Ford Problems

This crops us frequently as a dispute between car owners and dealerships and it's all because of one thing: Extended warranties are generally not worth the paper they're printed on. They're designed to relieve car buyers of more money, thinking they'll be covered if the worst happens. Usually, the warranty is carefully written to avoid paying out on the things most likely to go wrong. Never has 'read the fine print' been so important.

Consider that the warranty your purchased only covers the first $3500 of an engine replacement. Where on earth can an engine be replaced for that sort of money? It's a clear case of the fine print giving the warranty provider a convenient escape clause. Don't forget, this extended warranty is not a Ford factory warranty, it's a third party deal that car-dealers love because they get a kick-back from the warranty company every time a car buyer signs on that dotted line. Dealers also love these warranties because it forces owners into over-servicing their cars. Does it not seem strange that the car designed and engineered by Ford to have a 12-monthly service interval suddenly needs a six-monthly service as part of the warranty conditions?

As far as the replacement engine goes, be very careful about what you're being offered. If the engine is, indeed, a reconditioned engine, it doesn't really matter how many kilometres it has already done because reconditioned means it has been fully rebuilt with new parts. If, however, it's a second-hand engine plucked from a wrecked Kuga, then I would argue that an engine with the same mileage as the one in your car should be fitted. But I'll guarantee you there's some fine print in that warranty that makes me wrong about that, too.

Ford replaced the Mark 1 Focus with the Mark 2 in June 2005, so interchangeability would depend on the build date of the 2005 Focus you have. While the Mark 1 and Mark 2 Focus both offered a two-litre four-cylinder engine (among others) the two engines were from different engine families. The earlier car used a member of the Zetec family, while the Mark 2 Focus two litre was from the Duratec family.

So, unless both Focuses are Mark 2 cars, there's very little chance of sharing things like intake manifolds, even if the spark plugs and ignition systems could be swapped between Mark 1 and Mark 2 cars.

Relatively modern, computerised cars like the Territory absolutely loathe low battery voltage. Without enough electricity to power all the fuel-injection and electronic ignition systems (not to mention the electric fuel pump and the on-board computers) the car will never run properly and is a good bet to enter limp-home mode as you've described. Other symptoms include the dazzling array of warning lights on the dashboard as the various on-board computer systems are left high and dry by a lack of voltage.

You're possibly on the right track with a replacement alternator as the 12.6 volts it's outputting is nowhere near enough to power the Territory successfully. Closer to 14 volts (at least about 13.7) checked at the battery terminal with the engine running and all lights and accessories switched off is where you should be.

Unfortunately, you've already replaced a whole bunch of parts that were probably okay. This approach of random replacement can ultimately cost you a lot of money you didn't need to spend, and a much better way is to have the car scanned to see if there's any electronic fault codes to give you a clue on what's wrong. But even if the alternator is not the sole cause of your problems, at 12.6 volts it is, indeed, worn out and should be replaced or reconditioned.

Unfortunately, while there are aftermarket specialists who could potentially engineer a towing-mass upgrade, there’s no legal way to increase a vehicle’s towing limit. That’s because the towing limit is based on calculations made by the manufacturer (Ford in this case) and it’s set in stone, I’m afraid. Some states and territories would once consider such an upgrade on an individual basis, but all the authorities have backed away from this approach now. Fundamentally, if you want to tow a heavier load, you need a car that is rated to do so.

Ignoring the towing limit and hitching up a bigger load is also asking for trouble. The police are red hot on overloaded vehicles right now, and if the worst was to happen and you were in a crash where somebody was injured or worse, you might find yourself in a whole heap of legal and insurance hassle.

The other alternative, of course, is to find a lighter trailer or caravan or whatever it is you wish to tow.

The first thing to ascertain is what the fluid is. Is it coolant, fuel, oil or even brake fluid? All these fluids have different ways of leaking, so make sure you know what you’re dealing with. Also, don’t rely on the location of the fluid on the ground as a means of diagnosing the cause. Leaks can start in one place but appear elsewhere as they work their way along wiring, pipes, chassis rails and plenty more before they actually make it to the ground.

Meantime, if the leak is coolant and is actually coming from the back of the engine, there are a few likely culprits. There are heater hoses that run in this area and have been known to leak, as well as a welch plug that can corrode and cause a leak in this area. Other known coolant leak-points in the Territory include the radiator and the O-ring seal at the back of the water pump. If you’re really unlucky, the leak could also be from a head gasket. Have the car checked out by a mechanic, because coolant leaks only ever really get bigger over time, never smaller.

