Full Monty

hi guys, I am pleased to say, after 6 visits to Ford to have my handbrake swooshing noise fixed, it is finally SORTED!... It all started just before Christmas, when I booked it in to have the Handbrake TSB fix applied (new centering spring and re-adjustment). This worked for all of about a day until the cyclic swooshing noise was back with a vengance. 5 further trips, where they simply re adjusted the handbrake tension, from too tight, causing a grinding sound at slow speed, to having almost no handbrake, to having just one wheel being locked by the handbrake. So I did some research, speaking to some mechanics at City Ford service, they recommended inspecting the handbrake shoes for noticable wear on the upper surface. once this top area is worn, more than 1mm or so, basically the shoe needs to be adjusted to reduce the gap for the handbrake to actually work. and hence as the shoe is now out of round, the tolerances are reduced. and the sides of the shoe scrape on the inside of the rotor hub when the Handbrake is disengaged. So I learnt 2 things, if you have this swoooshing noise, as most of us do, purchase 2 new handbrake shoes at a cost of $35 each, and get them fitted by ford (using a special bracket to adjust the shoes to the correct tension on each side. Secondly, never apply the handbrake whilst moving, even at slow speeds as this is what wears the pad surface, and as it is of such a soft compound, doesnt take long before it is unservicable, and the swooshing noise returns. I only applied it gently at slow speeds when diagnosing the noise, the previous owner may have accidentally driven with it partially on, or done some silly shenannigans So if the TSB for the handbrake swoosh didnt work for you (for more than a week), then try replacing the shoes. at just $35 bucks a side, it could save you from going nuts!

No Idea then, unless it goes under a different brand name now? I remember buying 2 rolls of the stuff from Freeway after my install was done, and I spotted it in Jaycar also. Comes in a long post pack type tube. sorry I cant be of more help. Gav

Dont buy Dynamat, overpriced. Get its equivalent, called Brown Bread, can be purchased by the roll from Freeway car audio and even Jaycar Electronics. Get some Focal Plain Chant sound pads to place directly behind the speakers, this has a huge effect. Immediately noticable to even my wife, midrange clarity improved greatly.

Generally you will need to replace the bar rather than repair, unless the dent is very minor.

Nice job, that is effectively what I did, although my B+M has a different orientation, the mounting bracket runs along both edges, allowing me to use some right angled steel as a bracket, bolted and spot welded to the chassis rail, and the outer edge has a bracket support running up to the metal behind where your Pod filter is (below the headlight). I then cut a number of slits in teh inner wheel gaurd, just as you see on allot of cars, this allows air through and down, but as you say, from the outside, rocks / debris cant get through as they are deflected off the louvers. I then lined the inside with wire mesh. has worked a treat, apart from one oil line popping off the following day (not done up enough)...I just happened to be doing 180kph down the back straight at Sandown at the time ... note to everyone doing this job, make sure, I mean double check the clamps are done up. made a big mess, luckily I was able to ease out of it, and slow to a stop off the side of the track. some pit stop repairs and I was away again (refitted line - clamp) and filled up the trans...lol 5 ltrs of oil under the right side of a car makes a big mess....4 cans of degreaser and 2 hours to clean it all up.

also consider some sound deadening for the front doors and rear parcel shelf, you dont need to go nuts, my last car had 3 entire layers of Brown Bread sound deadening sheets, covering the entire inner door skin, and 2 layers on the inner door frame, then also Focal Plain chant sound pads on the inner door skin directly behind the speakers. Minimum, I would put one layer of sound deadener in an area say 30cmx 30cm directly behind the rear area of the speaker, with some Focal Plain chant over this. (about the same area covered) Plain chant on its own has a massive improvement to mid range clarity, as it disperses and absorbs the rear waves coming off the speaker, reducing distortion and annoying rattles in the door skin. I would also add sound deadener to the topside of the rear parcel shelf, (under the carpet) this will add mass to the shelf, and tighten bass response and clarity, and reduce annoying rattles and vibrations, along with improving road noise entering the cabin from the boot area.

Dont manually downshift the 4 speed auto, its okay to do it provided the roadspeed is low enough for the gear you want to go into Downshifting at higher revs, and making the box decellerate the car...say down shifting to 2nd whilst doing 100kph, is bad for the bands in the box. I always let the car slow to corner entry speed before selecting the gear to accelerate out with.

Honestly, 100,000 kms is nothing, its 4 years of average driving. actually its the ones with really low km's id be more cautious buying (I mean freakishly low kms for a 4-5 year old car. It means its sat around and done nothing most of the time, seals begin to perish, joints rust etc... as long as it has routine maintenance, regular oil changes and plugs, driveline inspected annually and items worn are replaced it will last a long time. As Simon from Nizpro put it when I asked about increased wear on engine etc when running more power, he said, well its a minor percentage, as in, most of your driving is within the engineered power range of up to 200rwkw....only a small percentage of your overall time are you giving it some stick, and provided the car is well tuned and running the right fuel etc, you wont be doing any damage... it would be hard to calculate the added wear and tear on the engine over a standard one, driveline is another story, worn CV joints, trans or clutch upgrades - renewal.

Im heading down from Daylesford after a wedding on saturday. Hope to see you all there. Gav

man you have some restraint, I would have gone fkn troppo. make sure you get plenty of compensation!

