Ford Falcon Problems

As fuel prices continue to spiral upwards, the idea of using the slightly cheaper E10 (petrol with up to 10 per cent ethanol content) becomes more attractive. Unfortunately, not all cars can run on E10 with that ethanol component causing damage to other parts of the fuel system and engine.

But in the case of a 2003 Ford Falcon, it’s good news. Your car is E10 compatible and using e10 will not adversely affect the vehicle in any way.

The triangle symbol is universally used in the car world to suggest a problem. So, more universally, is the colour red. The combination of these is a sign that something, somewhere in your car, all is not well. Actually, on that model Falcon, the warning triangle will be lit as a yellow light for mild problems, and only switches to red for a major issue. Which is what you clearly have. This could be a major safety issue, so don’t ignore it.

You can either have a workshop or Ford dealer check this out for you, but the first step is to press the 'SEL' button which should take you to an information screen with more details about what the car thinks is wrong with itself. After that, it’s an electronic scan to home in on the problem.

Back when LPG was between 10 and 20 cents a litre, it made all sorts of sense. Even when it had crept up to 50 or 60 cents a litre, car-makers like Ford and Holden were producing LPG-dedicated vehicles to make the most of that cost advantage.

Now, however, when LPG is 80 or 90 cents per litre (versus $1.40 or $150 for petrol) the arithmetic no longer presents the sound financial case it once did. Given that Australia still has plenty of LPG, this probably means a couple of things. The first is that the companies who produce the LPG would rather sell it offshore in bulk that mess about transport it to a few thousand individual service-stations. The second is that maintaining a service station to incorporate petrol, diesel and LPG is too much trouble, so there’s a move to get rid of the latter as a streamlining measure. The death of local cars with LPG engines has only sped up this process. Again, though, this is only conjecture.

My guess is that you’ll still be able to buy LPG from a service station for many years to come, but it may not be every service station you pass. The bigger issue, though, is that now that LPG is no longer the money saver it once was (yes, it costs less, but you use more per kilometre than a car running on petrol) what’s the point of an LPG-dedicated vehicle? Dual-fuel (where you can run on petrol or LPG at the flick of a switch) is one thing, but a dedicated LPG car stopped making a lot of financial sense for many people a few years ago.

Ford Falcon headliner replacement cost will be somewhere between about $300 and $500, depending on a few details. Those prices are based on a modern Falcon, say, a BA Falcon or FG Falcon from this century, after Ford had switched to the one-piece, cardboard-backed headliner. However, the cost could be more if the vehicle is a station wagon or has a sunroof fitted, as both these things alter the amount of material used and the degree of difficulty in removing and refitting the headliner. 

Other variables include whether you take the vehicle to a motor trimmer to have the existing headliner recovered, or you call an onsite repairer to remove your old headliner and fit a reconditioned unit in your driveway or car-park at work.

You might be able to find a second-hand replacement headliner at an auto parts recycler, but the danger is that the headliner you buy might also fail in the not-too distant future. That’s because the modern one-piece headliner – including late-model Falcon headlining - is made from a structural backing board with a layer of foam sandwiched between the board and the vinyl or cloth that you see above your head. Over time and with heat, the foam layer breaks down into dusty fragments and the adhesion between the backing board and cloth or vinyl is lost. That’s when the cloth starts to hang down inside the car.

Overall, Falcon roof lining replacement is not a difficult job for an experienced trimmer, but it is a bit fiddly and will take some time. Many owners put up with a saggy headliner, but a fresh roof lining repair will make the car look and feel brand new again.

You can find more information here. 

This is a pretty common issue of this generation of Falcons. The problem usually occurs if the car’s battery goes flat or has recently been replaced. Sometimes you might get the screen to reboot, but even if it does, the end is often nigh as the unit is dying. It’s worth a shot, though, so try disconnecting the relevant fuse for at least 15 minutes with the ignition turned off. If it comes good after reconnecting the fuse, you might be lucky. But you might also be simply delaying the inevitable.

