Ford Problems

This has been an ongoing problem for car owners for decades now. Car-makers often decide to fit self-levelling rear suspension in cars like station-wagons as it ensures the car doesn’t sit nose-up when it’s carrying a big load. But as you’ve discovered, replacing those adjustable shock absorbers can be a huge pain in the wallet. And, like tyres and brake pads, shock absorbers are often regarded as wear-and-tear items and therefore aren’t covered by a factory warranty. Certainly not a year out from the expiration of that warranty. That said, I agree with you that 55,000km is not the expected lifespan of a modern damper. 

In the past, the solution has been to fit conventional dampers in place of the adjustable ones and live with the loss of the self-levelling function (which most owners manage to cope with). The Mondeo is a much more popular model in Europe than it ever was in Australia, so shopping online in, say, the UK might turn up a set of replacement shocks for a lot less than the extortionate figure you’ve been quoted. Provided you deal with established, reputable online companies, you should have no problems. But if conventional (non-adjustable) dampers are available from a Mondeo without the self-levelling suspension, that would probably be the smart way to go to avoid being in the same boat in another 55,000km.

I’m not sure why you’d need to change the rear springs as well as moving to conventional dampers (not that I’m doubting your research) but even if that was the case, a set of springs is a one-off purchase and shouldn’t cost much. The best bet would be to visit a suspension specialist and have the car measured up to see what dampers will fit and do the job. There’s bound to be something out there from another make or model that will physically fit and provide the damping performance the car requires. Self-levelling suspension is a nice touch, but it’s not an absolute necessity on a car like a Mondeo wagon.

There have been plenty of complaints over this transmission, and a lot of them have been traced back to the valve body separator plate which, from the sound of things, has been replaced on your vehicle. However, was it replaced with a new part or a second-hand one sourced from another vehicle? Was the work done by a Ford dealership or a transmission specialist or a general workshop?

It's not so likely to be the wiring that's at fault. Wiring tends to either conduct electricity or it doesn't. But that doesn't mean the computer that controls the transmission wasn't damaged when the loom was burned. Fundamentally, the symptoms you're experiencing could be from any (or all of) the causes you've suggested. Valve bodies, torque converters, electronic control units and gearbox internals all have to be working in perfect harmony in a modern automatic transmission. One little problem with any of those systems can cause all sorts of shifting problems. I'd take the vehicle to a transmission specialist who will be able to – hopefully – diagnose the exact cause of the harsh downshifts and do something about it.

Back when LPG was between 10 and 20 cents a litre, it made all sorts of sense. Even when it had crept up to 50 or 60 cents a litre, car-makers like Ford and Holden were producing LPG-dedicated vehicles to make the most of that cost advantage.

Now, however, when LPG is 80 or 90 cents per litre (versus $1.40 or $150 for petrol) the arithmetic no longer presents the sound financial case it once did. Given that Australia still has plenty of LPG, this probably means a couple of things. The first is that the companies who produce the LPG would rather sell it offshore in bulk that mess about transport it to a few thousand individual service-stations. The second is that maintaining a service station to incorporate petrol, diesel and LPG is too much trouble, so there’s a move to get rid of the latter as a streamlining measure. The death of local cars with LPG engines has only sped up this process. Again, though, this is only conjecture.

My guess is that you’ll still be able to buy LPG from a service station for many years to come, but it may not be every service station you pass. The bigger issue, though, is that now that LPG is no longer the money saver it once was (yes, it costs less, but you use more per kilometre than a car running on petrol) what’s the point of an LPG-dedicated vehicle? Dual-fuel (where you can run on petrol or LPG at the flick of a switch) is one thing, but a dedicated LPG car stopped making a lot of financial sense for many people a few years ago.

The problem you have with this particular make and model is that it’s really not worth very much even in good working condition. Cars like yours with engines in good condition change hands for about $3000 (sometimes less) so replacing the engine would almost certainly cost more than the car is worth. That said, if you can find a cheap second-hand engine (that’s been tested so you know it works) and you can find a workshop who can do the changeover for the right price, you might squeeze a few more years out of the car without blowing your budget sky-high. And at least then you know what you’re working with; buying another cheap second-hand car could land you in the same spot in a few months or even weeks’ time.

That, of course, only applies if the problem with your engine is of the terminal mechanical kind. Has the engine been assessed by a mechanic? It could simply be that a new set of spark plugs will bring the car back to its old, four-cylinder self. Selling the car to a wrecking yard will only get you the vehicle’s scrap value – maybe $200 or $300 dollars. And a private buyer is unlikely to offer you any more than that on the basis of a cheap car with a blown-up engine. Meantime, the price of newer second-hand cars has gone up lately with limited supply the main problem, so maybe a quote on fixing what you have is the first step.

It sounds very much like a seized bush in the rubber-donut assembly that joins the tailshaft to the back of the gearbox. Inside the rubber donut (also called the flex-joint) there’s a metal inner bush and these have been known to seize. Water gets into this bush and rusts the assembly solid. If that happens, it will feel like the thing will never come apart.

At that point, perhaps removing the slip-yoke from the back of the transmission will allow you to remove the whole assembly and get better access to it on a bench, rather than from under the car. The slip-yoke shouldn’t present any problems other than you might lose a little transmission fluid (so have some rags handy) but you do need to remember to mark the position of all the components relative to each other. That means marking where the tailshaft bolts were relative to the rear coupling, the coupling relative to the flange, the shaft relative to the yoke’s holes and so on. That’s so when the tailshaft is reassembled and refitted, it’s still in balance and won’t create any new driveline vibrations. This process even extends to marking which nuts and bolts attached to which mounting holes in the rear CV joint, as some of these bolts were individually weighted for balance.

