bugster70

Actually, I think I get it. I THINK that what you are saying is that I will need to put in the resistors from the old seats. The RCM cannot be reflashed/reconfigured as I first thought/hoped thought, and there are different RCMs depending on how many airbags you have. So, short of actually changing my RCM for one that has already been configured for side airbags (is this feasible?), my only other option is to put the resistors back in, rendering my side airbags non-functional. Is that correct? Bummer.

FORDTECH, many thanks for your response, sounds like it could be the way forward, at last!! I actually swapped my seats but I can probably still get back to them if I need to. But I'm a little unclear as to what you are saying/suggesting. I recall some yellow plugs and now obviously have the new leather seats with airbags. Why do I need to access my old seats exactly? If the old seats had resistors in place, then the new ones won't have them 'cos they have the airbags, right? Are you saying I should get the resistors from the old seats and put them in the new plugs? If that's the case, won't that mean the new seat airbags won't be functional? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick here?!

I already offered to do that and they still wouldn't do it.

Oh, I should probably tell the rest of the story. I went back to pick the car up and, thankfully (in some respects), the initial service manager wasn't there. A really nice older fella served me and said that my handbrake had been fixed under warranty 'cos there was a TSB on it (thank you - I have a good mind to print out the TSB for service manager no 1 as he sounds like he needs to re-read it! ). But the second issue, the guy had written "not touching that"!! The second fella was puzzled as to why this was, but there was another lady there who had obviously been prepped by my mate. "As you fitted aftermarket seats..." "Err, they're not really aftermarket, they're Ford items from another BA." "Whatever, they weren't on the car when it was bought so they are considered a modification." Alright, fair enough I think. Then comes the clincher. "As it is a modofication, you will need to get an engineer's certificate!" Ah, right. It's at this point I realise what I'm really dealing with, so I nod and smile politely, thank them for fixing my handbrake, and leave. Quite incredible. Oh, the dealer is Gregory's Ford in the City in Braddon, Canberra. The rather special service manager's name is Andrew.

Thanks Ninka, I gotta say I agree with you! I'm afraid I'm still a little lost with all the technical stuff, but you seem to know a fair bit about it all. The other, more knowledgeable dealer said that it was possible to fix the problem by reflashing the BCM (which he wouldn't do), but according to you it's more than that? I need to connect some sensors in the B pillar too? What exactly would they connect to, 'cos I can't remember seeing any extra plugs? That dealer also confirmed that the wiring looms were the same in all the cars, and that the facotry just flashed the computer accordingly if the car had side airbags fitted. As for voiding the warranty, yeah, the d1ckhead had a go at that too - harped on about changing the whole engineering of the car, voiding mywarranty, etc. Sure. The onus is still on Ford to prove that my mods caused the defect, so good luck to 'em. I was totally upfront with the fact that I had Edit, injectors, etc, and am willing to pay for my playing. But if something else stuffs up on the car that has nothing to do with my mods, I think it's absolutely fair game to claim that on warranty!

Ah, bummer. Long way to drive for a simple airbag fix though! I'm still naive enough to think that I might get it sorted out here...

Thanks mate, but why would I be better off being in Vic? You saying the Wog could fix this for me?

Well, I tried ringing 13FORD and ended up getting put through to another dealer in Canberra!! Anyway, as luck would have it, I spoke to a knowledgable chap in their service department. He was very cagey about the whole thing (obviously very worried) but admitted that it was 'technically' possible just to reflash the BCM and tell it that the car now had side airbags. He said the wiring looms were the same from the factory whether the car had them or not. But, and this is now my problem, he said that they wouldn't reflash it 'cos of liability issues. He said he did not know the condition of the airbags, etc, and if Ford were to reflash it and they didn't go off, they would be liable. I see his point but come on, I'm actually moving forward by trying to have more airbags! His advice was to have the airbags removed by an auto trimmer!!!