The problem lies in a circuit-board within the ICC system and the fix is generally to replace the screen for an aftermarket head unit.

It sounds very much like a seized bush in the rubber-donut assembly that joins the tailshaft to the back of the gearbox. Inside the rubber donut (also called the flex-joint) there’s a metal inner bush and these have been known to seize. Water gets into this bush and rusts the assembly solid. If that happens, it will feel like the thing will never come apart.

At that point, perhaps removing the slip-yoke from the back of the transmission will allow you to remove the whole assembly and get better access to it on a bench, rather than from under the car. The slip-yoke shouldn’t present any problems other than you might lose a little transmission fluid (so have some rags handy) but you do need to remember to mark the position of all the components relative to each other. That means marking where the tailshaft bolts were relative to the rear coupling, the coupling relative to the flange, the shaft relative to the yoke’s holes and so on. That’s so when the tailshaft is reassembled and refitted, it’s still in balance and won’t create any new driveline vibrations. This process even extends to marking which nuts and bolts attached to which mounting holes in the rear CV joint, as some of these bolts were individually weighted for balance.

The other thing to check is the actual centre bearing you’re trying to replace. For some reason there were two different part numbers for this series of Ford Falcon. One has a different bearing inner diameter and a different spacing for the mounting holes compared with the other. Make sure you buy the correct one.

I'm not sure what vehicle you're talking about, as Ford stopped making the Falcon ute in 2016, regardless of what fuel it ran on.

But, if your ute was made by Ford as a gas-dedicated vehicle (it was a factory option) then changing it back to petrol would be an enormous job with – as you have noted – the need to source a fuel tank and all the fuel-injection gear to work with petrol as opposed to LPG. Even making the fuel gauge work with petrol instead of LPG would require changes.

If your ute was dual-fuel (with the ability to run on either LPG and petrol) you could simply leave it as is and just run it on petrol, but a gas-dedicated ute needs to be converted to use petrol.

You'd almost certainly be better to sell your car and buy a Falcon ute that already runs on petrol. That said, don't write LPG off yet. As petrol and diesel prices continue to rise, LPG might just come back into fashion as a cheaper alternative fuel.

I'm not sure where you read that LPG would be phased out in the next two years, but the internet is full of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Be very careful what you believe. That said, since Australia isn't making any more cars, there won't be any LPG cars sold new, and anecdotally, finding a service station with LPG is becoming more difficult as electric cars become the new default alternative to petrol.

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.

It’s a bit hard to go past an older Holden Commodore or Ford Falcon for this brief. That said, your towing requirement means you’d be best looking at something like an AU (1998 to 2003) Falcon Ute (assuming you only need to move one other person).

These are strong, simple cars that any mechanic can deal with and parts are plentiful and relatively cheap. There are other options (older Japanese dual-cabs) but nothing really gets close to the Aussie stuff for durability and running costs. An elderly Nissan Navara, for instance, might do the job but is likely to become fragile as it ages. A two-wheel-drive Toyota HiLux is another possibility, but you’d probably be right at the limit of your towing capacity with one of those. The Falcon ute, meanwhile, can legally tow 2300kg. It’s not glamorous or sexy, but it’ll do the job and stay on target price-wise.

The other obvious contender would be an early Mitsubishi Pajero with a V6 engine. These had a towing capacity of 2500kg and are around now for very little money, certainly within your budget. They also double as a very handy off-roader should you wish.

Presumably, you’re talking about a car that is having trouble getting moving from standstill while facing up a hill. This is the result of a lack of power but that lack could be down to a thousand things. You could be looking at an engine with a poor tune or even a transmission with a faulty torque converter that is not allowing the engine to rev up for take-off.

A lot of local cars of a similar age to yours also experience fuel pick-up problems. We’ve seen cases where a split fuel line inside the tank refuses to pick up fuel if the tank is about half full and parked on a hill. So try this experiment: Turn the car around 180 degrees and see if it’s just as reluctant to take off up the same hill in reverse. If the direction the car is facing is the key factor, you’re probably looking at a fuel pick-up issue.