Full Monty

There is a dull thud upon takeoff below 10kph this is the ABS system priming. you may be hearing a click from your handbrake, mine has been back to ford 5 times, it either makes a swooshing sound, or a rotational clicking at slow speeds. Otherwise, maybee a CV? hard to diagnose without hearing it.

yes, I wouldnt try accelerating hard with it on, you will brake an engine mount or worse. try gently in reverse,but I suggest trying as I said in previous post, I'd say the lever is seized or something, have a fiddle around the back of the dust shields where the cable goes through, inspect the cable underneath the body, particularly around the equaliser plate, see if the seizure is before the divider / equaliser plate or after (pull handle up, hop under and see if the cable has pulled tight and pulled the plate. if it has, your problem lies further back in the hubs

3" is actually less flow capacity that twin 2.25" 3.5" is about the same.

certainly sounds like the handbrake is jammed, check the insides of the dust shields where the cables go into the rear hubs, give this a wiggle, the actuator arm could be seized. If this is the case, get a mechanic to service the Handbrake assembly. worst design ever, been giving me grief for 2 months now 5 trips to ford!

Its about $20, lasts a long time as you dont need much and the protection lasts around 1-2 months. most autobarns should stock it, ring first if the closest store is a fair hike away

Im in Melb, s.e subs. we actually met at the last forum cruise (port melb car park)

Aerospace 303, comes in a white spray bottle, can be bought from autobarn. Read up about it in US car detailing site: "Autopia" its like spf 40+ for your plastics + rubber seals etc. P.S dont use Meguires Leather wipes or Conditioner cream on your seats, especially if you have the BA leather with small perforated holes, they fill up with the white gunk. I use meguires everything, bar these 2 products....I have a bottle of the cream, used once if your interested. try Zaino Bro's Z9 leather cleaner and z10 leather in a bottle conditioner

Hi Guys, Ive got a PDR tech coming over on friday arvo to inspect and remove a couple of minor (5 cent peice sized dings. will take before and after pics to show the result for those interested. For those that dont know, Paintless Dent Removal is the art of gently massaging the inner side of the panel to remove the dent using specialty tools. Much cheaper than visiting a panel shop which usually requires a respray of the affected panel, and if you have metallic paint like me, hard to get it looking just right. will post a report once done.

Is the Car edited - custom tuned? If so, speak to the tuner about torque tags If not edited, possible the ecu is sensing extra boost - exhaust flow and is retarding timing / closing throttle etc?

3.5" metal cat was $350 plus $15 postage overnight to melb.. Tell Jay at Hillside Gavin sent you, and you want the same as me. He'll look after you, I told him I would steer some forum members his way.

Correct, so I believe.

Nothing is wrong with the non adjustable bar, it just gives you, ummm no adjustment. for instance, if you find the middle setting to stiff, you can move the linkage out one hole to effectively soften the bars rate of stiffness. and visa versa, move in one hole to stiffen.

also think about re-sale, the majority of people would'nt want a bar of it, hence its cheaper price. study or no study, its the publics general concensus that will dictate resale price.

Be warned that if you go with the firmer Fulcrum Polyurethane bush, you should also use the Mal wood strengthened cover plate. You then risk snapping the Bolt, so use a high tensile item if possible. I would say the cause of it braking to be excessive axle tramp at a guess. what rear shocks and springs do you run, also what tires?

The rattle can be fixed!, take a pair of pliers, slide under the driver side (may need a jack and stands) I did mine at the end of the driveway on the incline so could slide under. with a pair of decent bull nose pliers, make your way along the seam where the 2 halves of the heatshield meet, crimp them together and even give it a kink, make your way along the seam, kinking / twisting every 5-10 cms.. fixed my heatshield rattle instantly! give it a try before removing. I now have a high flow cat and different front section (3.5" back to first join) and no longer have the heatshield on this front section, I do notice a little warmer cabin temps and heat from under the car when you hop out. Nothing major. Gav

ohh and the current available mounts are indeed different from my original BA ones (april 04). the mount looks the same, but the shoestring straps are secured differently, instead of crossing over they have a small bracket on each side to hold the strings in place. the actual rubber and metal ends looked the same to me.

