Common Problems with the AU??

[I6corp]

Originally Posted by useless

Well the new second hand box went in last week.Apparently if the rear auto seal goes the tailshaft may thrash around causing bad wearing inside the main gearbox housing.

Today while driving around my brakes totally dissapeared.Yes no brakes.It seems the brake booster died and was hissing inside the car.I was lucky not to smash.The dam brake boosters are made of plastic!!! If your car is on 180,000 kms ,do yourself a favour and get another booster.If there was a lady or youngster on the car they could have been killed.

:( mate that sucks, what happened? Did u hit something? how bads the car?

ur not having the best of runs witht the AU

[Stav]

Today the new second hand booster died again.Lost my braking while driving out of Sydney to Parramatta. I managed to get it to Greenacre wrecking yard and got another booster. The guy said to me that the AU 2 came with a much larger brake booster but the bolting pattern was different.He said he has never sold an au2 booster but hundreds of au1 ones.

I think ford should recall all AU1 cars and do a free upgraded brake booster. I wonder how many smashes have occured from this design fault?

[red_devil]

I have an AU2 ute, 5 speed manual, pacemaker extractors, other than that basically stock.
The thing is, is it accelerates like a pig. It is as torquey as anything, but I also have an EA 5 speed multipoint wagon which accelerates from a standing start to 100 a lot quicker. Like, close to two seconds.

I have also owned an auto EL on LPG which was quicker too.
At higher speeds it's not as bad. It's just at low speeds its like it's bogged down. It's behaving almost like the timing is too far advanced. But, as I understand, the ignition timing is not adjustable.

The spark plugs (gapped correctly), oil, oil filter, leads and air filter are all brand new.

Any ideas?

[clontarf_x]

It's an AU 0-100 in 8 seconds. Look at getting it chipped and then your in the business

[Papa Smurf]

Touch Wood, I have an AU XR6 with the original booster. 128,000 klms on the clock and I love my car. I am it's third owner adn this is in immaculate condition. It had ONE item replaced under the new car warranty and that was it.

EA falcons had booster trouble too, they were Steel.

One thing I haven't noticed here either, Door locks? (not Barrel and Keys). We have been replacing these things for YEARS on AU's and BA's as well. Ford is up to it's 5 modification on them and MAYBE, they have FINALLY gotten it right.

Front Hubs were a problem on AU's for a time and Rotors. It's a pity but this is what happens when you design a car in a hurry then allow it on the road and have the OWNERS do your fault finding.

BTW, the OTHER OZ built car with a pussy cat emblem has its share of faults too.

[Timeshift]

The actuators in the rear doors of the AUIII.

I bought my car last year and since then, both rear doors had stopped locking when I centrally lock the car. First time was under warranty, all good, second time it wasn't so following advice from here I just took the door cover off and detached the metal rod, therefore the door can only be opened from the inside and not the outside.

That's an overpriced $300 that Ford quoted that i've saved :hihi:

[Casper]

Originally Posted by Timeshift

The actuators in the rear doors of the AUIII.

I bought my car last year and since then, both rear doors had stopped locking when I centrally lock the car. First time was under warranty, all good, second time it wasn't so following advice from here I just took the door cover off and detached the metal rod, therefore the door can only be opened from the inside and not the outside.

That's an overpriced $300 that Ford quoted that i've saved :hihi:

Just hope you never accidently flick on the child locks or you'll never open the door again. May be worth a bit of tape on them to ensure they are not moved into the "lock" postition.

[Timeshift]

Originally Posted by Casper

Just hope you never accidently flick on the child locks or you'll never open the door again. May be worth a bit of tape on them to ensure they are not moved into the "lock" postition.

Good idea.

So, if that were to happen, is it really "never again"? Or will it just cost a hefty penny to get it open again?

Couldn't it just be a case of getting the handle off the door and working from there...?

[Casper]

Originally Posted by Timeshift

Good idea.

So, if that were to happen, is it really "never again"? Or will it just cost a hefty penny to get it open again?

Couldn't it just be a case of getting the handle off the door and working from there...?

It would disable the inside handle.... and the outside is already disabled. The doorcard cant be removed if the door is cut so you would have to cut through it to get the door open I guess. Minimum would be replacing the door trim I guess.

[Bucknaked]

Another Common Problem with the AU is they need petrol.

[Stav]

300 dollars is simply criminal!!

[Sylox]

Originally Posted by Casper

It would disable the inside handle.... and the outside is already disabled. The doorcard cant be removed if the door is cut so you would have to cut through it to get the door open I guess. Minimum would be replacing the door trim I guess.

You can still get into them with in 30seconds even with the handles both not operating. Nothing to stress over its scary really. With out damaging the car.

[Timeshift]

Originally Posted by Sylox

You can still get into them with in 30seconds even with the handles both not operating. Nothing to stress over its scary really. With out damaging the car.

Really? From the outside or inside? How?

[BIRRAK]

BOUGHT MY WAGON ABOUT 4 WEEKS AGO.
Love the car, only 127K on the clock and everything works except the auto antenna.

A few problems I have noted are:

Heavy knock from front suspension which I can feel in the footwell, mainly on cornering.

and

After reversing and then going foward I get a squeak from the rear drivers side wheel. This stops after a few hundered meters travel..

I also have the usual problems, faded/missing display segmants, passanger auto window switch probelms....

