My AU Fairmont Goes Like a Laser

autickfordfairmont · 11-03-2006, 01:28 PM

Hey guys,

As some of you may have read elsewhere, my AU Goes like crap lately. Well for quite a while now, ever since i took it to Ford. The fuel pump was oversuppling fuel to the engine, and i took it to them to get sorted. They did a diagnostic tune, cleaned injectors, cleaned & Regapped spark plugs and replaced the fuel pump. Since then, another machanic we use told us that it would have deffinately been fuel regulator not pump & that they ripped us off. But ever since ford had it the car has been ALOT slower.

I was doing 0-100 in the 8 seconds normally 8.4 or 8.7 depending on starts. Since ford had it the best i have done is 11.7, but normally in the 12's and tested again last night and i couldnt get below 14.3, which is ИИИИ poor and i could do it faster pushing the thing with only 1 leg.

Now i have been taking note of how it performs, and it is alot slower right across the rev range but i have noticed that when te car gets to about 3200-3400 and up, the car hesitates and revs climb slower but speed doesnt really increase til it drops into the next gear.

Our mechanic said he can do a diagnostic tune, but if ford have Flashed the ECU with an update he cant do anything, is there anything that could be wrong with it, or could it just be a case of ford flashing the ECU with a really crap set of Maps & stuff?????

Cheers guys & sorry for the long post but thought i better explain things.

Cheers.

By the way, ford say its tuned perfect and is how it should be, so no help there, & at the moment i am like really really broke so thought i would ask what you guys thought before forking out to have the mechanic take a look.

XR6Stu · 11-03-2006, 02:32 PM

My XR was doing this for a while, as well as bunny hopping under load, turned out to be absotltly filthy fuel filters, have you had them checked y et?

autickfordfairmont · 13-03-2006, 09:54 AM

yep has a new fuel filter on it.

sfr rob · 13-03-2006, 11:13 AM

i dont know if this would help at all, might help a bit, but try resetting the ECU.

I had my AU running like a dog on gas and on unleaded, i reset the ecu and she went fine afterwards.

to me, your problem sounds alot deeper than just a reset though.

Cheers

Rob

autickfordfairmont · 13-03-2006, 11:14 AM

yeah already tried a reset.

It has new NGK plugs, new Top Gun leads, clean K&N Air Filter, new fuel Filter, New fuel pump now, ford cleaned the injectors, just did a service with new Oil & Filter, not that long ago it had new radiator top tank and complete flush of cooling system, Sports exahust is only 6ish months old, Cat is original but has no dents or dings in it from hard hits & no rattles.

sfr rob · 13-03-2006, 11:20 AM

bugger... its not running really crap is it? at idle is the motor vibrating the whole car,
This happened to me and it turned out to be my coil pack.

autickfordfairmont · 13-03-2006, 11:21 AM

nope. not at all. Idles fine, runs fine, just really slow

stiddy · 13-03-2006, 11:36 AM

Is the accelerator cable stretched? like is it fully opening the butterfly in the throttle body?

autickfordfairmont · 13-03-2006, 11:58 AM

not that i am aware of, it seems to be fine, and opening all the way up, but i will double check that.

Racecraft · 13-03-2006, 12:42 PM

how many kays on the cat? Sure souinds like a blocked exhaust

Coil pack could be breaking down

Check the fuel pressure with a gauge.

JC · 13-03-2006, 12:43 PM

There was a recall on the accelerator cable. Take the U shaped pipe off the Throttle body, and get someone in the car to press the accelerator pedal (engine off). Check to see how far the butterfly in the TB opens up. Then open it up using the linkage directly on the TB and compare. If pressing the pedal doesn't move it as far as using the direct linkage, the cable is buggered, or the clip is broken - replace it and you should see better response.

cArSiK · 13-03-2006, 12:44 PM

MAP sensor? When these fail they can make the engine run extreemly rich...therefore be down on power...

James

autickfordfairmont · 13-03-2006, 12:55 PM

$130,000km on the clock now. Cat doesnt seem to have broken down any (No rattles at all) and was inspected at the time of the exhaust, but could be, yeah fuel pressure is right as told by ford, but they probably dont even know which end of the car the motor is in judging by there previous efforts.

I have had troubles before with ford, but sometimes you just cant get around using them. I know they are rip offs, but there are some really good mechanics in ford dealerships, that really do know everything about fords, just not at the one i go to.

autickfordfairmont · 13-03-2006, 12:57 PM

recall on accelerator cable hey, well i will deffinately check it again as you said tonight. And wil let u know in the tomorrow day. Thanks for your help & advice guys, it is muchly appreciated.

Gotta Love the forums.

brenx · 13-03-2006, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by autickfordfairmont

yeah already tried a reset.

It has new NGK plugs, new Top Gun leads, clean K&N Air Filter, new fuel Filter, New fuel pump now, ford cleaned the injectors, just did a service with new Oil & Filter, not that long ago it had new radiator top tank and complete flush of cooling system, Sports exahust is only 6ish months old, Cat is original but has no dents or dings in it from hard hits & no rattles.

Don't assume because Ford say they changed the parts they actually did. I stopped getting a dealer to service my car for that very reason. I marked parts and noted I was being charged for parts they didn't change.

buickman · 13-03-2006, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JC

There was a recall on the accelerator cable. Take the U shaped pipe off the Throttle body, and get someone in the car to press the accelerator pedal (engine off). Check to see how far the butterfly in the TB opens up. Then open it up using the linkage directly on the TB and compare. If pressing the pedal doesn't move it as far as using the direct linkage, the cable is buggered, or the clip is broken - replace it and you should see better response.

I was thinking of the accelarator cable not opening the butterfly fully as au tickfordfairmont has had the pulgs regapped & fuel filter replaced.
Unusal they replaced the top tank only on the alloy plastic radiator normally you replace the AU radiator as a complete unit once the top of the core pulls away from the plastic tank.