Ford Problems

THE EL GT is pretty much unloved by GT enthusiasts who thought it was dressed up, but not to thrill. Old GT fans reckon it's a pretender, but it still has a GT badge and will always be a GT. XR8 Sprints are bringing $9000-$12,000.

THANKS for the advice. I'm sure other owners will appreciate knowing there is a problem and that Ford acknowledges it. Unfortunately, carmakers often don't do themselves any favours by either denying there is a problem or being ignorant of the problem's existence and the solution their engineers have developed. It would certainly be better if carmakers came clean and fixed the cars affected instead of hoping owners won't complain.

ACCORDING to Mark Lynch of Carcool Airconditioning, there are three possible causes of ``no heat'' with this EF Fairmont: a blocked heater core, a faulty blend door motor or a broken heater flap shaft. To diagnose the problem, set the control on manual floor and the fan speed at medium and, with your hand over the floor outlet, range the temperature from 16-32 degrees and back. You should feel a variation from cold to warm back to cold, If you do, you have a blocked heater core. If there is no temperature variation, it will be the blend door motor or a broken shaft. You can confirm which one by doing a climate control self-test (refer to a Ford manual) which will confirm an E2 error (blend door faulty) or, if no fault is shown, it will be a broken flap shaft.

EITHER car would be fine for your purpose. But remember that whatever car you choose, it's likely to have lots of kilometres on the odometer. By all means try to find a Telstar or a Camry, my preference would be for Toyota as long as it's a four-cylinder model, but if you cast your net wider you might land a mint model of some other make. The key things with a car that old is to find one that's in good condition with the lowest odometer reading possible. Hopefully, you will find a car that has been lovingly looked after by its owner, and perhaps not often driven.

THERE was a time when a car was thought to be worn out and worthless when it had done 100,000 miles or 160,000km, but technology has come a long way since those days and cars last much longer than they once did. While the average annual mileage on this car is low, it has still accumulated more than 250,000km, and that in my mind is high mileage. Cars don't wear out with time, its a function of kilometres covered, and this particular car has covered plenty of kilometres. It might still be a good car in good condition, but it's still well on its way to the end of the road. I would consider 100,000km or so to be low mileage on this car.

THIS was quite a common fault with the EF Falcon and was supposed to have been fixed with the EL. It was an adjustment problem and Ford issued a service advice with a solution. When the temperature climbed expansion in the locking mechanism sent the locking system haywire. I'd consult your dealer and have them fix the problem, and ask for it to be done at Ford's expense. An auto electrician will know what to do.

I WOULDN'T agree with rodding out the radiator every six months or so, I would rather try to eliminate the problem. If it is casting sand then I would have thought it would have been flushed out by now. Talk to a cooling system/radiator specialist and try to have the sand flushed out. There shouldn't be any affect on the lubrication system.

YOURS is not an unusual problem. The Falcon radiator has plastic tanks and they usually split, requiring replacement. Taxi operators usually run the heavy-duty radiator that doesn't have plastic tanks.

NOT necessarily. Your car was tuned for unleaded so running it on premium unleaded may not make a difference, though I'm surprised consumption increased so much. PULP works on some cars because they have systems that can detect ignition knock and adjust timing accordingly. On these cars PULP will allow it to run on a higher advance, which means better fuel figures.

CarsGuide approached Ford for its help in solving Stephen's problem, and it sent an engineer to assess the car. A new set of brake pads was fitted and the car was given back to Stephen, apparently fixed. He thought otherwise and asked us to drive the car. The noise we heard was a swishing noise rather than a squeal. There are a couple of possible causes: a warped disc, or the park brake pads rubbing against the disc while driving along. The PBR park brake has a problem which allows the pads to drop out of position and rub on the disc. This can be checked by gently applying the park brake a notch or two while driving -- enough to reposition the park brake pads. If that's the cause, the noise will stop for a short time until the pads drop out of position again. If the noise does cease when the park brake is applied, there isn't a fix. If it doesn't go away, look for a warped rotor. The best fix is to install better quality rotors from a company such as Disc Brakes Australia.