Bummer, maybe that's what he was on about. I replaced the whole seat (my old ones did not have side airbags). The guy did mention something about the safety restraint system as a whole, additional wiring, sensors, etc, so maybe he had a point. I didn't argue it with him as I knew nothing about it, just politely asked if he'd mind looking into it for me. But if what we are saying holds true, then why would the airbag light on my dash suddenly start registering a problem? Surely the car must now somehow know that additional airbags are there that aren't 'connected' (for want of a better term)?

From memory there were a couple of plugs that were undone from the old seats and fitted up to the new seats no worries. Both the seats were the 4-way adjustable ones (not the 6-way with memory). Does that help? I didn't notice any temporary resistors?

I certainly hope you're right re the BCM, fingers crossed!! Whilst I'm sure the TSB can still be carried out on your car, unfortunately I believe you'll have to pay for both the labour and parts if it's out of warranty. The TSB states that the warranty on this issue applies to all BA sedans "for the duration of the factory warranty of 3 years" and, if it just needs a park brake service kit the fitment will be covered for sedans that have done up to 100,000km or, if brake shoe replacement is needed this will be covered on sedans that have done up to 50,000km.

Well, I don't want to blame/write off the whole agent on the attitude of one idiot (who made it very clear to me that he was the service manager, etc, etc - well then, you should KNOW the TSB applies to all BAs then, shouldn't you? I didn't say that to him BTW), and I still haven't seen what they will or won't do yet, so I'll leave any mud slinging for now. I told him to ring me before going ahead with any work and he wrote in big letters on my form 'Refer to XXX (his name)' and I still haven't heard anything yet, so I can only assume they haven't got around to my car yet.

Thanks mate. My problem is that I only ever take the car to Ford for warranty work, and this dealer is by far the most convenient as I can drop the car off, get free parking, and walk to work. But yeah, if he continues to be a pr1ck, I may just lose my patience and let him know what I really think. You're right, I printed off the TSB and it applies to ALL BA Falcon sedans.

I just took my car to my local Ford agent for a couple of issues and, unfortunately for me, the service manager seemed to have a real attitude problem and totally unwilling to help/be cooperative. Think he just took a dislike to me, despite me trying my very best to be as polite as I possibly could and NOT being a smart arse. First issue was the handbrake, it hasn’t been holding for ages (it’s been ‘adjusted’ twice already) and is making the infamous rubbing noise. He said it’d be $110 to adjust it. I politely said that I thought there was a TSB issued on it, to which his response was, “Who told you that?!” I said I thought that it was pretty common knowledge and he then tried to tell me that it applied to a limited number of VIN numbers which only covered about 3,000 vehicles. Yeah, right, sure. I’ll take him a copy of the TSB if I have to (found the link on the forum, thanks guys!!). Second issue is my ‘new’ side airbags. I recently managed to find a leather interior for my car (swapped for my cloth one plus cash adjustment). An unexpected bonus is that the leather seats have side airbags fitted to them. Now, I have been told that all I need is a reflash of the Body Control Module (not the ECU) to tell it that I have side airbags fitted. At the moment my airbag light on the dash comes on and stays on. Anyway, I tell this to the service manager and again he asks, “Who told you that?! What, the wrecker you bought it from I bet!” Nice. Anyway, he reckons I’ve changed ‘the whole engineering of the car’, that as a result I have now ‘voided my warranty’, etc, etc. Also reckoned it would be major work with possibly a new wiring loom required!!! I told him that if that was really the case, please don’t go ahead with the work, but I’d be grateful if he could check it out for me anyway. Apologies for the long winded post, but my question is, is there anybody out there who knows more about this? Is it as simple as a reflash of the BCM? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys!!

Doesn't worry me matey, spread the word around!

So, when you moving?!

