Ford Problems

This could be caused by something inside the engine bay rattling or vibrating, but could also be linked to the exhaust system or its heat-shielding doing the same thing. When you hit the accelerator up a hill, the engine and driveline (and exhaust) are suddenly put under a lot of stress which can be passed along any mechanical link or fixture, making things flex or vibrate that don’t normally do so when they aren’t subjected to the same stresses and loads.

When the engine is cold, have a feel around the engine bay to find anything loose or poorly mounted that could contribute to such vibrations. It could be as simple as a poorly located clamp of a loose piece of trunking or internal panelling vibrating against another part. Often these noises will be conveyed into the cabin via the fresh air vents, making them sound even louder.

Just be sure not to confuse a rattle with the normal cacophony of noises a modern turbo-diesel produces as part of operating under load.

I can see why the internet cohort might be confused by this question (and why your mate at the pub may or may not know what he’s talking about) because it’s a bit of a weird one. For reasons of friction reduction (efficiency) and reliability, the camshafts in the Ford Bi-turbo are driven by a rubber toothed belt. But – and here’s the strange bit – the belt is partially submerged in the oil in the engine’s sump, so it’s a 'wet' timing belt. While the vast majority of other rubber, toothed timing belts run in a 'dry' environment.

Ford reckons this gives the engine the low noise of a conventional rubber timing belt, combined with the low friction running of a conventional `wet’ timing chain. But the high-strength cords and the oil-resistant rubber the belt is made from, says Ford, also mean that it should last a lot longer than a conventional timing belt. While conventional belts should be changed between 80,000 and 120,000km (roughly speaking) the Ford belt is said to be good for 230,000km.

For the record, the Bi-turbo’s oil pump is driven by a second belt of the same construction.

No, the new Ranger is code-named PY, while the vehicle in question is a PX. Admittedly, it’s a very late-build PX (a Series 3, if you like) which got a revised look and extra tech, but it’s not a 'Next Gen'. The real giveaway is that it has the five-cylinder 3.2-litre engine fitted. This engine was dropped for the newer models, Ford electing to stick with the 2.0-litre bi-turbo and 3.0 V6 diesel engines and the twin-turbo 3.0-litre petrol unit for the Raptor.

Noisy tappets (also known as hydraulic lifters) are relatively common on engines that have done their fair share of work. By using oil pressure generated from the engine’s oil pump, the hydraulic lifter can adjust to maintain the perfect gap between itself and the engine’s intake and exhaust valves. This improves efficiency and reduces engine wear, so it’s an important job.

Over time, the lifters may become a bit lazy (or weak) and may not be able to maintain that correct gap. At which point the extra clearance causes the tapping sound we associate with worn lifters. Replacement is the solution, and best practice says replace them all at once on the basis that if one lifter is already weak, the rest won’t be too clever either.

However, there’s one thing you can try before that, and that is to give the engine an oil change with a high-detergent (as most diesel engine oils are) content oil and a clean filter. Sometimes, fresh oil will clear out a small piece of grit or rubbish that is blocking the oil flow to a lifter and restore it to full health.

The last decade of dual-cab four-wheel-drive utes have emerged as the tow-vehicles of choice, and you see them everywhere filling roles exactly like the one you have planned. Popular models include the Ford Ranger you’ve nominated, Toyota HiLux, Mazda BT-50, VW Amarok, Mitsubishi Triton, Nissan Navara and Isuzu D-Max. But there are also cheaper alternatives including makes like the South-Korean made Ssangyong and various Chinese brands like LDV and Great Wall.

Just make sure you know exactly how much you need to tow before making a decision as some of the cheaper models don’t have the same outright towing capacity and even if they do, some of them don’t have the engine performance to make towing as easy as it should be. For parts availability, the Toyota would be king in really remote areas, but any of the major brands are pretty well covered in Australia.

Meantime, don’t rule out ute-based wagons such as the Ford Everest, Isuzu MU-X, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and Toyota Fortuna. These offer better ride comfort when unladen thanks to more sophisticated rear suspensions and most have as much or almost as much towing capacity as their ute brethren.

Believe it or not, this is perfectly normal behaviour from many modern vehicles with eight, nine or even 10-speed automatic transmissions. It’s even more common with torquey turbo-diesel engines which can jump one or even two gears on a light throttle without affecting performance. Put simply, there are more gears on offer than the vehicle actually needs. Don’t forget, once upon a time, a three-speed transmission was quite common.

So why have nine or ten gears in the first place? Because when the vehicle is heavily loaded or towing three tonnes of caravan, those extra gears come in very handy for keeping the engine in its torque zone and ensuring it can still go up hills at highways speeds and take off from a red light without over-exerting itself. And when cruising on the highway, the vehicle can select a really high gear and lower its engine speed, which reduces fuel consumption markedly.

Unless you’ve been the victim of a cruel twist of fate where something else has gone wrong at the exact moment you fitted the new neutral safety switch, it stands to reason that the new switch is not playing the game. You say you’ve tightened the selector linkage, but did you make sure the new switch was located precisely so that it could detect when the car was not in neutral (and, therefore, prevent it from starting)? By tightening the linkage, you may have moved the trigger for the safety switch to a position where it isn’t allowing the switch to make contact and let the engine crank.

In the meantime, try this: If the engine won’t turn with the gearbox in Park, move the selector to Neutral and see if that changes anything. If the car suddenly starts, you know that the new switch is working but needs adjustment to get it into the correct position.

Any time you have oil mixing with coolant, you have a pretty major problem on your hands. In the case of your Territory, it could be that the head gasket has failed, allowing the two fluids to mix, creating the milky murk known in the trade as a 'milkshake'. It’s a bit unlikely but it could be even more serious and your engine may be suffering from a cracked cylinder head or a split cylinder liner. A blown head gasket is a lot more likely, though.

But just as probable is a problem that occurs pretty frequently with this make and model. The Territory’s transmission is cooled via a heat-exchanger that is cooled by the engine’s coolant. If the plumbing on this cooler fails (usually because of friction due to junk inside the tubing) then the engine coolant and transmission fluid can mix and also form a milkshake which you’ll see in the radiator or coolant catch-tank.

Unfortunately, if this is the case, the transmission’s computer and its hardware may also be damaged beyond repair by the coolant diluting the transmission fluid and generally causing havoc inside the transmission.

The best advice is to not drive the vehicle any farther and have it diagnosed by a workshop to see exactly what has happened.

1350 units of the second generation Ford GT were be assembled at Ford's facility in Ontario, Canada, while 4038 examples of the first generation were built.