thanks :)

yeah, regular maintenance with & tlc is the go.

rob

Ford never seems to maintain their own vehicles very well anyway.

My EL's head hasket went @ 140,000 and again @ 190,000. The 140,000k one was
repaired and serviced @ Ford till 150,000k's.

I  got sick of getting the car back running worse than it was before I sent
it in. I recieved the car back with numerous issues on various occasions. I
used to mark my parts and ask for my old parts back. That's where they came
unstuck. As the parts handed back were unmarked (from someone elses car) and
the marked parts were still on my car. I had various refunds ranging from
spark plugs/leads/rotor caps/rotor buttons etc. I've even repaired their
errors in the Ford dealers/service dept driveway myself. They got pretty
upset about it.

I had a ripper of a time with the dealer. They'll never see the car ever
again.

I've repaired the head gasket myself this time (190,000) as I found @ the
140,000k head gasket replament. Ford re-used my old head bolts! They'd not
replace/check various parts and neglected to clean the radiator which I
replaced 2000k's later.

I've found I am loosing about 1lt of coolant every four months. I've since
found one leak which I rectified. The 5/16th hose running to the thermostat
housing was leaking. Still can't find the other leak but I will. Even though
I think 1lt every 4mths of 2/10ths of f'all.

Although I've had not a single issue with my Hyundai's cooling system. I
just flushed it out recently and worked  out the last time I checked the
coolant/water in that car was 3 years ago. Yet it's never shown any signs of
coolant lose or wear and tear.

In regards to the Falcon I reckon I got a lemon. It's had a knocking in the
front end from almost the start which I am sure is the steering rack or
tierod ends. Ford never said a word about it during their servicing as it
would have cost them warranty $$$$.

I've left it a further 3 years as I've seen plenty just the same and they
never got any louder or had uneven tyre wear.

One day I'll get around to letting a workshop near the car as I really can't
be stuffed fixing the run about cars. I just do whatever it takes to keep
them on the road. My main priority is a car that I drag race. That gets my
undivided time/$ and attention.

Brenden

Well the 6's do often have a problem with casting sand blocking
the radiator, they need to be air bled correctly when refilling
with coolant and the older ones  need the correct dual acting
thermostat fitted.

And  while I am a bit of a Ford fan,  as the owner of two
Fairlanes (a NB six and NC 8) and one 1980 Mitsubishi  LC Lancer
with 300,000km on the clock that has never had any cooling
system problems or had the head removed, I reluctantly have to
rate the 6 cylinder Ford cooling system as  less reliable and
more finicky than most of the cars I have owned in the last 30
plus years (the 1970 mini was worse as it used to blow by pass
hoses regularly but after all that was a UK design). However,
while I say the cooling system is a weaker part of the car I
wouldn't say it is so bad that it should deter anyone from
buying one.

When we picked up my brothers new AU and did the inspection, I found 9 run's
& orange peeled paint on the roof, it was galaxy blue, so it wasn't all that
hard to spot. upon showing them to the dealer, he suggested its a mass
produced car and this is to be expected. They attempted a fix on the orange
peel, needless to say what ever they did was bodgy since that area is down
to primer today.

The handful of times ive used the overpriced rip-off ford coolant, the green
stuff does infact dry red.

Next coolant change ill be using valvoline G05 coolant, its what's rebottled
into "genuine Mercedes" coolant bottles and is what all the current mercs
leave the factory with. If its good enough for the maybach, its good enough
for my heap of sh.t.