The other thing to check is the actual centre bearing you’re trying to replace. For some reason there were two different part numbers for this series of Ford Falcon. One has a different bearing inner diameter and a different spacing for the mounting holes compared with the other. Make sure you buy the correct one.

Ford’s Powershift dual-clutch transmission is one of the most suspect pieces of engineering in recent history. When failures of the transmission first started being noticed, Ford, rather than fix the problem, took the view that owners were driving the car incorrectly and laying blame there. It didn’t end there, though, as the high failure rate of the gearbox soon had the ACCC involved and Ford was subsequently fined and accused of `unconscionable conduct’ by the consumer watchdog.

Fundamentally, the transmission itself was junk. It suffered failures of the electronics and sensors as well as the control module and, in some cases, failure of the mechanical parts including clutch-packs. Symptoms include harsh shifting, a loss of drive, noises and, as you’ve noted, failure to select some gears.

Even worse was the dry-clutch unit fitted to Ford Focus, Fiesta and Ecosport models which would fail even more spectacularly. These were so bad, Ford ended up offering owners of those vehicles a very cheap trade-up deal to the newer model which used a conventional torque converter automatic rather than the dreaded dual-clutch. Unfortunately, the wet-clutch unit in your car wasn’t included in that offer, but the failures are still well documented.

You’re right that the car is well out of warranty now, but I still think you’d be wise to have a chat with Ford’s customer service division to see if there’s anything that can be done to help you out financially. Throwing away a modern car with just over 100,000km on board just doesn’t seem right in 2021. Nor does a transmission that costs almost $10,000 to replace. But I can see your point about throwing good money after bad; on today’s figures, your car is worth about $10,000, roughly the same as the gearbox it requires.

There is, indeed, an all-wheel-drive version of the current-model Ford Transit in some parts of the world, but sadly for those with a specific set of needs, it isn’t coming to Australia. Fundamentally, the sales volumes wouldn’t justify Ford’s investment in technical training and spare parts required to get the AWD Transit into showrooms here.

On the face of it, Australian buyers looking for an all-wheel-drive commercial vehicle are vastly more attracted to vehicles like Ford’s own Ranger dual-cab utility. And that shouldn’t really come as a surprise, either; local buyers have always been more drawn to conventional utilities than they have vans. That’s the complete reversal of how the European market sees things, but that’s cultural difference for you.

Meantime, I can see why some people would like an AWD Transit. For towing a tradie trailer while keeping your other gear safe and having the ability to get on and off greasy building sites, a van like a Transit with four-wheel-drive would take some beating. But for now, for Australia, it’s officially a no from Ford.

There have been plenty of complaints over this transmission, and a lot of them have been traced back to the valve body separator plate which, from the sound of things, has been replaced on your vehicle. However, was it replaced with a new part or a second-hand one sourced from another vehicle? Was the work done by a Ford dealership or a transmission specialist or a general workshop?

It’s not so likely to be the wiring that’s at fault. Wiring tends to either conduct electricity or it doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean the computer that controls the transmission wasn’t damaged when the loom was burned. Fundamentally, the symptoms you’re experiencing could be from any (or all of) the causes you’ve suggested. Valve bodies, torque converters, electronic control units and gearbox internals all have to be working in perfect harmony in a modern automatic transmission. One little problem with any of those systems can cause all sorts of shifting problems. I’d take the vehicle to a transmission specialist who will be able to – hopefully – diagnose the exact cause of the harsh downshifts and do something about it.

To get a vehicle with meaningful (as opposed to a theoretical) towing ability of 2.5 tonnes, you really need to shop for a relatively late-model dual-cab 4X4 ute. The reason for that is that many vehicles that claim a 2.5-tonne limit in the brochure fail to explain that there’s also a Gross Vehicle Combination Mass in play and, by the time you’ve added passengers, gear and a full tank of fuel to the towing vehicle, there might not be much of that GCM to devote to a towed load.

Going for a vehicle with 3000kg or even 35000kg towing capacity in the first place is a good way to ensure you do accidentally start driving around in an overloaded vehicle with all the legal and insurance connotations that involves.

A lot of the current shape dual-cab utes fall within your budget on a second-hand basis, but there are caveats. Make sure you only buy a ute with a full service history. Some of these vehicles were worked hard by their original owners, so be very careful before handing over the cash. Avoid ex-mine fleet vehicles and don’t be afraid to buy a base-model vehicle if it offers better value. Even a single-cab version of these utes will be a lot cheaper than the dual-cab and, if you don’t need the rear seat, are often a more practical solution. Makes and models include the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux, Mazda BT50, Mitsubishi Triton and Isuzu D-Max. For real value for money, vehicles like the Ssangyong Musso can tow 3.5 tonnes, are well equipped and can be had for less than $35,000 drive-away, brand-new. That also gets you a seven-year factory warranty. All of these options are available with the automatic transmission you want and, indeed, this is the best option for a tow vehicle.

With the official combined fuel consumption figure for your Ranger being 8.9 litres per 100km, having 50km of range remaining should, theoretically, suggest you have slightly less than five litres of fuel in the tank. Which further suggests you should be able to add something like 75 litres of fuel at that point. But car-makers tend to set up these warnings on remaining fuel range fairly pessimistically, giving you a bigger margin before running out. And that’s what I’d imagine is happening here. They do so because most cars will never match their official fuel number in the real world, as well as giving you a bit of lee-way in case a service station doesn’t magically appear over the next hill. The upshot is that you won’t be able to pump as much fuel into the tank as you thought it would take; that is, you had more fuel remaining in the tank than you thought.

As far as your distance per tank goes, that sounds about bang on the money to me. To get 700km from the Ranger’s 80-litre tank gives you an overall fuel consumption number of 11.4 litres per 100km which I would say is just what you should expect from this vehicle in normal use.