The joys of a first-series vehicle

[cmdwedge]

Hi all,

I've now had my first ever 'new' car, a BA Falcon XR6 Turbo (in Mercury Silver, awesome!) for 6 months/20000 km's.

It just seems that I have problem after problem, my car seems to spend an inordinate amount of time at the dealer, and they don't seem to give a hoot about the number of times I've been returning there. Not sure whether I can name the dealership, so I'll just say 'I live in Canberra and work in the city'.

I've had:

Handbrake scraping sound (x 5).

- happened at 4500km's and I happened to be in Victoria at the time, had Wignall Ford of Mornington sort it out, it was nice and quiet until 14500km's.

- 14,500km's, let the noise go until the 15000 service (at my local dealership). Asked for the noise to be fixed and mentioned that Wignall had sorted it out for 10000km's. Got the car back, still made the noise, the service manager said that it would take 1000km's to 'bed in'.

- 16,000km's, the noise was still as apparent as ever, took it back to local dealership, they 'adjusted' it again, and the same guy said 'give it 1000km's to bed in' again.

- 18,000km's, sound still there (the whole time from 16-18K), happened to be in Victoria again, took it back to Wignall's in Frankston this time, drove our, dead silence.

- 18,800km's, sound returns (lasted 1800km's this time!). Let it go to 20200 until I took it to local dealership. Made them aware that this was my 5th trip back in 20000k's (4th in the last 5000). Was actually told by another service manager that the 'let it bed in' spiel was actually a lie.

Heatshield rattle (x 3).

- from day 1, had the heatshield rattle. It's lasted no more than a week each time it has been fixed.

Dead fuel pump.

- from day 1, had a whistling/sucking sound from the engine bay, told that the fuel pump was faulty, replaced under warranty.

Shuddering steering (x 3).

- this just seems to happen after almost every service. Told to remove the cap on the steering fluid bottle overnight to let the air bubbles out. Then told last week that this was 'made up by the service manager' (this was from one of the local dealerships techs).

Wind noise

- OK had this sorted just this Monday. They pulled the doors in tighter against the rubber seal, but when I picked up the car, it was difficult to open the doors, and I had to slam them to close them (they used to just drop closed)

- Took it back on Tuesday, had the seals lubricated and the doors were once again 'adjusted'. Now the wind noise is mostly gone, the doors open OK (still hard to close) but they're REALLY out of alignment, the centre rubber strip between the doors is about three times the distance from the front door than it is in the back door, and the front door is about a 1/4" higher than the back. Noticeable from 20 metres away.

- Took it back yesterday, they said that they'd get the doors even, got back at 5 and picked up the car, I took the manager out and said 'this looks like it hasn't been touched' and he agreed that the doors were way out of alignment (FFS!). Given the card for their panel beating shop to have the doors properly aligned (!). Booked it in this morning for this coming Monday.

Windows 'sticking' in cold weather

- had this since day one but never bothered to mention it until this last Monday, it's now all good (they lubricated the windows or something)

Metal-on-metal sound when braking after 30 minutes of driving

- found this new problem last night when I got home. Didn't have the problem when the car was cold this morning. Will see how it goes

Diff whine at 95km/h

- new diff now ordered

Massive feedback when headlights are on, sound through Premium Sound system

- spliced the earth at dealership but didn't make any difference, it's terrible when driving at night, sound goes up and down with engine revs. It's possible that they didn't do a damn thing, of course.

Blew an indicator bulb, had to book the car in for a week and a half's time to have it replaced.

- eventually spoke to someone with a clue, they replaced it in 5 minutes

That's all I can think of so far. My 14 year old Mazda 626 Turbo didn't have these sort of problems! Oh, and the woman at the service desk is a cow, she always treats me like sh*te whenever I rock up (and I've always been polite and quiet when having the car in for the nth time - I don't want to make a scene and have them deliberately scratch the car or something).

Time to change dealerships, I think, but are there any good ones in Canberra? 30,000 service is getting done elsewhere, that's for sure.

Cheers all, thanks for letting me get it all off my chest!

[Cro]

Very suprising....

I take my car out there, and I don't work anywhere near the city. I've had nothin but good comments for them.

But if your unhappy, try going to the same dealership, but out at Michell where our spare parts resident works. They are awesome too. Just they don't have a WDS to diagnose computer faults.

[XRBloke]

Doooh dreaded panel allignment.

Sounds like you got a Friday arvo build!

I think you'll find most of your issues are common and you eventually just get over them e.g. hand brake rubbing.

Ive had no problems with mine but then again ive only done 550 kms, haha im too scared to drive it anywhere :lol:

[Falchoon]

I get my car serviced at same place and find them on the whole to be good.

I too (as do most of the forum members) have the rear brake/handbrake noise issue, Gregorys said to me last time I was there that they are aware of the problem and are awaiting instruction from Head Office on how to rectify the problem. That was a few months ago, wonder if it's been fixed for BA MkII?

I had the same problem with loose exhaust heat sheilds, they were tightened once and then came loose again and were replaced under warranty at the next service, no probs at all.

