Jake F6

The gearbox and clutch on these cars is good and can cope with quite a bit of power and torque. The clutch is fine for day to day use, and is nice and light. Once the clutch wears out, the best replacement in my opinion is Mal Wood Opt 3+ I run Castrol Traqnsmax Z in the manual box, which has quietened it down a lot. I run 85w-140 Mineral oil in the diff.

Well, I have completed my FG Premium Audio Upgreade which consisted of removing all factory speakers and replacing them with: - Alpine Type G 6.5" Splits for the front doors and A-Pillar. - Alpine Type S 6.5" Coax 2-Ways for the rear doors. - JBL GTO-804 8" free air sub for the parcel shelf. - 16mm MDF spacers for the doors - 2 sheets of Dynamat My plan was to simply run the splits and rears off the head unit to existing factory locations, and the subwoofer off the factory amp also to the existing factory location. I also wanted to maintain a 100% stock apperance. The above equipment was carefully selected for maximum effect for this purpose, after a lot of research. Now, I have never installed car audio equipment before but thought that I would give it a go as a bit of a challenging project for myself. I thought that it would take me a day or a day and a half, however it ended up taking me 3 whole days - dont laugh! I took my time with the soldering, heat shrink, dynamat etc. On the first day I managed to install the subwoofer and two rear door speakers. and then the with splits - they took a whole day each!!! Subwoofer: The FG premium audio comes with an 8" subwoofer in the parcel shelf so the JBL GTO-804 would be a straight swapover, with mounting holes redrilled to match the factory holes. The parcel shelf from above has six plastic clips and a torx screw which need to be removed so that the cover can be lifted off, and placed onto the back seat to reveal the factory subwoofer, which can easily be unscewed. From underneath, the cover needs to be pulled down from the clips with a bit of force to reveal the bottom of the sub, which needs wires to be cut near the factory loom connector (remember which color wire is + and -). The factory sub can then be lifted out from the top. I then applied most of a sheet of dynamat around the subwoofer hole to the top of the parcelshelf, and also over any holes in the parcel shelf. Then I screwed the new subwoofer into the parcel shelf, and the cut factory wires that were left underneath the parcel shelf were then stripped a bit and twisted into the subwoofer connectors. Top and bottom covers are then put back onto the parcleshelf in reverse of how they were removed. The subwoofer was the easiest bit. Note I went back to normal +- polarity with the JBL subwoofer, whereas I had reversed the polarity of the factory Ford subwoofer as per well documented tweak. Rear Doors: There is a guide on removing and replacing front door trims posted on FF which was invalueable, and can be used for both front and rear doors: http://www.fordforum....php?t=11299639 Once the door trim is removed, you can unscrew the speaker and cut off the factory speaker wire(remember which color wire is + and -). Then you will will need to mount your MDF spacers tightly into the existing three holes (I needed to trim the MDF spacers which I bought a bit to fit nicely and flush against the door). I did not apply dynamat to the rear doors as I didn't have enough sheets to afford this luxury. The two way coax speakers were then screwed tightly to the (pre-drilled) holes in the MDF, and speaker wire was soldered onto the speakers at the speaker end and then twisted and soldered to the factory wires which were previously cut at the other end. This was then finished with heatshrink. I made sure that the electric windows went up and down without hitting anything before I put the door back together. I repeated this on the other door which was quicker then the first due to knowing where everything goes. Front Doors: These were by far the hardest for me due to the fact that you need to also install a crossover and tweeters, and run new wiring back from the front doors to the A-Pillar for tweeters. In addition to the procedure for the rear doors above which is basically re-used for the installation of the front door mid-range speakers, the following also needs to be done. The A-Pillar trim needs to be removed to reveal the factory tweeter which can then be unscrewed and its wires unplugged. I wanted to reuse the factory tweeter mount, so I unscrewed the factory tweeter from the mount, and trimmed off the bit of plastic which has its capacitor thing attached. I didn't have the right size screw for the tweeters so I just ended up super glueing them to the facotry tweeter mounts. I was doing the driver side first and it was a real pain to push the tweeter wire down through the side of the dash, and I made up a litlle "hook tool" from a wire coat hanger which I used to "fish out" the wire from underneath the dash - time consuming. The next step is the hardest part, and involves getting the speaker wire through the rubber door gromet, and into the door. This took a long time, and is very frustrating. I had to remove the kick panel. I managed to finally remove the grommet from both the car body side and the door side with my fat hands, and then to get the wire up through to the grommet. I taped the tweeter wire to a more rigid wire which I eventually managed to carefully push through the gromet and then into the door. I thought that this would be slightly faster on the passanger side, as it was the second one, however here there was the satnav module right in the way behind the kick panel which meant I had to also remove the glove box, glove box assembly, and the sat nav unit... I also managed to stupidly thread the tweeter wire around the door hinge whilst pushing it through the gromet, so I had to pull it out and do it again...arrrrrgh. Then I had to find a place on the door to mount the crossover which would need to fit unobstructed with the door trim back on, and I managed to find a good place just near the speaker with a bit of trial and error. The crossover requires two mounting holes to be drilled into the door. Then its a matter of connecting all the wiring to the crossover, testing that the audio works from the speakers and tweeters, and that the electric windows go up and down without hitting anything. In my case I sliced a speaker wire with the window, and had to solder it and re run it more carefully, and away from the window mechanism. I left the crossover tweeter attenuation at the factory setting of 0dB which is the brightest setting for the tweeters, I figured that this can always be brought lower with the equalizer. I also put dynamat on the outside skin of the front doors, and tried to fill some of the holes in the doors. Overall: I got a great sense of self satisfaction from doing this project myself, and I think that my attention to detail, and caring for my car, means that the end result is much higher standard than if a low cost install place had done this work. Having said that, I would probably recommend that anyone doing this upgrade retains the factory tweeters, and just goes with a set of two way speakers for the front - which would make this job a hell of a lot quicker and easier. I would have done it in 1.5 days rather than 3 days. I am wondering if anyone has done this, and whether they are happy with the result. My result? Well the sound quality improvement is absolutely fantastic, and I am particularly impressed with the Alpine Type G which are very punchy, with exceptional sound reproduction. I am still playing with the tuning of the head unit audio parameters but the improvement is just massive. The car looks 100% stock, which is exactly what I wanted. The system really has massive omph now, and crystal clear sound. I am very happy and in particular as this was for a total outlay of around $500. Thanks for reading, Jake.

