Bad news for Ford Oz and Australia in general. Holden will drop it’s game once the Falcon is gone.

I purchased a new G6 Limited Edition from Jefferson Ford late Oct 09, My car is a petrol model, with the std 5 speed auto. Ever since day 1, I noticed what appears to be a driveline vibration apparent as the engine passes through 1500RPM Range. It seems even more noticeable in the 70K – 90K range when the car is cruising, particularly up a slight incline. That said, you can still detect the problem at both higher and lower speeds. Now with over
over 5000ks, and after numerous visits back to the dealer and long waits on hold to the Ford CRC, the problem is no better, and has in fact worsened a little.

I’ve always suspected that it’s something to do with the Torque Converter, and knowing what dealers are like, before I took it back to them, I first went to two transmission specialists and asked their opinion. Both said they thought it was a torque converter lockup problem, and both put that in writing for me. I Then went back to Jefferson Ford, hoping to get it fixed. First visit – yes there’s a problem but we don’t know how to fix it. You’ll need to call Ford CRC (Customer Relationship Centre). Called Ford CRC, and eventually arrangements are made to take the car back in to Jefferson Ford and “technical expert” from ford will be on hand as well to analyse the problem. The result was, “no fault found”. Again I went, back to the dealer and demanded a senior mechanic come for an extened drive with me, and left the vehicle overnight for the workshop manager to drive home. The result this time, yes there’s definately a problem and we’ll get back in touch with Ford. Next,another visit finally arranged and the same “technical expert” from Ford comes back out, and again refuses to acknowledge any problem, despite the fact that the dealer’s own mechanics agree that the problem does exist and has
not been rectified. The printed service reports from the dealer (of which I have copies)state that there is torque converter lockup boom evident, as well as a driveline vibration, and that the problem has not been rectified! End result was a letter from Ford stating that “we are satisfied your vehicle is operating to manufacturer’s specification and is similar to other vehicles in the model line”. Basically the’ve said my only option now is to take action via my solicitor!

BTW, I do know that others are haveing similar issues, as evidenced by the posts at carsguide

More power = bad, less power = bad, that is why the Barra230 Falcon with 6 ZF was so unpopular because if you did any work at the engine, the gearbox would not respond to it, so basically if the car had to make say 275kW from 230kW at the flywheel, the gearbox would electronically limit the torque, hence those additional 45kW would go to waste and you’d only make a car more economical but not quicker. That is why you can usually see people with older 5.4L 3V SRs and Fairmonts, Ghias and Utes beating their very similar Barra230 which were modded, because the old 4 speeder would not care about the power change, while ZF would.

so in the I6 application, with GAS conversion + ZF 6 speed = not so much fun, unless you do some expensive computer EEPROM recalibration.

And by the way, in real life there is no difference between a typical 4 speed and 5 and 6 speed Falcons.

They have so much torque that the 1st and 2nd gears on the 5 speed torqueshift and ZF are just too close, they should be tall as always.

The only advantage may be at 100km/h, where a typical BA with 3.23 final drive would do 1750rpm at 100km/h in 4th which is 0.68 ratio.

While ZF would do around 1550rpm at 100km/h in 6th which is 0.69 ratio on a taller 2.73 final drive.

And when in Fairmont Ghia BF1 and BFII with V8 5.4L , then we are talking 2.53 ratio, moon reaching gears, which means 1350rpm at 100km/h in 6th plus lock up torque converter.

Which means consistent cruising at 1350rpm at 100km/h in 6th, while the similar car with 4 speed and 3.45LSD would do 1900rpm, and with 3.23 would do 1750 rpm.

And if with an old EL-AUIII diff which is 3.08 in 4th it would do 1680rpm at 100km/h 4th being 0.68 still.

Wait till 2011, I6 will receive DIRECT-INJECTION ” i heard! ” and GAS models might make just over 200kW and 400Nm, and petrol version will be able to run on ethanol and petrol making close to 260kW and over 440Nm from N/A stock I6 4.0Liter!!!!

so , keep ya ear out, you might hear this too, i did , as early as December 2008.

Dan