Most oil manufacturers familiar with this make and model recommend either a full or semi-synthetic oil with a viscosity of 5W30 or 10W30. So that's what we'd recommend, too. You could probably go to a 20W40 without doing any damage, but why change if there's no need to?

Unless the engine is really worn out and starting to burn oil, there's not much point going to a thicker (heavier) oil. And the reality with this engine (and many like it) is that 250,000km is not actually super-high mileage these days. Back in the 1950s and 60s when an engine was often worn out at the 100,000km mark, things were different, but modern metallurgy and production tolerances (not to mention taller gearing) mean that an engine with 250,000km on board can still feel and perform like a new one. So treat it like one.

That model Ranger does, indeed, have what’s called a variable-voltage or `smart’ alternator. The idea is that when the car’s main battery is fully charged, the alternator reduces its workload to save fuel. But the reality is that the system doesn’t always recognise that accessories (like a second battery) have been fitted to the car. If that happens, the alternator doesn’t always make enough power to keep accessories like that second battery system fully charged. Which means that suddenly, your car-fridge won’t run overnight.

The good news is that this smart function is purely electronically controlled, and a Ford dealer can disable it for you, returning the alternator to conventional operation.

Probably not, and since this would be a classic back-yard conversion, we don't know of any documented proof or a set of instructions for how to do it.

The bigger question, of course, is why you'd want to try to perform such a transplant. It might be different if the Transit itself was not available with a diesel engine option, but it has been for many years. So why try to adapt a Toyota engine? Buy a diesel Transit and save yourself a lifetime of hassles.

Seriously, aside from the big issues of making a foreign engine physically fit in a van's compromised engine bay, you'd also have the detail problems of running cables and electrics. Then there's the question of making the engine talk to the rest of the car in an electronic sense, which involves everything from the engine-control computer to making sure the dashboard functions properly. And do you use the Transit gearbox, or instal the whole Toyota driveline? Even then, fi you manage to achieve all this, you'd have to convince the registration authorities that the thing was fit to drive on the road.

With the recent flooding across so much of Australia, there's a serious push by the government to convince people that they shouldn't drive through floodwater of any depth, let alone water that is a deep as the patch you've tackled.

The first thing to do is not drive the car any further. If there really is an oil pressure or level problem, permanent damage may already have been done. This needs to be checked by a workshop. However, since you seem to have already driven the car with the oil light flashing, here's the reality.

If the car still runs and drives as it did before, it's unlikely that the water has damaged the engine per se. The problem is more likely to involve the pressure of the water damaging a sensor or switch (or the wiring associated with it) that is designed to warn you of low oil pressure or low oil level. If the engine is running properly and there's oil on the dipstick, the next thing to do is have the vehicle scanned which should throw up a fault code that will lead you to the cause of the problem.

Floodwater is terrible stuff. It's full of silt and contaminants and as well as damaging an engine that ingests it, it can also destroy the gearbox or differential (by entering through the breather) and ruin electronics if it gets inside the cabin. The silt content can even act as an abrasive and wear out wheel bearings in short order.

That said, you could have a legitimate oil-pressure problem that happened to coincide with the water crossing. Stranger things have happened. A scan is the answer.

It seems a little odd that a new bulb hasn't fixed your problem, especially as the other tail-light is working properly. If both tail-lights had failed, the first thing to check would be the fuse or relay that controls that circuit. But since it's only the light on one side that's affected, that probably won't be the case (both the BF Falcon's tail-lights share a single fuse).

The BF Falcon launched in 2008 was the first local Ford to use CAN BUS electronic technology and that could be the cause of your problem. If the computer isn't sending the correct, coded signal (as opposed of just a stream of volts) to the component in question (in this case the tail-light) then the light may not work. A scan of the vehicle might throw up some more clues.

If it's not that, that leaves you with a bad connection (possibly a bad earth) within the wiring for the troublesome light or perhaps even a problem with the bayonet mount into which the globe clips. Don't rule out something as unlikely as the new globe being faulty, either. It's happened before. Spray some terminal cleaner into the globe mount and see if that restores power to the light.

Fords of this era are notorious for electrical problems, including brake-light switches that fail and even body computers that crash, taking many functions including the central locking with them.