Oh yeah, the reason why I need a lot of this done is because Noble Park Brake and Clutch - 120 Cheltenham Rd Dandenong, fitted the wrong bushes four weeks ago when they had a go at fixing these squeaks. They fittted the wrong bushes, wrong bolts, didn't tighten things propoerly, stuffed up the wheel alignment, and damaged my control arm and cradle! They will be hearing from me...

Ok - I dropped the car off at Centreline - Chris really knows his stuff. Turns out that the diff cradle needs replacing, and it needs one new rear control arm & rear control arm bushes, & a sepherical bush. While it's there, I am going to replace all diff bushes with SuperPro Comfort bushes, and I am also currently considering Bilsteins all around. Expensive - but this work should all transform the car, and eliminate axle tramp too. Jake.

Thinks Nicko, I've just finished my install. I'll start a new thread with the write up soon. Jake.

Sounds like a plan. Yeah, I also want to sort this once and for all. I've done a bit of research, and have decided to take it to Centerline Suspension in Thomastown, despite it being on the opposite side of town. Hopefully they can strengthen the current cradle, fix all squeaks, and also suggest improvements to address axel tramp - P.S. a guy on the other forum has developed a new set of 3 diff bushes which apparently will address most of the axel tramp issue whilst also minimising NVH - worth looking into in my opinion, and I would definately get these if I needed to replace the diff bushes, however I think that my diff bushes are still fine...probably just all the others that are root_ed.

Let us know how they go.

Thanks George. Sounds expensive! Do you know how much for a new cradle? (the stronger design ones post late 2010). At least it sounds like you found a good workshop that have really gone over the car well - that's what I need in Melbourne - Somebody help suggest a place please...! When are you taking it in for fixing? - I'll be interested to see how you go. Cheers, Jake.