Wind noise - quite a number of people have probs with the windscreen not being sealed properly causing wind noise at certain speeds. My car has it but not until you hit about 180+km/h. Obviously the dealer is not going to take the car out onto a public road at that speed to find out (I was on a private road when I did ) and I don't get my car up to that sort of speed very often so I just put up with it.

I thought I had diff whine in mine but upgraded to some new mags and tyres and noise was gone, it was the old half worn Dunlops making all the noise. But a number of other people have had a genuine complaint about noisy diffs (and excessive backlash but mainly only in manual cars) so it is a recognised problem.

I haven't experienced or even heard of your other problems.

Be aware if you are thinking of changing dealers there are a few members on here that received very bad service (and scratches on their cars ) from JMG; Velvet Glove and Genebaby are two names that come quickly to mind. I think Cro had some bad experiences with them as well. There has been threads about this but it would probably be quicker to send a PM to VG and GB to get the low down rather than search the forum.

[Turbo6man]

I used that dealer a couple of times with my T3 and had a mixed result. Their general servicing was ordinary. Some warranty things they fixed OK, but were very minor. One major issue they tried hard to fix but were told not to by FoMoCo. This was after four attempts at different fixes suggested by FoMoCo and after a couple of different FoMoCo "engineers" drove the car. Generally I was happy with what they did for me but what really p!sses me off is when they try to cover up something with an outright lie, or make up a bullsh!t story about something as they have done to you. They tried this with me but soon stopped when they found out I was an ex Ford service manager and knew something about how the system works and also knew a little about mechanics.

There is a great dealer at Batemans Bay if you can handle a drive down the Clyde.

[Antisocial]

  Quote

Shuddering steering (x 3).

- this just seems to happen after almost every service. Told to remove the cap on the steering fluid bottle overnight to let the air bubbles out. Then told last week that this was 'made up by the service manager' (this was from one of the local dealerships techs).

This is alsot true.

I read in a Ford publication that the PS works as a 'sealed system' and as it warms up when the car is running pressure build up in the resevoir and is essential for the correct operation of the power steering.

If you remove the cap to check it when the car is 'hot' you will lose this pressure and the power steering will shudder.

You must only check it when it is cool.

BTW I get mine looked after in Woden Terry and the guys are very helpfull even my brakes dont seem to shudder anymore.

[Guest boreded]

  XRBloke said:

I think you'll find most of your issues are common and you eventually just get over them e.g. hand brake rubbing.

Yah, most of that stuff sounds very common. It bloody well shouldn't be on a current model car costing as much as it does!

Some dealers just seem to be unable to fix certain items correctly, while others can. I had the dreaded brake shudder "fixed" 3 or 4 times by the place that delivered the car in the space of 5000kms. This was even after they had admitted there was a problem from HO.

The dealer I now goto, fixed it first time I complained about it. Been 15,000kms since and no shudder. The same guys replaced the auto in about 5hrs which I thought was quite impressive.

That would be New Oak in Clayton for any of the Melbourne guys interested. I won't mention the useless dealer, as I'm not sure if the mod's allow negative comments pointed at businesses?

[XRBloke]

  boreded said:

  XRBloke said:

I think you'll find most of your issues are common and you eventually just get over them e.g. hand brake rubbing.

Yah, most of that stuff sounds very common. It bloody well shouldn't be on a current model car costing as much as it does!

Some dealers just seem to be unable to fix certain items correctly, while others can. I had the dreaded brake shudder "fixed" 3 or 4 times by the place that delivered the car in the space of 5000kms. This was even after they had admitted there was a problem from HO.

The dealer I now goto, fixed it first time I complained about it. Been 15,000kms since and no shudder. The same guys replaced the auto in about 5hrs which I thought was quite impressive.

That would be New Oak in Clayton for any of the Melbourne guys interested. I won't mention the useless dealer, as I'm not sure if the mod's allow negative comments pointed at businesses?

Unfortunately most of these small problems are had by both Ford an Expensive Daewoo as many of the part suppliers are shared between the two companies.

At the end of the day it comes back to the supplier, in most cases in Austraila for each part there is only one main supplier, therefore when companies like Ford and Expensive Daewoo start having issues with these parts they can't change to another supplier as there are NO other suppliers.

As for the hand brake rubbing that's nothing new, its a problem that both Ford and Expensive Daewoo have been having for some while with regards to IRS. You will find that the utes dont suffer as badly.

[Guest scrotum]

37 000ks with 280rwk. It is driven like its stolen and I have not had one single thing go wrong. no noise, no vibrations, nothing. It seems the more I flog it the better it gets!!

Every single "production line" car is different in some way - I guess I am one of the lucky ones that hasn't had any dramas ( touch wood ).

A bloke down the street from me has one and I have driven it and it is has a few problems - he has had it back to the dealer several times other than scheduled servicing.

Personally I have nothing but praise for my xrt. Especially when I see the problems faced with gen 111 owners!!!!!!!!!!

[Mr Turbo]

Yeah I have the problem of the hand brake rubbing noise and it drives me crazy bcs one day its not to bad and the next its a pain. What can solve this problem,new brake pads?

And have the diff wine sound btw 90-100 km/ph should u think to approach Ford and have it replaced with a new unit under Warrentee? (with along side the hand brake)