ok, all done, replaced it tonight in the driveway, really simple job, just requires a jack and a couple of stands, once you have the chassis rail on a jack stand, undo the bolt running through the metal bracket (securing it to the crossmember), then use your jack and a peice of wood to carefully and slowly jack the engine upwards (place the wood and jack to the rear section of the sump). Undo the top bolt (easiest through the intake manifold near the T.B, and straight down with a few socket extensions, otherwise a little fiddly from underneath. then slide the old mount out, mine had broken the top bolt clean out of the cast metal section in the top of it! remove it from the lower bracket, install the new mount onto the bracket, slide back in place taking note of its original orientation (bent lip facing the engine block). push it up into the engine mount block and put the nut on a couple of threads by hand, lower it down and push the bolt through the bracket and crossmember, tighten both bolts / nuts up and your done. all up 40 minutes from jack up to down again. Right side mount looks like a bee hatch, gonna get my mechanic to do that...!

Ok I can confirm its the left side engine mount, cost me $184 inc GST from fraud. to check it, put the car in drive, foot on brake and bonnet up, apply gentle throttle and watch for the engine movement,it will move upward excessively to one side if one is broken..... if the left side lifts up in drive then its the left mount, if the right side lifts in reverse its the right mount Luckily its the left, as it can be done at home in the driveway with a trolley jack and stands, simple 2 bolt job. the right one is hard to get to and needs a hoist, also has a heat shield etc surrounding it making access a little tricky.

what is the symptom of a broken engine mount? a loud clunk when lifting off from flooring it, seems to be coming from this area, and I noticed the rocker cover has gouged the bonnet lining slightly, Left side, front area of the rocker cover has yellow dust from the heat sheild material. Only just happened in the last day or 2, and noticed it when I lifted the bonnet this morning. also noticed the car is wobbling a little bit on idle in neutral.

sorry to tell you cheif, your probably not gaining any benefit beyond waxing once every fortnight, if anything you have added too much wax and it will lessen the effect. 2-3 layers is all you need, if you are mega anal, do it once a fortnight - or even once a month. I mean, cmon, im a car detailing fanatic (I cop it from all my friends) but that is rediculous, take up a hobby with all the time you'd save.

Try the Bridgestone R spec race tyres or the Yokohama race semi slicks. I have 2 sets of Bridgestones sitting in my shed waiting the next track day to try some out. I use Yokohama Advan sports every day, and have done a track day with them, I will be interested to see the difference, as the advans are regarded as being one of the best road - sport tyres available.

I agree, the bar should be put back in place to give best indications of real world results, it need not be properly fastened, even just the single top screw in each wheel arch to hold it in place. without the bar, it might flatter some cooler types over others? (bottom to bottom feed, versus bottom to top feed. Gav

so which model did you get? I have the 70264, which has the highest BTU rating of the reasonable sized B+M coolers (at least did at the time) has been trouble free so far, like I said, oil was in perfect condition after nearly 5-6 months of driving including a track day. I can feel the temp of the cooler after driving, it certainly dissipates a lot of heat, but it isnt scorching hot with normal to spirited driving. The key is gettting good airflow to and through it, especially if you mount it in the area infront of the front wheel, I cut a couple of large circular holes in the lower air deflector just below and infront of it, and then a series of louvered slots in the wheel arch to allow the air to flow through and out. I had a 2" flexible duct from the front lower grille to the trans cooler initially but removed it and installed some ducting from directly below it. you'd be suprised how much air gets pumped into that area at 100kph, via the area surrounding the Fog lamp (high pressure zone) and below the headlight, I have heard of people having the plastic screw / scrivets push out and force the wheel arch plastic onto the tire at speed.

hard to diagnose, but if it were the T.P.S you can re-calibrate it by trying to start the car with the accelerator fully depressed to the floor. The car wont attempt to start, just turn over and apparently this recalibrates the endpoints of the T.P.S. otherwise we are just guessing and best to go to a mechanic to get diagnosed.

I agree, I would look at the 27mm adjustable, allows you to go up one rate and down one rate. I would do just the front first and tweak it both ways to see the effects. Damn I want some Teins, please report your findings.