AU3 tidy up advice

[xafairmont]

Hey!,
just bought my first AU falcon family hauler looking for some advice cleaning her up a bit.
Story is an AU3 SR wagon $1000 with a month rego, dealer fitted dual fuel, 290k & go fast red! Was an old blokes from new who had his "mate" service the car though not very regularly as I have been discovering! Plus the car had not been cleaned for a long time!

I dont want the missus driving around in a ******* and want to make it reliable and clean, plus pass pink slip soon.

So far I have washed & polished the car & the paint came up schmick (can highly recommend Turtle wax scratch & swirl remover). Also have drained the auto trans oil (not a full flush though) with filter kit it was black & done an engine oil change, air filter fine, will do a radiator & coolant flush soon, brake fluid looks fine. The car drives great no suspension rattles or interior squeeks & everything works. My questions:

What else would you change/replace?
Front armrests are well worn, I am guessing most second hand ones are too what have others done to improve them?
The engine bay is filthy with baked on grease under the sump & trans what is a good way to get it off?
Please link me to a good headlining replacement thread!
I will need a couple of parts so will place a thread in the WTB section as well.

Thanks!

[Uncle_Ken]

Theres is a long running thread on headlining options, easy way is to spend a small amount of $$ and get a pro to do it. Buy a high pressure hose (cheap these days) what for a degrease sale spay and wipe.
Look on ebay / gumtree for second hand interior in better nick than yours but cheap to buy. AU I II and III door trim all fit your AU.
I'd start there for plastic surgery, sounds like you have done the main maintenance already. Watch for oil leaks when you park it, to keep the paint in good nic park under shade if you can.
UK

[xafairmont]

Thanks mate, have a high pressure washer & bulk degreaser so it looks like a dirty weekend ahead with a scraper & scrubbing brush, was hoping for a snake oil miracle cure to save some time but oh well. Yep understand about parking in shade especially with red paint!
With the interior everything is good other than the arm rests & headlining, pretty bloody dusty but he had front seat covers on so the seats are not bad.
There are oil leaks but I need to clean everything to get some idea of their origin.

[auIILTD]

Sounds like a great pickup xafairmont. I hope you can start a build thread in our workshop builds area. It's a great way of documenting your journey with the car, as well as sharing it with others that appreciate our great cars.

Cheers and welcome to the AUs.
Stu

Edit: Unwritten rule - photos are a must! In either thread,

[Uncle_Ken]

Originally Posted by xafairmont

Thanks mate, have a high pressure washer & bulk degreaser so it looks like a dirty weekend ahead with a scraper & scrubbing brush, was hoping for a snake oil miracle cure to save some time but oh well. Yep understand about parking in shade especially with red paint!
With the interior everything is good other than the arm rests & headlining, pretty bloody dusty but he had front seat covers on so the seats are not bad.
There are oil leaks but I need to clean everything to get some idea of their origin.

Red paint can be a killer. Now a days you can get the fake carbon fibre to cover the boot, roof and bonnet. Not that expensive. Sounds like you have everything you need, good luck with tracking random oil leaks.
UK

[auIILTD]

Originally Posted by Uncle_Ken

Red paint can be a killer. Now a days you can get the fake carbon fibre to cover the boot, roof and bonnet. Not that expensive.
UK

Oh UK we need to talk! Are you going through you 5th childhood? xafairmont, do not listen to this old old man.

Sorry Ken, but we need to steer our newbies at least in the right direction, not the necessarily the cheap and easy way.

Cheers
Stu

[Uncle_Ken]

Originally Posted by auIILTD

Oh UK we need to talk! Are you going through you 5th childhood? xafairmont, do not listen to this old old man.

Sorry Ken, but we need to steer our newbies at least in the right direction, not the necessarily the cheap and easy way.

Cheers
Stu

OK OK I hear you LOL. Stu makes a good point. BUT Stu xafairmont might be one of our 'young' AU brothers (sub 30 years) so Bling might be what he likes LOL.
I do suggest xafairmont, that use the forums to see what others have done so you can informed decisions about your ride.
AND Stu is correct, pics please
UK

[MNM96]

Originally Posted by auIILTD

Stu

Edit: Unwritten rule - photos are a must! In either thread,

Yep, Pics or it didn't happen! lol

[xafairmont]

haha sure I will get picks soon. I am 32 and seriously - The XA wagon was the family car for 6 years and is now in bits for a tidy up, so generally no I am not into carbon fibre/canons/vinyl wraps/blitz stickers etc. The AU is the newest car I have owned!

[Grippy]

It should be a reliable family hauler for only $1,000, that's good buying! Being an AU3, they're bloody reliable if serviced regularly. My only advice would be to put an external trans cooler on for the auto.

[Uncle_Ken]

Originally Posted by Grippy

It should be a reliable family hauler for only $1,000, that's good buying! Being an AU3, they're bloody reliable if serviced regularly. My only advice would be to put an external trans cooler on for the auto.

I agree
UK

[xafairmont]

No worries an oil cooler is now on the list

[fordfalconed]

Gidday to all the lads on this thread,

I'm a newbie to this site so bear with me and please excuse if I happen to hijack this thread or if I should post elsewhere, your guidance is appreciated.

