Across from the Red (dark) side for a while

[Mozz]

Although having been a member for a while today I became the owner of a nice tidy (albeit with a few km's on the clock) dark blue 2000 AUII S 6cyl Auto, thought it about time to get a decent drive car after selling my LS1 Commodore a while back.

The common problems thread is a useful resource but it, and some searching hasn't provided me with the answers I seek.

As I am picking up the car next week I am looking for a bit of advice as to some parts/fluids which would suit my AU - not looking for all out performance, the car is primarily a daily driver - so onto a couple of questions:

What type/brand of plugs, leads, oil, trans fluid, coolant should I pick up to treat the new car? Also any advice on things to keep an eye on with high km AU's.

Any assistance greatly appreciated

[JC]

Oil - Penrite HPR 10 or other brand that is a 10W40 oil.
Trans fluid - Penrite ATF 95 LE or Castrol TQ 95
Diff Oil - Penrite HYPOID 80/90 or Castrol EPX 80W90
Power Steering - Penrite TRAC/TRANS HYD. or Castrol SYNTRANS 75W/85
Coolant - I use 4L of Nulon Long life green, mixed with approx 8L of water. (Dropping the bottom radiator hose only results in approx 12L of the 15L capacity coming out).
Leads - TopGun TG6160 kit if it's Feb 2000 or earlier, or TG6175 if it's March 2000 or after or Bosch B6201I orB6228I
Plugs - NGK BPR5EY-11 or BPR5EIX (Iridium), Bosch Super4 WR91V

The biggest problem with any auto is to make sure it does not get too hot - so a trans cooler, an auto service and new fluid will help prolong the life of the auto box.

You have bought an AU2 (mid-cycle car), so the problems tend to just be normal maintenance issues. Enjoy.

[Steve_T]

Hi mate - welcome to the forums. Good to see you're getting youself a nice AU.

As for coolant, I have been using the Ford R1-33 factory stuff which seems good, but there are other good ones out there - I'd suggest HAT rather than OAT for AUs. Other than the Ford stuff my recommendation would be Nulon "Long Life" concentrated coolant (the green one) - Ford recommend and approve this one and I think it's actually the same stuff that they use for your initial fill in new cars and just rebadge it to sell as the Ford stuff. I'd recommend 33% concentration.

Trans fluid has to be a specific type to suit the BTR trans, but I don't think the brand makes any real diff. - Ford R1-48, Castrol TQ-95, Mobil ATF 95LE, BP Autran LE - and other brands do it too - usually has 'LE' or '95' in the name and will say on the bottle it's for late model Falcons anyway.

Engine oil - I use/recommend Mobil 1 - in the XR8 I'm still trying to deceide which viscosity to settle on 5w50 or 15w50. I'd probably reccomend Mobil 1 5w50 for the I6 - it may be twice the price of cheaper oils but you can change it at 10,000 instead of 5,000 km IMHO so it's worthwhile. Be sure to change your filter every time you do the oil too (some people use 1 filter per 2 oil changes). any quality oil should be good - lots of people like Penrite stuff too - I'd recommend fully synthetic though whatever you go for. Ford say in the manual to use a SJ/CF ILSAC GF2 10w30 for best fuel economy or else a /40 or /50 oil (which I'd suggest as I prefer engine protection over economy).

Factory plugs are NGK Iridium VW16R-A13 - AFAIK these are pretty good and pretty long life so I'd see no reason to use anything different.

If you never wanna have to buy plug leads again later on I'd get a set of Magnecore leads or similar high quality spiral wound ones to put on. For something cheaper and more readily available I'd say some NGK spiral wound ones. Either way, replacing the factory leads with something other than factory leads would have to be good. Sounds like lots of people here use Eagle and TopGun too.

AFAIK there should be no real probs to look for on high km AUs but the other guys here could probably point out some things. You're obviously doing the trans fluid which is good - do a full flush if you can. Also wouldn't be a bad idea to do the diff fluid - standard 6cyl axle - SAE90 Hypoid oil or for LSD use SAE90 EP oil - IRS is different again but I don't think it could be IRS on an S. Mobil SHC ID is recommended for all XRs and V8s so I don't see why you couldn't use this if you want something a bit better but I'm not sure.

That's about all I can think off - everyone else will probably have more hints for ya though.

Steve.

[Steve_T]

Beat me to it JC - took me a while to write that - good tip about the trans cooler.

[JC]

Took me a while too steve. I started my post at about 11.05, and the post time is 11.29 odd. The info was easy enough to find, but when you start looking at different brands etc, and getting specific part/oil numbers, it makes it tough. We should have something like this as a sticky, I reckon.

[Casper]

It have to agree with JC as well except I use Autolite 985 plugs. Apart from that he's 100% on the money (and the plugs he chose are pretty much top shelf anyhow)

[Mozz]

Have just read though this post - excellent information thanks a lot to all who contributed - will acquire car on Monday arvo next week and get working on a full fluid change and plugs and leads. Now to find that post with the information on how to change the trans fluid in an AU - that bit about having to hand pump fluid back up into the trans looked like a big trick for inexperienced players ;)

[GK]

Originally Posted by Mozz

Have just read though this post - excellent information thanks a lot to all who contributed ;)

You will find stacks of great guys here who have a wealth of info and don't mind sharing it!

;)[/QUOTE] Now to find that post with the information on how to change the trans fluid in an AU - that bit about having to hand pump fluid back up into the trans looked like a big trick for inexperienced players ;)[/QUOTE]

I agree about that hand pump thing. I wasn't up to it and so paid $90 for a full service. Peace of mind.

All the best with it.

GK