Fairmont/xr6 info required

[Guest parso_rex]

Hi folks,

Last weekend my younger brother was involved in a pretty nasty head-on on Botany Road in Sydney resulting in the loss of one of our family members - an immaculate 97 fairmont ...... It almost resulted in the loss of my brother too but thanks to airbags and nice crumple zones he just a bit brusied and battered

Anyway we're after a replacement for the fairmont thinking at this stage either an AUII onwards fairmont or similar perhaps an XR6 if one is available at a nice price.

Above all though it must have an LSD as its regularly towing a boat and our driveway and street are quite steep.

I know in the olden days : ) the fairmonts used to come standard with an LSD but I think these days its an option ....my question which models are available or come with an LSD in the AU and BA series? Any help or links much appreciated

(we're are probably going to pick up a car from one of the aution houses I.e ex gov or ex lease the'ye been pretty good in the past)

Cheers

Mark

(yes a WRX driver... but the XR6T is a future possibility)

Edited 29/07/04 03:09 AM by parso_rex

[ZAP]

Both series (AU&BA) have LSD's. I am not sure if they were standard on the AU series, but I do know the BA XR's have LSD's. The easiest way to tell is stick you head under the car and look at the bolt on the diff housing. They will have a tag that has L S D written on them. Most tags are Read, but some may be silver.

Glad your Bro is ok and good to see Ford cars saving their drivers, when it really matters

[XtRmn8]

The BA XR6 NA does not have LSD standard like the Turbo. I am not sure about BA Fairmont.

[Turbo6man]

You are correct about the older Fairmonts having them as standard but not since pre EF. The XR6 don't either but the XR8, in fact all V8s, do have them. The XR6 T has it as standard.

You won't get one from the govt auctions with a LSD, unless it's a V8. To convert one over to a LSD, keping the same ratio, will cost you about $1,000.00

[Guest parso_rex]

  Turbo6man said:

You won't get one from the govt auctions with a LSD, unless it's a V8. To convert one over to a LSD, keping the same ratio, will cost you about $1,000.00

Damn I was hoping that would not be the case but form what I've been looking at listing wise it would seem you might be correct (unfortunatley).

So its looks like crawling round diff housings looking at the diff tag or perhaps a look into the V8's. We have about $18K to spend at this stage. The payout on the EL was 16.6K Yes hard to believe, they certainly don't go for that !

Perhaps we may find one on oneof the other non-gov vehicles that had it as an option

We were more than happy with the EL as it had every possible option and had been in the family since day one with only 80K on it and mainly hway trips. Certainly much more comfortable that the Rex in this regard too

The incident was pretty frightening and it looks like the younger brother now has has a fractured sternum- nothing real bad though.....fairmont 70Kmhr vs Late model camira 40 kmhr not a good thing

thanks for the info

Mark

[Turbo6man]

You got a good payout on the EL. You should pick up a nice AU II Fairmont V8 for around $20k (I've seen some cheaper but condition might be questionable) if you can stretch that far ... really nice drive

[BA_Turbs]

The other way to tell if its an LSD or not is to put your foot on the brake, put your other foot on the accelerator, and push down on both similtainously.

Onc eyou have done that, get out and see if you have drawn one black line or two!

Hope this helps, it probably not a technique you are familiar with being a WRX driver.

Regards,

BA_Turbs

[Guest]

put a trolly jack under the diff ,jack it up a bit so the wheels turn,if they both turn in the same direction ...lsd... if they dont,one goes clockwise other goes anticlockwise...not lsd... and NO ,im not on LSD

[bdennis]

parso_rex,

Just checked the original spec sheet for both AU I and AU II XR6 and XR6 VCT. According to the sheet both came with LSD at Std it was an option on the AUII S..

The AUII Formont and Ghia spec sheet does not list the LSD at all. I would suspect that it was not an option...

ALL AU series cars with Autos are rated at 2300KG towing capacity (with the correct bar fitted). This is different to the BA where all or 2300 apart from the Turbo. It is 1600KG

If you are looking for a good tow machine then you can not go past an AU I or AUII with the fully indipendant rear (Only on XR6 VCT, XR8 and Firmont Ghia as Std fitting... The non VCT XR6 it was not an option)

I have a Venom AUII XR6 VCT.. It towed just fantasticly.. Not as good as the BA but not bad...

The other thing to think about is that if the car has done 80,000ks + then the LSD may be a bit tired and not work as well as it did from new. At least this can be fixed by Diff specialists rather then forking out for installing a LSD in a car that did not have one....

My 2c..

[Benny]

In the AU Fairmont and Fairmont Ghia they weren't made with LSD's because they are fitted with traction control from factory. I thought about putting an LSD in mine when I had it but it's not possible with four channel traction control for odvious reasons.