Congrats Xafairmont on your good deal!

This thread took my interest because I have a Falcon Sedan red coloured Au SR3 that has a convenient removable towing gooseneck (the square type) but has not external cooler.

So what I did was remove my old external cooler from my Falcon Sedan ED. So I was wondering if I followed the same piping/wiring up of my old ED and just copy that way onto my Au S3 if that would work?

For your info the external cooler was positioned/suspended originally in front of the ED Aircon large condenser and behind this was the actual Radiator.

The ATX tube coming from the rear of the box is the longest tubing then there is at the front of it the shorter tubing.

The shorter ATX tubing goes to the bottom hole on the radiator and the longer ATX tubing goes throught the cooler then it goes to the top hole on the radiator.

Any comments and feeback would much welcomed.

[Uncle_Ken]

Welcome to the AU forum. This is what I did to install an aftermarket coolor.
I would guess a auto cooler from a ED would be OK (in good condition of course)
http://www.fordforums.com.au/vbporta...?articleid=827
Re Hijacking a thread if you comment/post and it relates to the thread OK. General chit chat can be done else where on the sections of this website.
So from your post above, I would have posted in the general AU section. (Xafairmont had not made any reference to 'how to install' a trans cooler)
Just my opinion
UK

[xafairmont]

sorry guys i work until dark so no photos till next week! did have an issue with an lpg leak
& though i will tackle just about anything on a car lpg is not one of them for obvious safety reasons. Good news is i isolated the leak to the lock off valve/filter before the converter and got it fixed on Wednesday, paid the bill just under $80 for 3/4 of an hour & $5 in consumables - guessing it was just an o ring could not get my cash out quick enough was expecting much more than that!
All good with the trans cooler hijack saves me looking it up myself!
Basically have been cleaning the car, seriously looked so daggy its not funny but I am myself amazed at what a bit of love and elbow grease can do only getting better the further I go. Why don't people put some effort in when trying to sell their car they could of at least doubled their money!

[Uncle_Ken]

We'll forgive you when we see lots of pics
UK

[fordfalconed]

Thanks for the welcome feedback and the well set out "how to" link Uncle_Ken and good to hear that Xafairmont got his fix done right.

I'm learning on how to post a new thread in the correct section so thanks for bearing up.

My AU3 is only petrol so not sure if the same applies to LPG systems in relation to the ATX cooler as recommended by others on this thread.

The ED sedan ATX cooler looks as being in very good condition and I can still see the imprint on its metal frame that it's made in Canada along with a bunch of numbers and letters.

Also out of curiosity Uncle_Ken do you think I could actually use the whole tow bar with ball and swap it over into my AU3 sedan instead of using the Gooseneck tow bar?

[xafairmont]

Hey Fordfalconed, yes I would recommend an external trans cooler on any auto car regardless of fuel type! I put one on my XA with a C4, did not cost too much and the peace of mind is worth it - heat kills auto's. I would also recommend an oil change & filter service kit for the auto, I used to have an EF falcon (same auto) and found they are quite sensitive to oil condition and level. As soon as the dough is available (darn bills) it my next upgrade will be an oil cooler. If you can make it work use the ED cooler.

Why would you want to swap the towbar? I would prefer to have the heavier duty
Goooseneck style with a higher load rating than the standard one cant see a good reason to swap.

I have just changed the front discs & pads, the discs were very well worn and I have a steering rack on the way (Not really needed but desperately need inner tierod ends & rack boots for both sides @ $200 all up; the new rack is $260 with these included so it is a no brainer again for reliability & peace of mind)

[Uncle_Ken]

Fordfalconed has an excellent point re tow bar. The one on my XR8 came with the car (He only towed a small trailer) so I didn't select it.
UK

[fordfalconed]

Thanks Uncle_Ken and Xafairmont for the feedback. And yes a small trailer would be a limitation as you pointed out Uncle_Ken.

I did forget about the heavy duty part of gooseneck setup Xafairmont so its good you pointed it out so I might just leave it but some time soon I will try to use the ED cooler and copy the tubing onto my venom AU3 lol wicked laugh

I can't put up a pic yet as I have found out just today that either the AU3 ATX cross shaft seals or the ATX Extension housing bush& seal are leaking. Plus I'm getting a bad shaking of the car while idling at traffic lights & engine block felt while on Neutral or on Drive but goes away when moving. Even though I have cleaned both the throttle body and Idler body, put in new NGK sparks, Ngk leads and a VDO coil pack but shaking or miss firing is still there and can be heard splutttering deep sound at exhaust outler pipe. Any thoughts would be welcomed. Ps I get a suspicion it may be the fuel pump as several times the reading needle has moved several millimiters between markings. cheers lads

[fordfalconed]

Gidday lads and those interested,

I have an update so that explains the delay.

I did a carburettor spray and water on the inlet manifold to engine block test and you wouldn't believe it but it was a leaking and vaccum sound near the cylinder 2 area.

So I had to get a genuine inlet gasket and replace the old one which was totally brown and crumbling like a biscuit. But the new one is nice and deep grey coloured. And now the missfiring is gone and the spluttering sounds are gone at the muffler end pipe. So the fuel pump and injectors seem to be fine. Cheers hope this helps someone.