Ford Problems

This era of Australin Fords had a bit of a habit of having their body computers go on the blink. When that happened, a whole bunch of things could start acting up, but the central locking was a prime suspect.

When a car thinks it has a door, bonnet or bootlid opened, it will often refuse to lock, preferring instead to warn the driver that the car is not secure. And when the body computer is confused, it can interpret a closed door as an open one. But before you take it to an auto electrician to be sorted, try this: Take a can of lubricating spray and apply some to the little door sensor inside the door jamb. This is the micro switch that tells the computer what’s going on, and if the switch is full of dust or jammed, that won’t happen. Sometimes freeing the switch will make the problem go away.

The other thing to try is to disconnect the car’s battery and leave it overnight before reconnecting it. Sometimes this will actually reset the body computer. It doesn’t work every time, but sometimes it will do the trick.

There are a lot of variables here. One person’s idea of fully restored can vary enormously from somebody else’s. Is the car in mint, factory condition, or in good driving condition? Is it modified in any way? Is it a weird or undesirable colour? Does it have competition history? These are all things that will make a huge difference to the asking price.

Classic cars will make better money if they’re in standard form and with all the desirable options fitted, including a manual (versus automatic) transmission. But even then, the post-Covid market for such things is pretty volatile and even something like another Trump tariff announcement (affecting superannuation values) could send prices tumbling.

However, as a (very) ball-park figure, a good condition, unmolested Capri V6 GT from 1972 should start the bidding around $50,000 or $60,000.

Ford’s EcoBoost engines have a bit of a track record with blown head gaskets thanks to the fundamental design of the crankcase where it meets the cylinder head. Given the relatively high turbo-boost pressure some of these engines use to produce their impressive performance, the head gasket can fail.

But it’s also fair to say that this engine design has also seen its share of overheating problems, blown turbochargers and coolant leaks (often into the cylinders). With that in mind, don’t bother guessing what the problem is, allow a mechanic to inspect the engine and give you a professional opinion based on facts.

The news here isn’t great, and this model Laser had just a single airbag (for the driver) in any of the forms sold in Australia at the time. So, even though the Laser represented a fairly dependable package and is now a very cheap second-hand car to buy, it can’t really be recommended for younger drivers on the basis of that limited safety package.

Even anti-lock brakes didn’t become an option for the Laser until the April 2001 facelift, at which point a passenger’s front airbag became optional in the entry-level LXi and standard on other variants. So the later version is a much safer car all round provided the original owner ticked the boxes for ABS and the second airbag.

It’s serious inasmuch as it’s pointing to a problem with the car’s anti-lock brakes which are a critical safety system on any car. It could be caused by a faulty ABS module (which is the component that physically modulates the brake pressure to avoid the wheels locking up). But it could also be the fault of a sensor somewhere on the car. You may even find something as random as low battery voltage can trigger this sort of alert.

It could even be a simple leak in the system that has allowed the brake fluid to fall below the minimum level. So start with that and check the contents of the brake master cylinder under the bonnet. If that’s okay, a brake specialist is probably your best bet.

In the old days, the advice on this would have probably have been to have the fuel injectors cleaned. But these days, the modern diesel is a much more complex and sophisticated thing, and black smoke from the tailpipe could be any number of things to do with the fuel system.

You may find the injectors are, indeed, the problem, but you need to check the condition of the pump, filters, EGR valve and even the turbocharger and its plumbing. Something as simple as a split in the plastic turbocharger piping can lead to excess black smoke.

The symptoms here point to a stuck flasher relay. This is the electrical component that not only powers the indicator lights, but makes them flash (and produces the steady clicking sound you hear when the indicators are on). The contacts in these units can become stuck at which point the lights can become stuck on.

Why does it still happen when the ignition is off? Because the flasher relay is powered up even when the ignition is not. That’s so you can have the emergency hazard-warning lights flashing even though the vehicle is locked and the keys in your pocket. A new flasher relay unit should fix it.

This version of the Ford 5.4-litre V8 is not universally admired by mechanics. It can tend to run hot, and it’s quite common for this unit to suffer from stretched timing chains, worn chain tensioners and guides. Any problem in the area of the timing chains can lead to a misfire or stumble, and it can be worse when the engine is hot and the oil pressure that powers the timing chain mechanisms starts to fall away.

The best advice is to have the car electronically scanned. This might pinpoint the problem by throwing up a fault code that a mechanic can decipher (including the camshaft timing fault we’re talking about). Don’t continue to throw new parts at the engine; that’s a great way to waste time and money and still not fix the problem.