Ford Falcon Problems

DON'T assume anything. You'd have to check the accuracy of the GPS unit with the maker, and like all instruments it will have a tolerance. It will not be 100 per cent accurate. Same with the overhead advisory signs. They are a guide only, and their accuracy varies from day to day, depending on when they were checked and calibrated. Again, they are not 100 per cent accurate. Now to your speedo. You are correct in your assertion that the ADR requires speedo readings to be within a band of plus or minus 10 per cent of the speed when the car is travelling at more than 40km/h. On that basis your Falcon is quite accurate, and the Beetle is also within the required band. The critical thing, if we assume the GPS and advisory speed sign are accurate, is that neither understates the speed. That is, if you drove at an indicated 100km/h in either car you would be under the speed limit. By the way, there is a proposal to change the ADR in 2006 requiring speedo readings to be accurate to within a band of zero plus 5 per cent, ensuring no speedo will indicate a speed above that which the vehicle is travelling.

YOU have quite a large choice of cars, even with your limited budget. You need to understand that any car you buy for that sort of money will be old and likely to have gone around the world several times. Don't limit yourself to a particular make and model, but go for the car that's in the best condition. The EA Falcon is one I would probably avoid. It was the first model in a new generation of Falcons and had a few problems with the engine and transmission. That's not to say that all EAs are lemons, but you should be doubly careful about buying one.

DON'T do it. Your ED has 220,000km on it. That puts it into the elderly class, ready for the scrap heap, so any EA/EB you might find is likely to have even more on it. Remember the EA was a bit of a lemon when it was launched -- it was the first model in an all-new Falcon line. The EB was better because Ford fixed a lot of the EA's problems, and the ED was better again. Try to stretch your budget to a later model, and get your manual that way. Your ED is probably worth about $5000.

THE recall, applying to AUI and AUII Falcons built between June 1, 1998, and May 22, 2001, relates to a steering rack mounting stud. Ford says over-tightening of the stud could cause the stud to loosen. In extreme cases, the stud may fail and affect steering. Two cases of loose studs and one case of a missing stud have been reported, but Ford is recalling all cars to take precautionary action. Vehicles built in the period outlined used a Loctite threadlocking compound, which could be degraded if the stud was over-tightened. Vehicles built after May 22, 2001, are not affected.

THE BA's brakes were significantly upgraded form the AUIII. The pads are larger, the disc rotors are larger -- 11 mm at the front and 16 mm at the rear -- and the calipers are 40 per cent stiffer, so many factors are affecting what you feel. That should result, as Ford claims, in better braking performance, increased pad life, reduced fade and more solid pedal feel.

IT'S GREAT to hear you've had a good run. I can't predict how much further it will go, but there's no reason it won't go for quite some time yet. Ford has a bogey of 10 years and 250,000km for their testing. After that, there will be some deterioration. A compression test may give insight into the condition of the engine, and explain the miss.

BOTH the Falcon and the Commodore convert well to LPG. The taxi industry runs both successfully on it, and they are the toughest when it comes to finding out a car's weakness. Ford has probably done more work with LPG on its Falcon, and has a dedicated LPG option, but there's no problem with converting the Commodore.

ON THE face of it, you should be getting about 5 per cent better fuel consumption with the Optimax. That is provided everything else is the same. The higher density of the Optimax means you are putting greater energy into the engine, and that should mean you are getting greater energy out. You should be able to drive with a lighter throttle for the same performance. I would suggest you recheck the engine tune, and perhaps go back to regular unleaded for a tank or two before trying the Optimax again.

CHECK to see if the film is on the outside or inside of the screen. It could be a build-up of plasticiser from the plastic interior trim parts and things such as cigarette smoke on the inside of the screen. A windscreen cleaner available from a servo or auto accessories store, should remove any oily film.

TO RUN it at its best on unleaded you should fit hardened valve-seat inserts to the head, lower the compression ratio and retard the spark a little to suit the lower octane rating of unleaded. You're talking about $1000, so I'd think long and hard about doing that on an old car like your XE. I'd run it on unleaded and add an upper-cylinder lubricant.