I'd agree with pretty much everything's that been said. I'd heard only negative comments about the place before I moved here, but having been here for about 11 years now, I find I like the place more and more. My wife initially hated the cold winters, but that's something you quickly get used to and, in my case anyway, come to actually like (Canberra is one of the few places in Australia where you can definitely see the four different seasons very distinctly - autumn in Canberra is particularly spectacular). Plus, if you have a decent heating system (proper ducted heating is a must) and good insulation, it can be very pleasant indeed. As far as summers go, I lived in Brissy before this and now absolutely cannot stand going back in summer - the heat and humidity feel utterly oppressive compared to the dry heat we get down here. Sure, the nightlife is bland compared to places like Sydney and Melbourne, but I'm well and truly over that side of things now. I think I read somewhere that Canberra has more restaurants per capita than any other capital city in the world, and it shows. If you're into fine food and dining out, Canberra is a great place for it. Location is pretty good too - as others have said, Sydney is just a few hours away (since they upgraded the Federal Highway the drive has become much easier/faster), and we have easy access to the snow and beautiful South Coast. Nup, I love the place, and can see myself staying here for a very long while. And as far as I'm concerned, the more people who think it's a sh1te place to live, the better - keeps this well kept secret to ourselves!!

Exactly the point I was trying to make! I think a systematic approach is best no matter what order you choose to do your mods in. It's always good to have an end goal in sight and work towards it - could save you time, trouble and a lot of money. For example, you may go Edit and custom tune, then soon decide you want to fit larger injectors. You'll then have to pay for another custom tune (which can be expensive, depending on who you use). But whether you do power, handling or other mods first is really up to you. Either way, there's stacks of great info to be found on the forum!

First, I thought the BFs had the 2nd CAI as a standard feature? Second, larger injectors aren't all about more outright power. We have already seen a few cases of Ts pushing 280-300rwkw on stock injectors, but that's only half the story. I think there are a couple of issues here. One, at those power levels, the stock injectors will be close to or actually maxxing out, not ideal. Two, whilst the peak power may read in the high 200s, it's the driveability/sheer grunt of the car lower in the rev range that suffers. Larger injectors will allow more fuel at those crucial points lower in the rev range where lots of torque is being developed. More fuel will mean more torque lower down, which is where you really feel it in most (street) driving conditions. My larger injectors didn't result in a great deal more overall power, but the pull I now have lower down is chalk and cheese compared to when I was running stock injectors.

Well, I really not a betting man, but I do go in the work sweeps for the Cup. This year I went in three sweeps and guess what I drew? Delta Blues, Pop Rock and Maybe Better - gotta be happy with that!!!

Absolute bloody magic, looked like you were having a real blast Jeff, nice one! Looked like you could drive that lump too. And Big Mick, your comments and laugh had me in stitches, great stuff buddy!!

This has been asked a few times before and I expect you'll get similar answers to mine. It largely depends on what your tuner recommends. In short, the 968's will have no problems supplying fuel for 300rwkw (the Nizpros will do more) and both sets have very good reputations. But if your tuner normally works with one brand over the other, then I expect that that will be the one he suggests you use. Some people will also suggest that any drilled injector should be avoided, but some of the best tuners in the country (including, of course, Nizpro themselves) have been using the Nizpro ones with fantastic results. But even at 300rwkw, I would say that your T5 won't last too long at all, unfortunately.

I WISH!!! One of the reasons I've only ever bought one brand new car. All my others have been about a year or so old with minimal kms - just makes financial sense to me and I'm not one of those guys that HAVE to have a brand newie. Bought my T in mid 2005, it was about 8 months old and I paid $33K (which, at the time, was a great price). Even so, I expect I'd be lucky to get even mid-$20Ks for it now. As others have said, depreciation on Falcons suck the big one.

I must admit that the technical side of these new tuning tools is a bit beyond me, but I'll follow this thread with interest...

I'm actually a little surprised they were that cheap! I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but I was tossing up between 18" and 19" rims and went with 18" largely due to the cost of decent tyres. I knew I didn't want crappy rubber and the difference between even an 18" and 19" tyre was phenomenal. Goodyear F1 GS-D3s were about $450 a pop in 18" (I was lucky enough to get some on super special for $300 each), but equivalent 19" tyres were running well into the $600 bracket!! That, plus the added risk of more easily damaging the rim due to the lower profile tyres, harsher ride, etc, etc, led to my final 18" decision. If money were less of an object, I'd probably go with 19", but I reckon 20" is just too much of a compromise.