kaldek

Daily driver BF2 ZF 6 speed here. Wife drives it and leaves it at the station all day three days a week too. I don't see the point of a second car; the purchase price, maintenance, fuel, rego & insurance costs of a second car will be way more than any potential fuel savings. Not to mention the fact that a second car would be an older 2nd-hand unit that wouldn't have half the safety features in it. Also, my car is on a novated lease so it *has* to be driven to keep the k's up. Personally I feel warm & fuzzy knowing my wife is driving the kids around in a car that can accelerate out of trouble, stop safely, and has ESP so she is unlikely to lose control of it. And best of all, when I get home I can enjoy it too. It helps that I ride a motorbike to work of course.

Someone tell me what a "red" is?

You say the car came with WhereIS manuals? Interesting. Either the previous driver had a portable satnav unit stuck to the windscreen or this car possibly does have the factor satnav. Unless you have the remote handy, there's no easy way to tell from within the car. To find out, open the boot and look under the right-side of the parcel shelf. If there is a flap there which opens up, the car has the factory sat nav unit fitted. All you need then is the map disk and the remote control. If it dosn't have the satnav fitted but you would like one installed to display via the ICC, call ASL Logistics. They do aftermarket installation of VDO units which can be displayed on the ICC. Oddly enough, this is the same unit ford is now fitting to the FG falcons as their factory unit (the BF unit was a Denso).

Man this is awesome. Considering the following facts, this is almost a must-buy for me. - My novated lease expires in 2010 - The car (BFMkII turbo) will be un-sellable by then - I will have to cop the lease payout figure myself I'm so excited to see what this brings. Happy to lose the spare tyre for an LPG tank - I live without one on the bike anyway and I'm a dab hand at on-road tyre repair. Bring on liquid phase LPG and monster power tuning!

Geezus! That puts the red book 3-year resale estimate (54%) right out the window. And in my case effectively puts me out of pocket at the end of my novated lease. My lease ends in August 2010, and the residual is $20,000. Basically, I'm screwed both ways because the value is dropping rapidly and the price of fuel will only hurt that. I may end up having to keep it as a weekend car - it may be worth practically nothing by 2010!

The Mustang has been sold here on and off over the years. The latest version is a a nice car, but you'll find a lot of folks here (including myself) who hated the '90s Mustang shape. Basically the Mustang would be unlikely to sell here, as the Falcon performance models (XR6T, XR8, FPV F6 and FPV GT) handle better, are faster, and are made to a higher quality because the Australian market is very demanding. Consider that the Mustang is still sold with a live rear axle and every Falcon model has a seriously well designed independent rear suspension setup (since 2002), and the Mustang just can't hold its own in this market. Believe me, the day you drive one of these cars you will wonder what Ford USA is thinking with regards to chassis dynamics. The only V8 used by Ford at the moment is the Triton 5.4 litre DOHC engine (but they call is "Boss" here). Currently it's putting out 315kw, 5kw more than the latest 4 litre turbo six but less torque. Most of the car magazines don't like this motor as it's not as fast as the turbo six and a bit underwhelming. Ford is considering moving straight to the 5.0 litre direct-injected V8 to replace the 5.4 litre engine. The price of Fuel is seriously affecting the direction our local manufacturers are going.

The world's changing folks, and faster than we expected. We'll come through it OK eh, but maybe not with combustion engines. The next generation of ricer crowd will be talking about how many amps, watts, and volts their cars have. No problem with performance in electric cars - max torque ALL the time - just energy storage being the main problem. But once that's the only way for car makers to turn a profit, we'll find rapid advances in energy storage as money is thrown at the problem. My BFII turbo is on a 3-year lease, ending in Aug 2010 with a $20k residual. As of the last few months, the car might be un-sellable by then. Which only makes my dreams of an FG turbo even more ridiculous!

