Ford Fairmont 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.

IT IS unlikely the problem is related to the ABS. It is more likely to be the wear in the disc. It is not unusual to machine discs on Falcons every time they're serviced. It is a common complaint.

THUMPING in Ford autos is usually caused by the S5 solenoid, Geoff Clay of CPA Automatics says, though it's unusual to get it at such low mileage. The problem is usually seen as a flare-bump while upshifting. It can happen on one-two shifts as well as higher shifts. Geoff says it's worth having the transmission serviced, even though manufacturers do not recommend servicing as much as they once did.

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.

YOU don't say if your car has a factory LPG system or an aftermarket one, but I will make the assumption that it was a Vialle system fitted by Tickford for Ford. The Australian Liquid Petroleum Gas Association says its important for good running that the ignition system be well maintained because LP requires a stronger spark than petrol to fire. Make sure the ignition system, plugs, leads and ignition packs are serviced, and the LPG converter is properly drained regularly. The Vialle system was imported by Boral Gas, so if you still have problems, ALPA recommend contacting Boral for advice.

SOUNDS as if you have a nice Fairlane there, Steve, and it seems a shame to sell it when it has such low mileage and is giving you good service. Instead of buying the V8 I'd consider an EB Falcon XR6 because I reckon you'd prefer the performance of that over the Ghia. Sure, the leather and the sports suspension sound great, but the XR6 will eat it for breakfast. Returning to the V8, the Windsor is a good, solid engine that gives little trouble and is good when converted to LPG. As you say, it is all steel, with cast-iron block and heads.

Carbon build-up in the combustion chamber is normal and can effectively reduce the size of the chamber and increase the compression ratio, which can then lead to a pinging noise. The old way to deal with it was to blow the carbon out by giving the car a long run at high speed. You would then usually see a cloud of brownish smoke from the exhaust. The other way to de-coke the heads is to remove them and clean the carbon out by hand. I'm guessing your mechanic hasn't suggested that because it is an expensive option.

I'd venture to say you don't see many later Falcons with bumpers hanging loose like you do with the older ones. Basically, it's the improvement in the production of the plastic parts. There are many things that have contributed to the improvements, not the least being better mountings. Put it down to progress.

I can't tell you how long, either in years or kilometres, you should keep your car. The older it gets the greater the risks of requiring major repairs and rebuilds will be. At 200,000km-plus it is far from worn out, but the risk of major rebuilds increases with each kilometre, and the car's value diminishes at the same time. You need to decide if you want to drive it to the end of its life when it will be worth little, and risk major repair bills along the way, or sell it now and get into something newer which will presumably be cheaper in maintenance terms. If it were my decision to make, I would move into a newer car.