Yes I was charged a little extra to make the new collector, but Jay looked after me. made a further 10rwkw over a standard BA "hi - Flo'ed cat and pipe setup"

For 3k I'd be getting a new set of AP racing CP5200' calipers, braided lines, and DBA 5000 rotors Including adaptor Brackets to suit the BA - BF upright, and pads + Fluid. Speak to Race Brakes in either sydney or Melbourne for more info Front alone, dont bother with the rears, other than better pads, and decent vented rotors if rears are getting low. The ABS braking system on BA - BF falcons have a porportioning valve system, that directs 80% of the braking force to the front brakes in harder stops. I was told by race brakes to save my money when I enquired about doing the rears as well, at most do decent pads and vented rotors. I also am not sure if you would throw out the ABS calibration and stuff if you went to 4 piston rear calipers on a standard Turbo ECU? for 3k im suggesting the wrecker is just selling the front Brembo's, and the rear are just the equivalent of the BF rear PBR's painted red. Premo ford Rotors arent in the league of the DBA 5000 2 peice. clarify if the rear calipers are indeed Brembo, if not, go new AP racing. an AP setup will outbrake a Brembo time and time again

Hi John, welcome aboard...I'm sure there will be tons of members with questions for you... RE Felix: that's a shame, I thought you might have been able to get in there from the same spot you did mine...but there wouldnt be much room to move about in there.

the cost is only a fraction of what a body shop would charge. average door ding, say the size of a 10-20 cent peice, would cost around $60 to remove. provided there is easy access (not behind the intrusion bar). Obviously the prices decrease if you have a few dents to remove in the one panel. I guess the complexity of the dent and the time taken to remove would dictate price. Visit John's website at PDRTEK.com.au to get his details

Jay at Hillside exhaust made the change, it was struggling on the dyno in the topend. the restriction was identified as the collector, so Jay spent a couple of hours making up a nice new one which had all die grinded internals and no sharp transitions for max flow. we then decided to continue the 3.5" as far as possible before mating to the standard rear mufflers. sorry I totally forgot to take pics over the weekend.

I would certainly have the dent removed by PDR, then see if you can live with the chipped paint. Being that the chip is on the lower edge, if it were well touched up you would probably never notice it, and save yourself nearly $1000 for a full front end respray at least the dent would be removed if you do then decide to respray, as a panel shop will most likely just bog it.

Ok guys, here are some shots from the work carried out yesterday, I was really pleased with Johns work, very professional and meticulous attention to detail. He arrived at the agreed time, and worked for 3 hrs when he only quoted for around 2, he then deducted $50 from my bill because there was one dent he wasn't totally satisfied with, as he couldnt gain proper access to the rear of the dent with his tools due to the side intrusion bar. (Intrusion bar was directly behind the dent). He still improved the dent to the point where it would have to be pointed out to you to notice. Great professional honest guy, highly recommend him to anyone in melbourne So in general, all dings, small dents up to the size of your hand (sometimes bigger depending on location can be removed without a trace, provided the paint isn't creased / cracked / severely marred and the PDR tek can gain access to the rear of the dent to massage it out. Very interesting to watch him at work, massaging from the outer perimeter of the dent, inwards to the center using long narrow metal rods, with different shaped tips depending on the application / dent to be removed. Here you see him begin work, you can see the metal distorting from the gentle pressure being applied to the rear of the dent (note the dent being removed here is behind the side intrusion bar, making access very difficult. Next you see 10 minute later and the dent is all but gone (looking at the reflection of the flouro lights) he then finished up using a small plastic tool and rubber mallet to very gently remove any creases / high spots or imperfections on the exterior finish. Next you see John had spotted the slightest indentation in the leading edge of my bonnet, possibly caused by a stone or some over zealous thug closing my bonnet at the mechanics...lol (note I had never seen this tiny dent, but John's keen eye picked it up under the lights. Lucky he was able to remove it, as this area is filled with double skin and reinforcement metal work, making access difficult. Finally he removed another tiny dent towards the front of my drivers side door, down low, again right near the reinforcement for the door hinge and again the side intrusion bar. he had his work cut out for him, anywhere else in the door is easy peasy! All in all very pleased with the outcome considering the restricted access to 2 of my dings. John is a car enthusiast, having owned a few highly modded WRX's and now a nice edited SS ute. He understands how passionate us nutters can be about our cars and the pride we take in our cars appearances. If you are looking for some dent repairs around Melbourne, please don't hesitate to give John a call, tell him Gavin sent you and I'm sure he will look after you. I am in no way am I benefitting by giving John's business a plug, just wanted to recommend someone to other members who needed this type of work done.

XR Pete, they can remove dents the size of a Pin head, I had one on my rear quater panel that you could barely see, he removed the tail light to gain access and totally removed it in around 10-15 minutes.

Yeah keen to see the new Nizpro cooler on the dyno and logged intake temps over repeated runs. if its nearly as good as Ive been told then its the cooler to have.

No mate, they can only repair dints etc, what you require is a weldup of all the holes, file finish and repaint. quite costly, I'd recommend looking around for a standard XT boot in your colour at the wreckers.

Hi Showdown, just google for a PDR in your area.

Mine have been fine so far, apart from having one of them scrape a kerb slightly and needing the lip machining and re coating nothing to report... They actually seem really beefy, compared to my old B15 simmons which buckled at the sight of a ripple in the road...lol they will be fine, unless you go hitting any major potholes, which will buckle anything.

All the best with the move and change of life. hope to see you on here still!

Holy sh*t!! you lucky sod! nice one, should see a handsome 30-40 rwkw gain over what you would have otherwise achieved with a custom tune / injectors... wow

He is coming over tonight after work to inspect, and to make sure he has adequate access to the rear of each dint (bonnet has structural ribs etc which make it difficult sometimes. anyways I will take pics before and after. For anyone who is curious, have a look on Youtube - search PDR or paintless dent removal, you'd be suprised at the size of some dints that can be removed without a trace.