Ford Problems

CONTACT Ford Customer Assistance for a plausible explanation. There is clearly something wrong with either the wheels or the caps themselves that is causing them to fall off.

I ASKED Mark Lynch of Carcool for his opinion. He thought the fault could be either the ambient temperature sensor or a faulty climate-control unit itself. The ambient sensor behind the front bumper tells the climate control the outside temperature. If this goes open circuit, the control will assume that it is -50C and will switch to full heating. The climate control unit itself could have a faulty component, dry-joint in the board, or bad connection plug. Try changing the ambient sensor and clean its connector. If it fails again, replace the climate control head.

FPV told us that Tickford built 39 TL50s -- 25 in 2000, 11 in 2001, and three in 2002.

IT COULD be one of a number of things, but it is most likely the pressure control solenoid in the valve body, experts at AW Automatics say.

GENERALLY, LPG cars are just as safe as long as the LPG system is correctly installed and maintained. Dedicated gas Falcons are developed by Ford and the systems are well designed and safe.

TRANSMISSION specialist John De Sensi of Gear-Matics says he hasn't heard of your problem. He says the main issue with the Falcon auto is it's not well enough cooled and this leads to problems at 150,000-190,000km. The auto oil pan is too small and doesn't contain enough oil, which leads to the oil overheating. The best solution is to fit an oil cooler, which adds to the volume of oil available for cooling. The other problem is that the tiny brass oil cooler in the radiator breaks down and flakes of brass pass through the system and clog the filters in the transmission. This also causes overheated oil. One possible cause of your problem is a high idle speed. To check this you need to see a Ford specialist and have them run their diagnostic program over the engine.

LPG specialists recommend running your car on petrol for 10km once every week or two. That's to run petrol through the fuel pump to prevent the seals drying out.

I would have someone look at the fuel injectors, and think about having them cleaned. It could be a blocked or partly blocked injector, it sounds much like a problem I had a few months ago and that was fixed by cleaning the injectors.

VICTORIAN Autogas Supplies is developing a sequential gas injection system for the F250 and expects to have it available in six to eight weeks. Ph: 1800 620 945 for more details.

IT IS taking so long that you would have to suspect that they don't know the cause of the problem, or that it might require a radical solution, such as replacing the car. You should vigorously pursue Ford for answers, and maybe think about having them give you a new car if the answers aren't forthcoming.