Note that a sportsbike can go through just as much fuel as you like...and then some. Up to 10L/100km if you push it. Commuting though you will see about 6-7L/100KM on a GSX-R. If you want awesome range, 250s are the way to go with 3L/100KM if ridden "softly". Personally my VFR800 (half sport/half tour) gets about 6.5L/100 up and back the Monash freeway. I could do better but where's the fun in being such a softy?

Thanks, good to know! I didn't think it looked like your usual vacuum hose, so I guess that explains it. Either way, sticky solenoid could either stick open or slow down opening the wastegate.

OK I did some research and it seems people have been toying with wastegate control solenoids (let's call it that from now on shall we?) for some time. It basically says that yes, the actuators are vacuum driven and issues with the solenoid can affect power delivery. So, it looks like cleaning the solenoid is allowing it to close fully and not leak boost pressure out a partially opened wastegate, when it wouldn't normally be open according to the ECU program. For folks with a high mileage car and a solenoid that has never been cleaned, maybe the best option is to buy a new solenoid rather than try to clean a dirty one. At least one person has already done this by the looks of it.

That's....that's....brilliant! Now why the heck didn't I think of that. I think you may have hit the nail on the head. And I mean so bang-on that you hit the nail once and it went right in all the way. Sheesh... Of COURSE a sticking solenoid could leave the wastegate open. The only remaining query is whether the wastegate actuator can open slightly. Since it's vacuum based, I would say "yes" as applying small amounts of vacuum to such a diaphragm system does indeed cause it to move "a little bit".

Right, so wouldn't that mean that if it's sticking you're getting MORE boost? As I understand it, the ECU has the ability to cut fuel and/or ignition to the engine if you're getting too much boost (I.e. the wastegate has failed). If what you say is true, and that cleaning the boost solenoid "increases power", then the only conclusions I can come to are thus: A sticking boost solenoid is causing overboosting The ECU is detecting the overboosting and reacting by limiting fuel to the engine Limiting fuel to the engine is much more aggressive than using the wastegate This in turn results in a feeling of lost power Cleaning the boost solenoid allows for a more *accurate* control of boost, which in turn feels like "more power" The ECU should probably report error codes if fuel-cut intervention is required to limit boost! I'm happy for someone to come here and correct me!!!

So with all the hype around this magical power-recovery by cleaning the boost solenoid, I just have to ask some questions. First up, what does the boost solenoid DO? I mean, if the turbo spins, it creates boost - surely the solenoid is used to LIMIT boost, applying vacuum to the wastegate, yes? Oddly it doesn't look like your average vacuum hose...so I could be completely confused. If I'm right though, what on earth can cleaning the solenoid do aside from make the wastegate open quicker when max boost is achieved? And how does that help power?! Someone...anyone?

Hi there, I have a BFII XR6T; they all came with DSC standard. There is a light that comes on when *either* traction control *or* DSC kicks in - it's the same light. So yes, the light just goes on when pushing the car. A quick way of checking if the car has DSC is the light and the button itself. Cars with TC only use a small picture of a single wheel spinning in gravel, whereas cars with DSC use a picture of a car and some skid marks trailing behind it. I've managed to provoke TC - although less than I expected due to the excellent limited slip diff. I have also managed to provoke DSC, and it's a very capable system.

Normally I would expct that all you would have to do is start the car up, and immediately set the heating system to max heat (fan speed should be irrelevant). Then just wait for the car to get to operating temperature where the thermostat opens and allows more coolant to flow. You'd then expect the heater core to flush the air out of itself. Since these cars have the coolant reservoir at the top of the motor, folks are telling me it should "self air bleed" (I.e. burp itself). Here are the instructions from the Ellery's manual: Install radiator drain plug (if it was removed) Install bottom hose & tighten clamps Add coolant to radiator Install cap, turn until fully locked Set heater to maximum Go for 10 minute drive Let engine cool enough to open filler cap again Fill tank to full/max line Replace cap Apparently, that's all you need to do! Just make sure you leave the heater on max the whole time.