ve found your problem.

But to be honest, you could also be looking at a dud fuel pump, a blocked fuel filter and literally a hundred other possibilities.

They are very different cars, the Viva is small, the Falcon big, so it comes down to what you want from them. The Viva is newer and will have done fewer kilometres, the Falcon is getting old and is likely to have done lots of kilometres. That said, Falcons tend to be relatively reliable at high kilometres, so if you are after reliability that's probably the better bet for you.

I would be looking for a vacuum leak. Check all hoses on the engine looking for splits, also check for a split brake booster check valve.

The auto can fail at any kilometres, not necessarily 200,000 km, and it's because the transmission cooler that's in the radiator fails and coolant gets into the transmission. The transmission can be serviced, but you have to take it to an automatic transmission specialist, who could also fit an external cooler for $500-$600.