AU falcon troubles

[Ean Austral]

Gday All,

I have a intermittent fault with my falcon ute which im thinking may be electrical. The car will drive fine and for no reason just start to mis-fire and then get to the point where it will stall. Try and start it and it will cough, spit and sometimes fire , sometimes not. wait 5 mins and it will fire up and run fine.

The car run for maybe 2 tanks of fuel then start to do it again.

Its got a new fuel pump and also just replaced the coil pack yesterday.
Its the standard 4ltr 6cyl ford engine.

Any suggestions would be great.

Cheers Ean

[LowRanger]

The coil pack was never going to give these symptoms unfortunately.Providing that the vehicle has fuel,the problem s more than likely the crank angle sensor,the main power relay or the ECU .

[Ean Austral]

The coil pack was never going to give these symptoms unfortunately.Providing that the vehicle has fuel,the problem s more than likely the crank angle sensor,the main power relay or the ECU .

I changed the coil pack because according to the manual, the resistance readings I got on 2 cylenders were way off the mark. I personally didn't think it was either, but atleast now it has a new 1.:D

Cheers Ean

[Bigbjorn]

Welcome to the crap Ford electronics club. You will have more and more troubles. The thing will drive you to the rum bottle by stopping instantaneously and having to be towed to a repairer to replace yet another stuffed electronic component. This is why my Falcon ute got christened the "Two-in-one Falcon", the first and the last.

Best solution is to get rid of it.

[Ean Austral]

Welcome to the crap Ford electronics club. You will have more and more troubles. The thing will drive you to the rum bottle by stopping instantaneously and having to be towed to a repairer to replace yet another stuffed electronic component. This is why my Falcon ute got christened the "Two-in-one Falcon", the first and the last.

Best solution is to get rid of it.

Up to 100,000ks the car was great, but Ford must put a computer thingy in the system for things to start to fail straight after.

This car made my D2 look like a Rolls Royce when it comes to troubles.

Obviously people who complain about L/R haven't owned a AU falcon

[LowRanger]

Truthfully falcons are no worse than commodores,and neither are that hard to fix.

[weeds]

work has an AU that gets abused and doesn't give us problems

i used a own an AU2 and never had a trouble with it.....it was an ex hire car as well

[Ean Austral]

Truthfully falcons are no worse than commodores,and neither are that hard to fix.

I think its the same for all makes/models. I would have thought the C.A.S would just stop the car dead. It looks a straight forward change out so will see if I can pick 1 up today and try that, otherwise it can go to the garage and see if they can sort it.

Thanks and Cheers Ean

[LowRanger]

I think its the same for all makes/models. I would have thought the C.A.S would just stop the car dead. It looks a straight forward change out so will see if I can pick 1 up today and try that, otherwise it can go to the garage and see if they can sort it.

Thanks and Cheers Ean

Depends on the fault with the Crank sensor.It is quite common for them to cause cutting out,backfiring etc and then to start and run normal.Usually thermal related problems.From memory,the resistance on the Crank sensor is 300-400 ohms,you can easily check it when the vehicle is playing up,you don't want an open or short circuit.
Fuel pump relays and power relays are a real bug bear with Fords.Next time it plays up,give the relays a tap with a screw driver handle or similar,one at a time and see if the problem mysteriously corrects itself;)

And seriously,you only have to look at how many of them are around the country as Taxis,with well over 500,000km,they aren't an unreliable vehicle,but like ALL vehicles,have their known faults

[slug_burner]

If it isn't electrical I'd be looking for something floating around in the fuel system occasionally blocking the supply. The let it sit for a while and it is good to go makes it sound thermal related. I like the fuel related relays etc for this one.

[bee utey]

Perhaps the fuel tank breather is blocked, try driving with a loosened petrol cap.
Did it misbehave before the new fuel pump? I've seen some awfully dodgy pump refits. Perhaps the fuel return line isn't filling the surge pot all the time and it runs out. Some surge pots use the return pipe to operate a jet pump to get fuel sucked into the pot to the point of overflowing. Not sure of the exact arrangement of the surge pot on this vehicle, just an idea.

[Ean Austral]

Perhaps the fuel tank breather is blocked, try driving with a loosened petrol cap.
Did it misbehave before the new fuel pump? I've seen some awfully dodgy pump refits. Perhaps the fuel return line isn't filling the surge pot all the time and it runs out. Some surge pots use the return pipe to operate a jet pump to get fuel sucked into the pot to the point of overflowing. Not sure of the exact arrangement of the surge pot on this vehicle, just an idea.

Yes it was doing it prior to the pump replacement, the reason for the replacement was I snapped the plastic nipple off the housing trying to get a hose off.

I did notice when checking the C.A.S today that the wires going to the senser have the coating cracked and missing in a couple of spots.

The C.A.S tested up within spec.

Cheers Ean

[chang]

Gday All,

I have a intermittent fault with my falcon ute which im thinking may be electrical. The car will drive fine and for no reason just start to mis-fire and then get to the point where it will stall. Try and start it and it will cough, spit and sometimes fire , sometimes not. wait 5 mins and it will fire up and run fine.

The car run for maybe 2 tanks of fuel then start to do it again.

Its got a new fuel pump and also just replaced the coil pack yesterday.
Its the standard 4ltr 6cyl ford engine.

Any suggestions would be great.

