Ford Falcon Problems

THE diff problem with the Falcon ute is well-known, and one that dealers should be familiar with. I know of several owners who have had to replace the diff, some more than once. Ford's policy seems to be that they will replace the diff with a new one if the vehicle is under warranty, and with a used one if it's out of warranty. The problem for you is that you bought a used vehicle out of warranty. And you don't have the history of it before you bought it. Talk to the previous owner if you can and find out if they have any knowledge of the problem existing when they owned it and, if so, did they report it to the dealer. Get as much information as possible and persist with Ford.

I'M FAMILIAR with all the brands you mention except Easy Jet, and each is a quality system well developed by a reputable company. Any of the systems would do the job for you, but possibly more important is to choose your installer wisely. Before you commit to an installer, ask them how long they have been in the business of installing LPG systems, the injection system in particular. And ask to talk to a client who has had the same system fitted.

WE'VE had complaints about the diff in the Holden, but not nearly so many from Ford owners. You probably could do the job if you're handy with tools, but if you're not, I wouldn't tackle it.

GHIA is a car-styling company that started in Italy in 1921 and built many fabulous cars on Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Lancia chassis. Later the company designed the VW Karmann-Ghia, the Volvo P1800 and several special concept vehicles for Chrysler. Ford bought the company in 1970 and began using the name on its cars. It is generally used to denote the luxurious Fords.

WELCH plugs can corrode, but it's usually caused by a lack of corrosion inhibitor in the coolant. Perhaps the dealer hasn't been keeping the corrosion inhibitor up. I wouldn't accept that the plugs are consumables and not covered.

BY YOUR description of the DVD player etc I assume it has been modified, so I can't make any assessment of what the modifications might be worth. Your figure of $46,500 is way above what I would expect it's worth. I would put it at $25,000-$30,000.

I AGREE it seems like a common problem. Perhaps other readers who have had the problem could let us know of their experiences before we go to Ford for an explanation.

THE clunking is usually from the diff, which is a known problem on the XR6, but we've heard from another reader, Clyde Wolfenden, that Ford has a fix for this problem in the form of revised auto trans shift points. He reckons this fixed his car, so you might check with your dealer about having it done to yours.

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.

I ASSUME the system was fitted by the Ford dealer, because Ford's LPG engine is a dedicated LPG system. Almost all dual-fuel systems fitted to cars after 2003 will be injection systems that start on petrol and switch to LPG after a minute or so of warming up, so yours sounds as if it's state-of-the-art. They operate that way to minimise the starting time and for smoother running during the warm-up phase.