Ford Falcon Problems

It was thought that the revised cooler design had fixed the problem, and that was backed up by a lack of reports of failed coolers for a long time, but more recently we have been getting reports of coolers failing and damaging the transmission. That would suggest the problem hasn't been fixed. It's worth considering fitting an external cooler.

You would seem to have a good case for full compensation and should take it further. It seems there are still problems with the auto transmission cooler and we're now starting to hear more about it.

Yes, we understand that the problem is still occurring. We also understand that Ford has an external cooler to fix it. Talk to a Ford dealer about it.

The design of the oil cooler was changed in the BF II Falcon to eradicate the potentially expensive failure of the cooler, but we are now seeing enough to say that the problem hasn't really been fixed. We'd like to hear from anyone else who has had troubles with their Falcons in this regard.

If you're not sure whether it's coming from the diff or the auto trans you need to get some help to isolate it before you have any chance of finding the cause. Changing the diff oil would have been the first thing I would have suggested if it was the diff, the next would to suggest it could be a bearing, but that needs a specialist to sort it out. An auto transmission expert would say you should change the trans oil every 25,000 km or so, or every year, and there's good reason to do that if you do a lot of towing. They would also say you should do a full service every 100,000 km or so, and again it's more important to do that if you tow a lot.

The best option it would seem to me is to fit an external cooler and bypass Ford's cooler in the radiator. Changing the cooler every year doesn't really seem to be a workable option for most people.

No, I think you have a good case, particularly as you are not asking for the whole cost to be covered. Flexplates do crack, more on performance cars because of the extra loads they have to endure, but if it does crack it's a poor design in the first place.

You obviously believe that the mechanic who replaced the chain guide set the timing incorrectly, but two years after the work was done makes it really hard to blame him. If the valves were hitting the pistons as you believe they were I would have expected it to show up long before this. If you want to pursue it get a creditable engine guy to inspect it and give you his opinion.

Changes were made in the BFII model and they seem to have fixed the problem. We don't get reports of it happening on these later models, but the changes don't affect your car. If you intend to keep the car for a long period it would be worth making the modification, but the car is now eight years old so you might think it's not needed.

It's not uncommon to have problems with the electric windows on Falcons. Get an auto electrician to have a look at it; it's probably a motor in a door.