Ford Falcon 2004 Problems

WE ASKED tyre expert Russell Stuckey for his opinion. The Dunlop SP9000, SP Sportmaxx and Goodyear GSD3 all deliver good road holding and are fitted as original equipment, which is a good guide to the quality of a tyre.

FORD'S dedicated e-gas engine has been developed to run on LPG. Some modifications to the head and connecting rods help it withstand the punishment handed out by LPG. Ford generally recommends that you not convert your regular petrol engine to LPG, but several LPG converters will convert and they say they have no trouble with them. A lot of Falcons are running on aftermarket dual-fuel systems. But you need to be aware of the implications for your warranty. Ford will cover nothing that's affected by the installation of the LPG system, so part of your warranty will become void. The LPG system installer is responsible for covering its work.

YOU really should decide if you want performance or economy. If you want economy, go for a Corolla, Civic, 323 or Pulsar. You will find they have pretty good performance anyway.

KEEP up the pressure on Ford. The perforation warranty may well expire by the time the rust eats through the sheet-metal so it needs to be addressed now. If you can't get a satisfactory response from the company, seek legal action.

I TAKE it you're talking about a removable steering-wheel lock that you fit to the steering wheel while the car is parked. If so, I can think of no reason it would damage the airbag.

THE diff is a regular problem. Ford was replacing diffs under warranty with new ones, then replacing them with rebuilt units in cars out of warranty. Try Ford again and press to have your diff replaced. Like you, I reckon Ford should come to the party when there are known problems.

YOU'RE right, it is dreadful. It's probably running overly rich because of a malfunction in the electronic system. But before you start digging, make sure all is well with the basic engine tune. If that is in order, start looking at the sensors that tell the engine's computer how much fuel it needs to feed in, particularly the oxygen sensors in the exhaust.

I find the advice you received most interesting. To suggest an oil cooler would cause ``the system'', whatever that means, to overheat is contrary to industry advice. This says fitting an external transmission oil cooler is good insurance if you plan to tow in hot weather over long distances. I do agree your warranty would be affected. It would no longer cover parts modified to fit the cooler, but an installer should provide a warranty to cover this work.

THANKS Ross for the info on the radiator fix. We must warn that doing what Ross has done to his cars will void your new-car warranty as far as the radiator, cooling system and auto transmission is concerned. If you do plan to make the modification you need to be aware of this.

THE Falcon is generally pretty good for valve recession, but it is hard to say when the head might need rebuilding. It depends of the type of driving you're doing, but I would think you'd get 150,000km or more out of it before it had to be rebuilt. A taxi would get more because it spends more time running fully warmed up than the average family car. Driving long distances won't hurt it. The valve wear would most likely be less for the same reason it's less on a taxi. Ford says its engineers reported a bent conrod caused by an engine backfire in one of its BA development cars, and for that reason it used the beefier XR6 conrods in the e-gas engine, so that's a possible problem on gas. It's more likely to be a problem on a vapour-mixer system, which is what Ford uses, than it is on a more modern gas injection system, which is less prone to backfiring.