Che

Keep looking man, don't restrict yourself to just one online carsite, look at all of them and be prepared to travel. It took me 4 months of looking and I ended up buying a BA 04 Mercury Silver T with heaps of extras and only 60,000k's on it for 17,000.

Welcome to the dark side and enjoy your new car

I think the car will look great...at the Mardi Gras

Hi Dave Are you in Hervey Bay? If so, that's where I live too. I am saving up for a custom tune and am planning to head to Redcliffe Dyno. I had all the money for some nice upgrades and my gearbox shat itself, so back to square one. Cheers Matt

Hi guys Latest update: As expected Ford Australia told me to "get #$@%ed". I have now taken my car to a local transmission mechanic in Hervey Bay, he has been great, even calling me 3 times a day to give me updates. One of the planetaries has a tooth missing. He is going to completely rebuild the box and put in AU planetaries. He said these are stronger than the current ones and he also will replace the torque converter, as he thinks that is where the trouble came from. Total cost including labour is $2600. Cheers Matt

Thanks man. It is booked in for Friday. I'll let you all know how it goes. If anyone knows where I can pick up a good box from let me know.

Thanks for the tip, I'll go have a look. Mechinic did check the transmission fluid and said it was clean.

Yeah, pretty confident it is the box. Took it to a local mechanic who put it on the hoist. Once we got it up to 60km, you could hear the noise coming str8 from the box.

Car is bog stock. Might be a long shot, but I'll see how it pans out.

Bit of an update: I live in Hervey Bay, so no tuners for a few 100km's. I rang Ford complaints this morning and even though the car is out of warranty it has only 60,000km on it. They took down the details and called a local Ford dealer who are booking it in diagnose the problem and report back to Ford. If the dealer reports back that it is a fault, Ford says they may contribute some money/parts towards it. Fingers crossed.

Hi Guys I think I might be up for either some major gearbox repairs or replacement. Where could I buy a new 4spd auto for my BA? This one is making a slight grinding noise when backing off the revs in 4th. Cheers Matt

On top of what the others have said, after washing, chamoising etc, I usually use meguirs (spelling?) detailing spray and wipe off with a microfibre cloth. I use a wax every 2 months or so and I find the spray helps in between wax's to keep it looking in showroom condition.

Hi guys/girls I have an 04 BA and I notice that my car takes off faster and has more solid boost in adaptive mode from a standing start than performance mode. Does anyone else notice a difference? I thought it would be the opposite. I find peformance mode good when overtaking as it stops the gearbox kicking back hard.

he'll use a carrot instead

My Ba 04 just clicked over 60,000km, so I guess it is just broken it ;-)