Cheers Ean

Classic falcon issue here, which nearly all the time can be either coil, dizzy or both. I had an el ghia 6 cylinder which at one stage presented with exactly the same symptoms as you have described. New coil pack fixed her. Pretty common for them to go after a while an break down under heat, getting worse & more frequent. Ford manual will guide you through some simple tests on the dizzy componants measuring resistance & voltage across different points to get to the fault but almost certainly will be the dizzy as you have replaced the coil already. If you get the specs for the dizzy to test, get the ones for the coil also if you don't just buy the manual, as the test on that would only taken a novice 30 min, testing the resistance of the coils primary & secondary windings, then compare with factory specs which would same ya a few quid down the track

[bee utey]

Classic falcon issue here, which nearly all the time can be either coil, dizzy or both. I had an el ghia 6 cylinder which at one stage presented with exactly the same symptoms as you have described. New coil pack fixed her. Pretty common for them to go after a while an break down under heat, getting worse & more frequent. Ford manual will guide you through some simple tests on the dizzy componants measuring resistance & voltage across different points to get to the fault but almost certainly will be the dizzy as you have replaced the coil already. If you get the specs for the dizzy to test, get the ones for the coil also if you don't just buy the manual, as the test on that would only taken a novice 30 min, testing the resistance of the coils primary & secondary windings, then compare with factory specs which would same ya a few quid down the track

Guess what, neither the EF nor the AU runs a dissy.;)

EF/AU1 coil pack:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2012/10/161.jpg

AU2 coil pack:

http://sparecarpartsmelbourne.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/FORD-FALCON-AU-SERIES-II-COIL-PACK.jpg

[LowRanger]

Actually the EF had either,you could get them with a distributor and HEI coil,or with distributorless with the coil packs.
But yes the AU are all coil packs;)

[bee utey]

Actually the EF had either,you could get them with a distributor and HEI coil,or with distributorless with the coil packs.
But yes the AU are all coil packs;)

Never met an EF with a dissy, and I've gassed a few. Must be rare (or misidentified EL's).

[chang]

Ahh I stand corrected, thought they were all pretty much same same from ef to au just with VCT being the major change.

[Davehoos]

you factory ordered a distributor for dual fuel to reduce the back fire.EF-EL.the problem is severe on start up and at stumble idle speeds when they waist spark into the intake.

later cars with tickford system are different storey as they cant start on gas and step motor adjust mixtures.I guessing they had so many for production quota and Ive seen many that the owners had no idea of of the different spec engine.but never seen distributors on higher spec models.

no dist with VCT.but i have seen XR6 with non VCT and distributor.
most-not all of the manual vehicles also had distributors.

A mate working for a large fleet buyer,used to get upset that his work would not buy manual LPG vehicles.and the hand full of XR6 manual cost less to run and bigger resale.I often had a shot at his driving style because the adaptive transmision cant cope with constant manual shifts.

Im certian it was done to upset him but his 6 monthly up date -coincided with auto only LPG batch runs.:)he later got a promotion and an auto camry.

no AU distributor as it has a CAM signal-sequential injection and duel fuel starts on petrol.
gas only-big bangs at low engine speeds--and i was suprised to see some in manual.the air clener doesnt self destruct like the early types.

EF-EL you can fit a distributor and trick the coil signal to suit 1 coil.
AU the compressor bracket fowls the distributor.I have fitted sanden compressor kits to AU utes on gas with distributor and EA CFI/Weber impco gas.

[Ean Austral]

Problem.. Crank Senser wiring lost some of their coating and shorting out.

New senser and wires.

Cheers Ean

[Davehoos]

a a P/S.

the neighbours AU fairlane VCT cooked the engine wiring and I remade a loom.to suit it as a duel fuel-impco.
the crank angle and cam signal had a seporate harness that came around the front under a plate---and intermitantly shorted.

P/P/S
VN commodore-had a stand alone DFI pack-the DFI module was under the coil pack.
it was a lot different to the american version having 3 differnt length slots on the crank to trigger each cyl.and 18 slots to indicate engine speed and crank angle.the american has 1 i think to indicate no 1.

the 3 slots are different lenghts and the idea was it could work out what cyl was firing by looking at the other even spaced pulse.

it cant----if the engine kicks back or the rpm is irratic---big bang.

the later VP engine can turn off one coil during cranking and other times.untill its happer the engine is running properly.other cars im told do the same.

[Ean Austral]

a a P/S.

the neighbours AU fairlane VCT cooked the engine wiring and I remade a loom.to suit it as a duel fuel-impco.
the crank angle and cam signal had a seporate harness that came around the front under a plate---and intermitantly shorted.

P/P/S
VN commodore-had a stand alone DFI pack-the DFI module was under the coil pack.
it was a lot different to the american version having 3 differnt length slots on the crank to trigger each cyl.and 18 slots to indicate engine speed and crank angle.the american has 1 i think to indicate no 1.

the 3 slots are different lenghts and the idea was it could work out what cyl was firing by looking at the other even spaced pulse.

it cant----if the engine kicks back or the rpm is irratic---big bang.

the later VP engine can turn off one coil during cranking and other times.untill its happer the engine is running properly.other cars im told do the same.


The wire running behind the plate is exactly what happened to mine.

Cheers Ean

[LowRanger]

Problem.. Crank Senser wiring lost some of their coating and shorting out.

New senser and wires.

Cheers Ean

Glad you got it sorted out Ean