Thanks, my creaks are getting worse, and I'm wondering if it's to do with the cracked cradle flexing around, despite being welded. Let's share notes - I need to find a good place in Melbourne to take mine to next week. Jake.

I'm not saying that I recommend one over the other, but one is sure a hell of a lot cheaper. I'm running 327rwkw through the system that you have just described - and could go higher. In my opinion, yes it is a good choice, but you may definately want to consider a hotdog in the middle section to keep it more civilized. Jake.

Very nice. Any plans for an intercooler upgrade?

Im near Southland

You get what you pay for. If was to put a weighted rating on each of the Operators (out of 100), I would rate them as folows: Telstra: 85 Optus: 60 Vodafone: 25 P.S. I am very close to the Telecommunications industry.

Could be tailshaft hitting exhaust, is the exhaust aftermarket ? Check how far it is from tailshaft.

Here is the weld. It actually does not look like a very permanent fix to me:

Hi guys, The suspension place had a very thorough look over my rear suspension, to try to find two noises, but the investigation was inconclusive, and apparently they would need to drop the cradle to investigate further which would be a bigger job. I may need to go down this path shortly as these noises are driving me nuts... The suspension place replaced the bushes at the top of my rear shocks, and also mentioned that the sepherical bushes would need to be done at some point, but will be ok for a while longer - all other bushes were good. Diff cradle was alsowelded, as per other thread. The following are the two noises that I am trying to eliminate: 1. Low speed creaking noise coming from the rear, when going very slow I.e. 10km/h whether going straight or turning does not matter. Cannot be heard at higher speed. The suspension place suspects that perhaps something needs to be tightened which they cannot get to without dropping the cradle, could be a bush. I sometimes hear the creak, quite loud just as I jump out of the car and the weight is released off the rear wheels. 2. Knocking noise when taking off briskly (like 4-5 knocks in quick succession). This can only be heard on take off, and the knocking can be felt from the rear of the car. I have made sure that the exhaust is not anywhere near the tailshaft. The suspension place think that this potentially could be a drive shaft, but again, would need to pull the car appart to be sure. Pat from Wholesale Suspenison - can you please give me your opinions on these, as its not quite May yet Thanks guys. Jake.

I'm interested in this too

Yep, I'm replacing all the speakers.

Here is the crack:

Ok, so I had the car at a suspension place whilst checking to determine where some of my rear end squeaks were coming from, and to my horror I was shown that my diff case was also cracked, just like the others! Now, the bloke welded the crack up, but didn't strengthen the casing by welding any plate onto the back of the casing, as he reckons he would need to remove the rear diff bush to prevent it from melting... The rear diff bush looks ok. My question is, will this be sufficient? Can I weld on an additional plate without melting the rear diff bush? Where do I take the car for this type of work? This is really a concern, as I don't drive the car very hard, however it does have 327rwkw, and I think that I would strongly suggest that anyone with an FG pushing more than 300rwkw should proactively go and get this weak component strengthened.

Initially on the FG F6 I removed the centre muffler section, and went with a single straight pipe. I had to take it back to the exhaust place immediately as it was too loud, and I got them to put a hotdog on. After putting the hotdog on in conjunction with the Venom cat pipe I think it sounds good, and without any drone. P.S. the car makes 327rwkw. On my previous BA XR6T I removed the centre muffler section, and this sounded very nice without the need for any hotdog, this had the standard cat though and was running 250rwkw. I say give it a go!

Does the parcel shelf need to come out to fit a new 8" sub in place of the factory 8" sub? Or can it just be dropped in from the top, and wired from underneath once the trims are removed?

I always go private for buying or selling, unless you want to give the dealer $2k-$3k additional of your hard earned cash for each of the transactions...

Or just replace the centre muffler section with a hot dog, for a good exhaust note, and cheap!

Where does the Plazmaman suck it's air from given that there is no snorkel? It would appear that it is getting hot under bonnet air...