[SSVPom]

Just had my AU2 2000 F'mont Ghia's climate control/trip computer display repaired by the bloke in Moorabbin, I dropped it off and it was ready the next day, all packaged up and guaranteed for 3 months etc etc....FANTASTIC SERVICE, WORKS PERFECTLY, can only say good things about him, cos he only charged $60 approx including changing the bulbs too.

Certainly a saving on the $400 that was paid last time the display disappeared!

I think he advertises on here but his website is: www.geocities.com/liquidxtal

[jmc-007]

Originally Posted by useless

Well the new second hand box went in last week.Apparently if the rear auto seal goes the tailshaft may thrash around causing bad wearing inside the main gearbox housing.

Today while driving around my brakes totally dissapeared.Yes no brakes.It seems the brake booster died and was hissing inside the car.I was lucky not to smash.The dam brake boosters are made of plastic!!! If your car is on 180,000 kms ,do yourself a favour and get another booster.If there was a lady or youngster on the car they could have been killed.

plastic what happend to steel ?

not cool

[Dark Horse]

Originally Posted by Bucknaked

Another Common Problem with the AU is they need petrol.

And occasionally oil..... :

[goXF]

My boss traded up to a AU2 stationwagon about 3 months ago. About 130,000k's on the clock. Anyway lately he has been having trouble with overheating and losing water (lots of it).............Yes today it was confirmed....head gasket!
Lets hope the car dealer will honour their 90 day warranty as it is just out of it...

[goXF]

Yes the car dealer covered it under warranty.....as they should. They also gave him a nice AU sedan while they fixed it.

[bazz]

Problems with my 2002 AU-III Wagon:

1) Stereo is crap, can't even play my burnt CD's when even a 15y.o OEM Subaru unit works. Not sure if it's able to play CD's at all, it keep spitting them out.

2) LPG sender guage goes awol sometimes, before returning to an accurate reading.

3) Slow power windows.

4) The fans are noisey when activated, e.g with heather or aircon on. It makes a clicking sound like the big wheel at the casino.

But when I think of the cheap running cost of LPG, I feel happy again.

[Mechan1k]

I know about AWOL fuel gauge for EGAS models ... my senders are working well ... but the gauge on the cluster looks like to be in a permanent sleep ... then again it could be a cabling/earthing issues between the connections on the tanks back to the dash (and I really don't like the idea of tracing all that wiring either).

I had issues where it'd take a little while for gauge to go back to normal but it got progressively worse where it'd got from Empty to Full .. and back again ... all the time. Now it just dhows dead empty ... all of the time ... thank god for the gaues on the side of both of my tanks. That's all i can say.

[bazz]

Is your's a factory LPG model?

[GK]

Originally Posted by goXF

Yes the car dealer covered it under warranty.....as they should. They also gave him a nice AU sedan while they fixed it.

Nice to hear of a good dealer, mine was a shocker, weaseled his way out of everything he could, dared me to take him to court.

It'll come back upon him one day, that sort of ill will towards others and dishonesty always does, in the end!

Glad it was all covered! I guess among the shockers, there are still some people with integrity!

GK

[Mechan1k]

Originally Posted by bazz

Is your's a factory LPG model?

Yep it is .... I have already replaced my tank senders ($130 each for a plastic little gauge) ... they read true now on the tanks ... but cluster is dead ... am going to try another cluster and see if this is the problem ... but at the moment .... getting the time to test with one is limited ... I'll get to it one day.

For now I fill up after 500km of driving and I am safe ... I probably still have another 100-200km still left in it ... but i don't risk it.

[bazz]

My dash guage currently sits a bit over half way and so far I've done 350km. I think 650km - 700km is attainable. It'd probably be 750km or 800km on the freeway I reckon.

[Mechan1k]

On my trip back from Melbourne I kept checking the gauges on my ute ... and I kept an eye on the levels ... and managed 750km from 84L ... that's the furthest I have pushed it.

But around Sydney it uses it a bit ... and then under heavy load ... it chews through it.
My average outer metro driving gets me 15L/100km ... and that's not driving like a grandpa ... doing courier work it can be around the 18L/100km ... and towing and heavy loads get it around the 20L/100km mark.

[goXF]

Originally Posted by GK

Nice to hear of a good dealer, mine was a shocker, weaseled his way out of everything he could, dared me to take him to court.

It'll come back upon him one day, that sort of ill will towards others and dishonesty always does, in the end!

Glad it was all covered! I guess among the shockers, there are still some people with integrity!

GK

Well he actually still has issues with it......
Before the head gasket went on it he had it back with the dealer to fix a problem with the steering...
It handles really badly - more so at higher speeds but the dealer said they could see nothing wrong with it.......
anyway he definitely knew something was wrong because the AU sedan he had on loan while they were fixing his wagon was so much better...
He took it in to Pedders for their $14 check over....well apart from a few other things they told him the front shockers were done....WELL THAT COULD HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE PROBLEM.....now lets just wait and see if they cover that?

[Mechan1k]

Shock absorbers are a wear and tear item ... and really aren't covered under warranty ... well it depends on age of the shock I guess. If it's brand new and it fails ... then fine it should be covered ... but if it has been in the car for a while ... then it's not a warrantable item.

[goXF]

but surely it would be covered under the 3 month warranty he had - considering ti was like that in the warranty period?

[goXF]

but then again maybe not....